ARCHIVES OF NAUTICAL CHARTS AND PUBLICATIONS, LEGACY OF THE 150-YEAR ORGANISED HYDROGRAPHIC ACTIVITY IN THE EASTERN ADRIATIC, PRESERVED IN THE MUSEUM OF THE HYDROGRAPHIC INSTITUTE OF CROATIA

摘要

Hydrography as the branch of applied science dealing with the measurement and description of physical features of the navigable portion of the Earth's surface, is of vital importance for the high- quality construction and production of nautical charts. First scientifically based hydrographic measurements on the Croatian coast were conducted by France in the times of Napoleon, managed by Charles Beautemps - Beaupre (1766 - 1854), a French hydrographer and cartographer, engineer of the Chart Depot in Paris later to become the French Hydrographic Institute. The results of his work were the basis for subsequent hydrographic and other marine investigations in the Adriatic Sea. Hydrographic activity was constituted as an institution in 1860 by establishing the Hydrographic office in Trieste. The successor of that institution is the Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia (HHI), based in Split, which year of 2010 marks the 150th anniversary of organised hydrographic activity in the Eastern Adriatic. Throughout its long- time production of navigational charts and publications, the Hydrographic Institute has built valuable archives of his torical data: its own charts at different scales, different nautical publications, as well as nautical charts received on exchange basis from related institutions both in Europe and worldwide, covering not only Eastern Adriatic but also other sea areas all over the world.