His real name was Giovanni Battista Fortis (his religious name was
Alberto) and he was born in
Padua on either 9 or 11 November 1741. He journeyed extensively in
Dalmatia. His best-known work is
Viaggio in Dalmazia (Journey to Dalmatia), originally published in 1774 and first published in London in 1778. The highlight of the book is the description of
Morlachia, a historical region currently located in Croatia named after the
Morlachs that inhabited the region. In his book, Fortis presented his literary discovery "Hasanaginica" as a Morlach (Vlach) ballad. Larry Wolff believed Fortis wrote the ballad as a poetry of South Slavs rather than a poetry of the Morlachs. Fortis believed that the
Morlachs preserved their old customs and clothes. Their ethnographic traits were traditional clothing, use of the
gusle musical instrument accompanied with epic singing. He also published several specimens of Morlach songs. Fortis noted that the Slavic-speaking Morlachs called themselves “Vlachs”, but refuted the assumption that they might be related to the Latin-speaking
Vlachs. Alberto Fortis's account of the Morlachs, translated into French, English and German brought the
Morlachs to the attention of Europe. This started a new literary movement known as
Morlachism. The Croatian writer
Ivan Lovrić, who wrote ''Osservazioni di Giovanni Lovrich sopra diversi pezzi del viaggio in Dalmazia del signor abbot Alberto Fortis coll'aggiunta della vita di Soçivizça'' ("Observations of Giovanni Lovrich [Ivan Lovrić] on several pieces of the journey to Dalmatia of Mr. Abbot Alberto Fortis with the addition of the life of Soçivizça"), accused Fortis of many factual errors, which he attempted to rectify and showed the similarity between Vlach's language and the Romanian language.
Travels into Dalmatia played an important role in bringing the Dalmatian culture to the attention of Europe during the rise of
Romantic notions about folklore. Dalmatian
hinterlands became epitomized by
Hasanaginica, a folk ballad that was first written down by Fortis. In 1795 Fortis was elected
Fellow of the Royal Society in London. He died in Bologna eight years later on 21 October 1803. ==Works==