Alberto Fortis

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Drawing from the Galleria dei letterati ed artisti più illustri delle provincie Austro-Venete che fiorirono nel secolo XVIII . Venice 1822

Alberto Fortis (born October 11, 1741 in Padua as Giovanni Battista Fortis , † October 21, 1803 in Bologna ) was an Italian clergyman, natural philosopher and polymath. He published several books in which he presented the results of his research trips. He touched on a variety of fields of knowledge, in particular geography, geology, biology, folklore, literature and history.

Life

Fortis grew up in Padua, studied theology and entered the religious institute of the Augustinian Canons . In Rome he studied languages ​​and natural sciences. He then taught at the university in his hometown of Padua. After his canons' monastery was dissolved in 1772, Fortis devoted himself exclusively to his scientific work. From 1778 to 1781 the scholar lived and worked in Spalato , for the next ten years he was in the service of the King of the Two Sicilies and lived in Naples . He then returned to the University of Padua . After the fall of the Republic of Venice , he went to Bologna.

On his research trips, undertaken since 1765, he visited Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia as well as central and southern Italy. Fortis was interested in geological phenomena and archaeological artifacts as well as in traditional costumes and folk songs of the locals. Questions of agriculture took a large part in his work. In an enlightening manner, he wrote about how the natural spatial conditions could best be used economically. In the area of ​​geology, Fortis was particularly interested in volcanism and the rock formations it created. About his scientific work he conducted extensive correspondence with scholars in Italy, Germany, France, England, Switzerland and Dalmatia. In 1789 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Viaggio in Dalmazia

Front page of Viaggio in Dalmazia

Fortis had the greatest public success in 1774 with the work Viaggio in Dalmazia, which was published in two volumes . This work was based on studies he carried out on site from 1771 to 1774. Fortis also put essential parts of the book on paper during stays in the Dalmatian cities. The trip to Dalmatia provided the scientifically interested contemporaries with a wealth of information about a forgotten land and its people. Fortis described the nature of Dalmatia, the cities of the country, the way of life of the Slavic rural population and provided information on history from ancient times to the 18th century.

Viaggio in Dalmazia is largely a book of applied science. Fortis wanted to give advice to the Venetian authorities who ruled Dalmatia at the time on how this province could be developed and better exploited economically. Fortis focused on agriculture and fishing. He turned out to be a moderate physiocrat . As such he gave agriculture primacy in economic development, but he also considered the revival of trade and handicrafts to be necessary and possible.

Fortis' book also introduced European readers to Croatian and Bosnian literature and epic. He was the first to publish a translation of the famous ballad on Hasan Aga (Hasanaginica), which is considered to be one of the most beautiful works in the Bosnian language.

Viaggio in Dalmazia was quickly translated from Italian into German, French and English and read across Europe. Even if it no longer exerted any influence on the Venetian administration in Dalmatia because the Republic of Mark fell in 1797, the administrative officials of the subsequent rulers of Dalmatia - Napoleonic France and, since 1814, the Austrians - have Fortis as one of the most important sources of information about the country and People as well as culture and history of Dalmatia.

Works

Engraving of a basalt formation, from: Della valle vulcanico-marina di Roncà nel territorio veronese
  • Saggio d'osservazioni sopra l'isola di Cherso ed Osero. Venezia 1771.
  • Viaggio in Dalmazia. 2 vols. Venezia 1774. (Reprint Munich 1974)
    • German edition: Journey in Dalmatia. Bern 1776.
    • French edition: Voyage en Dalmatie. Bern 1778.
    • engl. Edition: Travels into Dalmatia. London 1778.
    • Croatian edition: Put po Dalmaciji. Zagreb 1984.
  • The valle vulcanico-marina di Roncà nel territorio veronese. Memoria orittografica. Venezia 1778
  • Lettere geografico-fisiche sulla Calabria e sulla Puglia. Naples 1784.
    • German: Mineralogical journeys through Calabria and Apulia. In letters to Count Thomas von Bassegli in Ragusa. Weimar 1788.
  • Delle ossa d'elefanti e d'altre curiosità naturali de monti di Romagnano nel Veronese. Memoria epistolare diretta al Signor Cavaliere Giuseppe Cobres. Vicenza 1786.
  • Dei Cataclismi sofferti dal nostro Pianeta Saggio poetico. Per servire di Prodromo a un Poema, filosofico e teologico. Bath 1786.
  • Della torba che trovasi appiè de'colli Euganei. Venezia 1795.
  • Memoires pour servir a l'histoire naturelle et principalement a l'oryctographie de l'Italie et des pays adjacens. Paris 1802.

literature

  • Luca Ciancio: Autopsy della terra. Illuminismo e geologia in Alberto Fortis (1741–1803) . Firenze 1995, ISBN 88-222-4331-5
  • Béla Grolshammer: Fortis, Alberto . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1. Munich 1974, p. 519
  • Maria Toscano: Alberto Fortis nel Regno di Napoli. Naturalismo e antiquaria, 1783-1791 . Bari 2004, ISBN 88-8422-362-8
  • Larry Wolff: Venice and the Slavs. The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment . Stanford 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3945-5 . (German review at Sehepunkte )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fortis, Alberto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fortis, Giovanni Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian clergyman, natural philosopher and polymath
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Padua
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1803
Place of death Bologna