Basilica, included Byzantine islands and ports from the BlackSea through the Aegean to the Ionian Sea. Venetian galleys thus had friendly harbors all the way to Byzantium and Alexandria.
Venice now controlled the Adriatic. In 1396, six years after she had defeated Genoa and fourteen years after the Cretan revolt, she acquired Corfu. To Venetians, Corfu was of vital importance due to its strategic location. Corfu became the fortified base from which Venetian galleys policed the strait leading to the Adriatic.
Venice built lovely colonial towns on these Adriatic islands. Her ports, modeled in her own image, each with its campanile, cathedral, piazza, and evening promenade, line the Dalmatian coast. From Ulcinj in the south to Piran in the north, the ports of Bar, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Hvar, Split, Zadar, Rab, Krk, Pula, and Porec are sublime legacies of Venetian architecture. By 1433 they were havens for the armadas carrying ceramics, silk, and spices from Alexandria and Cairo to the warehouses of Venice. While the Slavic chants of Orthodox churches resound in the mountains, on the coast Sundays are punctuated by bells summoning Catholics to mass. 5 Saint Jacobâs in Sibenik, Saint Markâs in Piran, Saint Laurenceâs in Trogir, and Our Ladyâs in Rijeca are superb by any standard. They are among the sights that greeted Zheng Heâs ships on their passage from Alexandria to Venice. Even with fifteen men to each oar it would have been a ten-day slog from Alexandria to Crete across an airless sea. Once in the Adriatic they would have picked up a light evening breeze blowing on shore. What a relief that would have been!
I know those islands well following a visit in 1966. In December 1965 I had met Marcella; we became engaged in June and decided to take a holiday traveling through the Dalmatian islands to Montenegro and Serbia. In the four years before meeting Marcella I had been navigating officer of HMS Narwhal, a submarine. It was the eve of the cold war and our patrols were spent in the North. Winters were drab and cold; the sun shone for an only hour or so, at midday; most of the time one looked at ice, sea, and sky in everlasting shades of gray.
In August 1966, Marcella, my uncle Edward, and I boarded a ferry in Venice bound for Dubrovnik, en route wending through the Dalmatian archipelago. We passed Marco Poloâs home on Korcula,Diocletianâs vast palace at Split, and honey-colored Hvar. The searing colors of azure sea and sky emphasized by the brilliant white Karst of the coastline, the red campanile towers, and the russet and gold of drying tobacco are etched on my brain and will remain with me all my life.
We slept on the upper deck under the stars, swam off remote beaches watched only by seagulls, and feasted on local seafish washed down by Dingaz, a rough, full-bodied, almost black wine.
The same idyllic scene would have greeted Zheng Heâs sailors and female slaves as his junks rowed slowly up the coast. They would have seen the outlines of these mini âVenicesâ from miles out to sea, dotted along the coast all the way from Dubrovnik to Trieste to Venice itself. They would have noticed Diocletianâs enormous palace, Hvarâs spectacular harbor, and the glistening white fortress walls of Dubrovnik, and would have surely called at some of those ports.
So in my view we should find evidence of Zheng Heâs fleetsâ visits in museums along the Dalmatian coast. Over the years, Marcella and I have visited the most likely museumsâthe old maritime school at Perast, the Matko family museum at Orebic, the Seamansâ Guild (Museum) in the Gulf of Kotor, Ivo Vizinâs Museum at Prcanj, and the Maritime Museum in Kotor itself. We found nothing.
However, my interest was renewed and sharpened in 2004 after meeting Dr. Gunnar Thompson in Seattle. He had brought Albertin di Virgaâs world map to my attention. This map had been found in a secondhand bookshop at
Venice now controlled the Adriatic. In 1396, six years after she had defeated Genoa and fourteen years after the Cretan revolt, she acquired Corfu. To Venetians, Corfu was of vital importance due to its strategic location. Corfu became the fortified base from which Venetian galleys policed the strait leading to the Adriatic.
Venice built lovely colonial towns on these Adriatic islands. Her ports, modeled in her own image, each with its campanile, cathedral, piazza, and evening promenade, line the Dalmatian coast. From Ulcinj in the south to Piran in the north, the ports of Bar, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Hvar, Split, Zadar, Rab, Krk, Pula, and Porec are sublime legacies of Venetian architecture. By 1433 they were havens for the armadas carrying ceramics, silk, and spices from Alexandria and Cairo to the warehouses of Venice. While the Slavic chants of Orthodox churches resound in the mountains, on the coast Sundays are punctuated by bells summoning Catholics to mass. 5 Saint Jacobâs in Sibenik, Saint Markâs in Piran, Saint Laurenceâs in Trogir, and Our Ladyâs in Rijeca are superb by any standard. They are among the sights that greeted Zheng Heâs ships on their passage from Alexandria to Venice. Even with fifteen men to each oar it would have been a ten-day slog from Alexandria to Crete across an airless sea. Once in the Adriatic they would have picked up a light evening breeze blowing on shore. What a relief that would have been!
I know those islands well following a visit in 1966. In December 1965 I had met Marcella; we became engaged in June and decided to take a holiday traveling through the Dalmatian islands to Montenegro and Serbia. In the four years before meeting Marcella I had been navigating officer of HMS Narwhal, a submarine. It was the eve of the cold war and our patrols were spent in the North. Winters were drab and cold; the sun shone for an only hour or so, at midday; most of the time one looked at ice, sea, and sky in everlasting shades of gray.
In August 1966, Marcella, my uncle Edward, and I boarded a ferry in Venice bound for Dubrovnik, en route wending through the Dalmatian archipelago. We passed Marco Poloâs home on Korcula,Diocletianâs vast palace at Split, and honey-colored Hvar. The searing colors of azure sea and sky emphasized by the brilliant white Karst of the coastline, the red campanile towers, and the russet and gold of drying tobacco are etched on my brain and will remain with me all my life.
We slept on the upper deck under the stars, swam off remote beaches watched only by seagulls, and feasted on local seafish washed down by Dingaz, a rough, full-bodied, almost black wine.
The same idyllic scene would have greeted Zheng Heâs sailors and female slaves as his junks rowed slowly up the coast. They would have seen the outlines of these mini âVenicesâ from miles out to sea, dotted along the coast all the way from Dubrovnik to Trieste to Venice itself. They would have noticed Diocletianâs enormous palace, Hvarâs spectacular harbor, and the glistening white fortress walls of Dubrovnik, and would have surely called at some of those ports.
So in my view we should find evidence of Zheng Heâs fleetsâ visits in museums along the Dalmatian coast. Over the years, Marcella and I have visited the most likely museumsâthe old maritime school at Perast, the Matko family museum at Orebic, the Seamansâ Guild (Museum) in the Gulf of Kotor, Ivo Vizinâs Museum at Prcanj, and the Maritime Museum in Kotor itself. We found nothing.
However, my interest was renewed and sharpened in 2004 after meeting Dr. Gunnar Thompson in Seattle. He had brought Albertin di Virgaâs world map to my attention. This map had been found in a secondhand bookshop at
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