Dalmatian towns and islands in Jacob Spona’s itinerary

Abstract

In the 17th century several prominent French politicans and intellectual travelled through our countries and its regions, and stayed for shorter or longer periods of time. Among these travellers there was a phisician and a professor of medicine in Lyon, Jacob Spona. His itinerary entitled: Voyage Through Italy, Dalmatia, Greece and the East (Voyage d’ltalie, de Dalmatie, de Grece et du Levant) is part of the rich fond of treasures written in French that can be found in Zadar’s Naučna biblioteka (learned library). This paper consists of: bibliographic data on Jacob Spona and in the author’s translation from French a choice from the Book II, that is, Jacob Spona’s itinerary which is entitled: Voyage Through Dalmazia, Zanta and Other Venetian Islands and Istanbul. Spona’s point of view and discprition of Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split and Solin, then islands of Hvar and Korčula in the 17th century have been observed.