ROSACCIO, GIUSEPPE: VIEW OF THE ISLAND PAG

Inventory number 245

Original title: Isola di Pago

Publishing year: 1598

Place of publishing and publisher: Venezia

Format: 10 x 17,5 cm

Technique: Copper engraving

This view of the island of Pag that was included in the first editions of Rosaccio’s travel-record book «Viaggio da Venetia a Constantinopoli per Mare, e per Terra, & insieme quello di Terra Santa» published in 1598, the island’s coastal contours show some severe defects. The greatest attention was given to the representation of the town of Pag itself which we see inside its medieval walls. The cathedral, the town’s symbol till present days can be recognized. Next to the town the famous Pag’s salt-pans (Saline) are identified. Apart form the town of Pag, on the open-sea side of the island, the author identified the settlement of: Kolan (Colano), Povljane (Poviana) and the village of Vlašići (Vlassich) to stress their importance for the control of navigation through the strait of Ljubačka vrata between the island of Pag and the mainland. Also, the author highlighted the forested character of the western part of the island by symbols of tree and the annotation Boschi (forest).

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.