History of the Adriatic. Egidio Ivetic
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HISTORY OF THE ADRIATIC
A Sea and Its Civilization
Egidio Ivetic
Translated by Geraldine Ludbrook
polity
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Originally published in Italian as Storia dell’Adriatico © 2019 by Società editrice Il Mulino, Bologna
This English edition © Polity Press, 2022
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5252-8
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Preface
I got to know the Adriatic when I was a seaman recruit on board the Galeb. The idea of studying its history goes back to the icy winter of 1984–1985 when I was at the Tivat boatyard in the Bay of Kotor. The following summer, sailing on the Galeb, I crossed the Ionian, the Aegean, the Marmara and the Bosphorus seas, and travelled further on into the Black Sea as far as Sevastopol and Costanța, Romania. I was little more than a boy, and it was my first Mediterranean experience. As in the verse of the Triestine poet Umberto Saba, it was better than university. It took decades of study and a long process of maturation before I went back to reflecting on the sea along whose coasts I had grown up.
The Adriatic, much like the Mediterranean, has many different meanings. It is certainly a historical region but it is also a place of contemplation on what the various civilizations and cultures along its coasts have been. The extensiveness of Mediterranean time dominates any historical reflection, which must be carried out on a long-term scale. Studying the Adriatic means adopting its pace and its diversities. Exploring its centuries and its shores involves a hermeneutic method that leads to a sense of belonging, of rapport with the sea. As I was reflecting on the Adriatic, Sergio Anselmi, whom I