Fortification Inventories in the Early Modern eastern Adriatic as Research Tools

Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the incessant wars in the eastern Adriatic triggered extensive construction of the fortifications, thus making the territory fertile for studying changes in military architecture. This paper focuses on fortifications in the former territories of the Venetian and Dubrovnik Republics, whose importance is also reflected in the multitude of archival records. Among them, a particular serial source has been chosen: the fortification inventories in the State Archives of Zadar, Šibenik, and Dubrovnik. These critical supports for a better understanding of the circulation of knowledge on the military architecture in the region are virtually unstudied. However, they provide quantifiable information on firearms and other necessities, thus suggesting a vivid picture of the functioning of the fortifications. In order to understand the thinking behind these lists, their codification has been traced to a “modern military prototreatise” written in 1410 by Christine de Pizan. Her estimated/ideal fortress budget, with particular emphasis on modern firearms, here serves as a proto-model and provides comparative material for real-time archival inventories of non-ideal fortifications, also permitting speculation of the relation between theory and practice in the longue durée.