The author makes a critical evaluation of the more recent works which deal with the versatile personality of Alberto Fortis (1741—1803), a man of letters, natural historian, ethnographer, and student of folk lore. On the basis of a bibliography containing 49 items published between 1948 and 1965, the author states that the attention of research workers is centred upon Fortis as champion of more just social relation based on the Venetian version of Enligh- tenment. Yet the interest in Fortis as student of folk lore and natural history is not declining. The author emphasizes that Fortis ought to be looked upon as a complex personality and all his activities will then appear in a clearer light. Three contributions concerning Fortis are published here. With the first, the author continues the work of his predecessors, parti- cularly that of A. M. Strgačić, and lists chronologically all Fortis travels in Dalmatia and other Croatian regions. According to published materials and archive sources, Fortis had visited our country eight times during the period between May 1770 and October 1783. In the second, the author discusses some hitherto unknown data concerning Fortis’ life in Naples where he was comployed in the service of King Ferdinand IV and was subject to intrigues of reactionary nobility. Fortis maintained lively connections with friends and sympathizers in Dubrovnik and elsewhere in Dalmatia. The sources for the material were found in recently published works of. G. F. Torcellano, a historian from Turin, and in the letters, of Fortis to Gaetano Filangieri which are kept in the Biblioteca del museo Civico Filangieri in Naples. It is of especial interest for us that Fortis had written two of the letters from Župa Dubrovačka (the first, dated Oct. 16, 1780, and the fourth, dated Aug. 12, 1783). The other two were written from San Pier d’Arzignano, a village near Vicenza, from where he had communicated with his friend in Naples. Both letters contain priceless information about his work and, in addition, one refers to Miho Sorkočević-Sorgo and his connections with Italian democrats. The complete text of these important letters will be published elsewhere. The third contribution contains some hitherto unknown data concerning Fortis’ sojourn in Paris in 1796.
