This book studies the nature of Venetian rule over the Slavs of Dalmatia
during the eighteenth century, focusing on the cultural elaboration of
an ideology of empire that was based on a civilizing mission toward the
Slavs. The book argues that the Enlightenment within the "Adriatic
Empire" of Venice was deeply concerned with exploring the economic and
social dimensions of backwardness in Dalmatia, in accordance with the
evolving distinction between "Western Europe" and "Eastern Europe"
across the continent. It further argues that the primitivism attributed
to Dalmatians by the Venetian Enlightenment was fundamental to the
European intellectual discovery of the Slavs.
The book begins by discussing Venetian literary perspectives on
Dalmatia, notably the drama of Carlo Goldoni and the memoirs of Carlo
Gozzi. It then studies the work that brought the subject of Dalmatia to
the attention of the European Enlightenment: the travel account of the
Paduan philosopher Alberto Fortis, which was translated from Italian
into English, French, and German. The next two chapters focus on the
Dalmatian inland mountain people called the Morlacchi, famous as
"savages" throughout Europe in the eighteenth century. The Morlacchi are
considered first as a concern of Venetian administration and then in
relation to the problem of the "noble savage," anthropologically studied
and poetically celebrated. The book then describes the meeting of these
administrative and philosophical discourses concerning Dalmatia during
the final decades of the Venetian Republic. It concludes by assessing
the legacy of the Venetian Enlightenment for later perspectives on
Dalmatia and the South Slavs from Napoleonic Illyria to
twentieth-century Yugoslavia.
