Dalmacija ocima stranaca (dedikált példány) [antikvár]

ZRCALO ADRIJANSKOADRIATIC IMAGESU svojoj ljubavi prema zavicajnoj nam Dalmaciji nerijetko smo izlozeni napasti pretjerivanja: katkad nam se ona cini znacajnim europskim prostorom, takoreci "pupkom sredozemnog svijeta", a koji put pak padamo u kusnju nijekanja svaké joj univerzalnije mjere, svjesni njezine malenosti i velike sjene koju na nju bacaju nedaleki kultumi svjetionici poput Atene i Caj'igrada, Venecije i Rima, Budimpeste i Beca. U svakom slucaju prirodno osjecamo potrebu odmjeriti se i s tudim pogledima na nas prostor, razmotriti saldo inozemnih putnika i namjemika, usporediti vlastito videnje s onim kako nas drugi vide, u nadi da cemo tako doci do objektivnije slike polozaja i znacenja Dalmacije u opcenitijim kulturalnim koordinatama.Knjiga Sveina M0nneslanda "Dalmacija ocima stranaca" dobro nam dolazi da monolosku poziciju zamijenimo dijaloskom svijescu. Istrazivanjima u nizu svjetskih knjiznica i arhiva, zasluzni je znanstvenik okupio impresivnu gradu raznovrsnih svjedocanstava od preko stotinu razlicitih autora (putopisaca i vedutista, arheologa i etnografa, pustolova i hodocasnika, moreplovaca i graditelja, prirodoslovaca i novinskih izvjestitelja), a nastalu u rasponu od gotovo citavoga tisucljeca (izmedu 1154. i 1925. godine). Ősim izrazite skrupuloznosti i pouzdane metodicnosti norveski je slavist unió u ovo izdanje i nemalu oslobodenost od bilo kakvih predrasuda, a posebno i od mogucih susjedskih presizanja ili prenaglasavanja utjecaja (sto mogu odredivati optiku italocentricnog ili austrofilnog pristupa).Zahvalni M0nneslandu na empatiji i ljubavi koju je unió u otkrivanje povijesnih izvora o izgledu i odjeku nase zavicajne postojbine, primamo knjigu kao novo zrcalo u kojemu se mozemo ogledati. To zrcalo nije namijenjeno ni zadovoljavanju nasega narcizma, a bogme niti hranjenju nasega kompleksa manje vrijednosti. Naime, ni ono nije niti moze biti objektivno, premda kao mozaik mnogobrojnih subjektivnih videnja i natalozeno iskustvo gotovo milenijskoga trajanja ima tezinu dragocjenih pobuda. A slikari i pisci sto se zatekose u dalmatinskim gradovima i selima ostavise plodove svojih posebnih zanimanja i predilekcija u skladu s duhom vremena i/ili potrebama struke kojom su se bavili.Ako i nismo mogli dobiti egzaktnu i tocnu sliku svih slojeva prirodnog okolisa i drustvenog, kulturnog bica nekadasnje Dalmacije, raspolafemo nizovima dragocjenih detalja sto valoriziraju anticki supstrat i maritimne pogodnosti, slikovite krajolike i "egzoticnu" nosnju, zanimljive obicaje i dramaticne okolnosti, urbane ambijente i planinske, "morlacke" zakutke. Nekim se dosljacima i prolaznicima nas zavieaj ponajprije ukazivao kao zemlja klasicnih tragova i grcko-rimske tradicije, a drugima radije kao teritorij romanticne evazije i svjeze, nekonvencionalne Ijepote. U svakom slucaju, medutim, imamo dodatne argumente za neravnodusan odnos prema prostoru u kojemu smo odnjihani, prema "malom starinskom svijetu" sto smo ga naslijedili s obavezom da ga ocuvamo i kao ravnopravan dio svjetske bastine.Tonko MaroevicIn our love for Dalmatia, we may be inclined to exaggerate. Dalmatia can sometimes seem an important part of Europe, for its size, at the very centre of the Mediterranean world, as it were. At others, her relative importance pales before the faraway beacons of Athens, Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Budapest or Vienna. At all events, our perception of our homeland needs to be tempered and weighed against those of foreign visitors and travellers. Only then can we arrive at something approaching a balanced and objective picture of Dalmatia's role and place in wider cultural relations.This book by Svein M0nnesland, "Dalmatia through foreign eyes", is a welcome addition to what has hitherto been a singular voice. By trawling foreign libraries and archives, this renowned researcher has collected an impressive and diverse array of individual testimonies drawn from more than a hundred sources covering travel writers, archaeologists, ethnographers, adventurers and pilgrims, sailors and builders, natural scientists and men and women of letters between the period of 1154 and 1925. This work by the Norwegian Slavist scholar is not only scrupulous, thorough, and free from all prejudice, but also distanced from the sometimes distorting influences of our nearer neighbours with their Italocentric or Austrophile bias.We can be grateful to M0nnesland for the loving and empathic way in which he has garnered these historical sources about our homeland and how it has been perceived: he has given us a mirror to hold up to ourselves; a mirror neither to satisfy our narcissism, nor to nourish any inferiority complex. Not necessarily a tme miiTor image, but one that carries a mosaic of myriad subjective images and successive experiences over almost a millennium, a treasure-trove of valuable insights and feelings. The artists and writers who visited our Dalmatian towns and villages have left us the fruit of their individual interests and predilections, all in the context and spirit of their age and professions.Obviously we do not have a comprehensive, accurate portrayal of the environmental, social and cultural essence of Dalmatia throughout history. What we do have, however, is a wealth of detail about the substrata of our antiquity; the sea and seaboard life; our picturesque landscapes and "exotic" costumes; our customs and habits; the dramatic moments that have punctuated our history; our urban environments and the mountainous Morlack hideaways. Some visitors found our homeland to be first and foremost a country of classical squares and Greco-Roman heritage, while others found it more a place of romantic evasion and fresh, unconventional beauty. In any case, M0nnesland has provided us with material to engage with the land where we were born and cradled, with the small, lost world that we have inherited, and which we have an obligation to protect as a fully-fledged part of worid heritage.Tonko Maroevic Member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts