Adriatic sailing routes as reported in the 14th and 15th century pilgrims and travel reports

Abstract

Modalities of sailing over the Adriatic have not been dealt with much in
publications so far. This is particularly true of sailing routes at the turn of the
Middle Ages to the modem world. The historical source of this paper is one
French and four English pilgrims and travel reports from the 14th and 15th
céntury. The analysis of their Adriatic itinerary has shown that they mostly
used the shipping the final destination of which was somewhere in the Mediterranean, so they sailed across the Adriatic under the regime of long coastal navigation. They would set out from Venice, sail to the Northern Istrian Coast Novigrad, Poreč, Rovinj or Pula), and then along the Eastern Adriatic up to
the island of Corfu. On their way back they would sail by the same route. The
justification for these routes is not given in historical sources under research
but it can be found in the results of scientific hydrographic researches at the
beginning of the 19th c. (C. F. Beautemps-Beaupré) and the first Adriatic pilot
from 1830 (G. Marieni), which summarizes centuries long navigation experiences. It comes out that voyages were more frequent along the Eastern
Adriatic due to the protection reasons, primarily against bora, since this part
of Adriatic provides much more shelters. Navigation along the Western Adriatic is recommended only in summer, in nice weather. Similar sails in other
periods are still to be investigated, with the use of similar methodology.