VIEW OF ŠIBENIK

The Šibenik veduta depicts the fortified city from a bird's eye view, observed from the sea over the channel. The map was published by Francesco Valegio in the work Nuova raccolta di le piu illustri et famose citta di tutto mondo, and the local engraver Martin Rota Kolunić also worked on the map. Therefore, it can be assumed that it was in this work that Rota could significantly contribute to the final appearance of the information known to him. For this reason, their joint work could surpass the previously printed isolarios by Zenoi, Bertelli and Forlani. The city is strategically located at the bottom of the bay, triangularly laid on the slopes and protected by the St. Nicholas’ Fortress at the entrance to the channel, two side bastions on the banks of the channel and two rows of western land ramparts. They extend to the elevated fortifications of the patron saint of the city, St. Michael, and within the triangle that closes the right-hand one of these two ramparts with the eastern ramparts is the dense fabric of the city, with its distinctive city palaces and the cathedral. Such a view is in complete contradiction with the plan of Zadar, made by the same duo and kept in the Felbar Collection under inventory no. 540. On the east side, the boundary of the city is marked by the Monastery of St. Francis. Roads from the city lead to the hills inland, and there are several smaller or larger galleys and other smaller vessels in the Šibenik Channel. In the bottom right corner is Valegio's signature. This map is very similar to Camocio's slightly more detailed 1571 version created together with Rota (inv. no. 270).