424 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915, 



with the Teutonic element appears to have failed, however, to eradi- 

 cate or modify the Italian character of the region's institutions or 

 its life.^ In this respect the colossal statue of Dante in front of the 

 main railway station in the city of Trent symbolizes faithfully the 

 aspirations of the majority of the inhabitants of the Trentino. 



7. THE ITALO-SLAVIC BOUNDARY. 



The Adriatic provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are 

 peopled mainly by Italians and SlaA^s. German and Hungarian 

 elements in the population consist of civil and military officials as 

 well as of merchants. From an ethnological and linguistic stand- 

 point the maritime district is Italian or Slav according to its eleva- 

 tion. The Eomanic stock forms the piedmont populations, while the 

 dwellers of the hilly coast chains are of Slavic issue and speech. 



The western coast of the Istrian Peninsula is an area of Italian 

 speech. The vernacular of Dante is, however, feebly represented 

 in the Dalmatian Islands and on the Illyrian coast.- It is generally 

 confined to urban centers. Zara, Spalato, Sebenico, Ragusa, and 

 Cattaro ' contain flourishing colonies of Italians, whose secular com- 

 mercial enterprise has contributed to establish prevalence, if not 

 predominance, of their mother tongue in the region. Outside of 

 these cities the Italian element wherever present is restricted to 

 littoral strips. The Slavs invariably occupy the inland plateau and 

 the slopes extending seaward. 



The Istrian region of predominant Italian speech consists of the 

 western peninsular lowland extending south of Triest * to the tip of 

 the promontory beyond Pola.^ Istrians, to whom Italian is a ver- 

 nacular, form over a third of the peninsula's population. The 

 Slavs of the Karst and terraced sections constituting the balance 

 belong to the Eoman Catholic faith, but have no other common 

 bond with their Italian countrymen. 



Settlement by Slavs of the hills dominating the Adriatic appears 

 to have taken place continuously between the ninth and seventeenth 

 centuries. Feudal chiefs of medieval times first resorted to this 

 method of developing the uncultivated slopes and highlands of the 

 eastern coast. The Venetian republic and the Austrian govern- 



1 A. Galanti, I Tedeschi sul versante meridionale delle Alpi, Typ. Acad. Lincei, Rome, 

 1885, p. 185. 



" It is estimated that, in all, about 18,000 Italians live in Dalmatia. 



3 Italian predominates in both Zara and Spalato, the latter city being second in com- 

 mercial importance along the Dalmatian coast. 



* The city of Triest is peopled mainly by Italians. Its suburbs, however, are inhabited 

 by crowded Slavic settlements. The census of 1910 shows 142,113 Italians, 37,063 

 Slovenes, 9,689 Germans, and 1,442 Croats. For Istria returns of the same year give 

 147,417 Italians, 168,184 Serbo-Croatians, and 55,134 Slovenes. 



s M. Wutte, Das Deutschtum im osterreichischen Kiistenland. Deut. Erde, 8, 1909, 

 p. 202. 



