ROSACCIO, GIUSEPPE: VIEW OF THE ISLAND RAB

Inventory number 243

Original title: Arbe isola presso il Quarner

Publishing year: 1598

Place of publishing and publisher: Venezia

Format: 10 x 17,5 cm

Technique: Copper engraving

Rosaccio’s view of Rab shows this island as seen from the open sea. The island contours are featured with many faults. So, the bay that harbours the town of Rab is omitted, while Supetarska draga and Lopar on the western side of the island are hardly distinguishable. The only settlement identified on the island is the town of Rab denoted by the characteristic bell-towers of its churches enclosed within its walls. On the eastern side of the island the islet Dolin is outlined. In the seas around the island Venetian galleys are sailing. On the continental coast situated opposite to the northern side of the island, the author indicated four settlements: Senj (Segna), Sv. Juraj (S. Zorzi), Starigrad (Starigrad) and Jablanac (Lablona). This Rosaccio’s view was included in the first edition of his travel-record book «Viaggio da Venetia a Constantinopoli per Mare, e per Terra, & insieme quello di Terra Santa» published in 1598.

ROSACCIO, GIUSEPPE

Giuseppe Rossacio (ca 1530-1620), Italian cosmographer who worked in Venice. His most noted works are “Teatro del Cielo e Terra Florence” of 1594, the 1604 edition of Ptolemy’s “Fashion of the Four Elements” and “Teatro del Cielo” of 1615. Of the greatest importance for the depiction of the Croatian lands is his isolario “Viaggio da Venetia a Constantinopoli” comprising map images of all of the bigger islands and ports located along the navigable way leading from Venice to Constantinople, the work that from 1597 onwards went through several editions.