Perceptions of the Eastern Adriatic in the travel literature of the Early Modern period

Sa？etak Since ancient times, the Eastern Adriatic has been the intersection of routes from different regions of Europe and one of the main maritime hubs for trade with the East. Many officials, foreign travellers and travel writers left their written testimonies in the form of manuscripts, various accounts and travelogues about the places they had visited, the people who lived there, their customs, occupations, and other matters of interest. In creating perceptions of the Eastern Adriatic, a special role was certainly played by travel books, due to their interesting contents and availability to the general public. Although the introduction of printing made exchanges of information more widespread and faster, and the conditions for improving knowledge of the observed areas had arisen, the quality of information in them did not improve significantly. There were several reasons for this: the negative legacy from earlier periods, the uncritical assumption of information from other authors, and the existence of ingrained distorted images, misconceptions and stereotypes. The aim of this paper is to refer to some aspects of perceptions of the Eastern Adriatic and its population, and to highlight certain incorrect interpretations and stereotypes that resulted from them. This article will mainly focus on Italian travel books, as they were most numerous among this form of literature and contributed most to the expansion of knowledge about the Eastern Adriatic in Early Modern Age