The official discovery of the shipwreck site is largely due to Konstantin Šikić and Ivo Šimat Butica from Murter, who at one point, through Miljenko Barić, forwarded the relevant information to the proper institutions in Zadar. Among the many who deserve credit for the first investigations and salvaging of valuable finds at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, the most noteworthy names are Ksenija Radulić, Sofija and Ivo Petricioli, Božidar Vilhar and Grga Oštrić. Young archaeologists Zdenko Brusić and Zlatko Gunjača and conservator Dalibor Martinović actively participated in the first campaigns, and several years later Marijan Orlić assumed leadership of the undersea aspect of the research. All of them, and many others, deserve thanks for saving the site from being forever forgotten and thoroughly looted.

Three decades later, an international group of experts led by Mitja Guštin, and consisting of Irena Lazar, Hugh Willmott and Caroline Jackson, used the example of glass finds to reignite interest in the ship’s cargo and underscore the site’s research potential. Zrinka Mileusnić and her associates highlighted the attractiveness of presenting these materials to the broader public.

After many years of effort undertaken by this publication’s authors, in 2012 the University of Zadar once more launched research thanks to support from the Ministry of Culture, the Town of Biograd na Moru, the Tkon Municipality, the Croatian Science Foundation, Texas A&M University, the Ruđer Bošković Institute the Croatian Institute of History, the German Society for the Promotion of Underwater Archaeology (FUWA), the Biograd na Moru Local Heritage Museum, the Croatian History Museum, the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the audiovisual production company Red Studio d.o.o., the Ars Nautica Institute of Maritime Heritage and many other Croatian and foreign institutions and organizations whose participation even today is contributing to the project’s ongoing success. Joško Belamarić and Zlatko Uzelac deserve special mention for relaunching the project, as do many well-intentioned participants during the initial efforts in this regard, while Pavuša Vežić and Barbara Peranić provided vital support to the continuity of research work.

Research into and protection of the site and its finds in recent years have been considerably advanced by Matko Barišić, Vladimir Bermanec, Adelphine Bonneau, Patrick Cassiti, Marco Ciabattoni, Neven Cukrov, Matko Čvrljak, Barbara Davidde, Vincent Delmas, Ana Filep, Maria Geraga, Andrea Gobbi, Ela Jurdana, Željko Kwokal, Neven and Marko Lete, Nili Liphshitz, Davor Matešić, Nikola Mišković, Marco Morin, Stefan Nehring, George Papatheodorou, Martina Patriarca, Pere Ridao, Christa and Herbert Siepenkötter, Ines Šelendić, Franka Trcera and Antonio Vasilijević, while precise modern documentation and attractive photographic and video materials have been produced by Ivana Asić, Mirko Belošević, Marino Brzac, Suzana Čule, Vedran Dorušić, Tena Festini, Danijel and Ranko Frka, Dražen Gorički, Sebastian Govorčin, Matej Martinčak, Alan Meniga, Xavier Rodrigez Pandozi, Rodrigo Torres, Božo Vukičević and Kotaro Yamafune. Here as well, the list of names deserving credit is much longer, and the diversity of individual contributions is far greater.

In the 1970s, Astone Gasparetto successfully initiated the reconstruction of the relevant, long-past events. After a long pause, this painstaking task was taken up by Mauro Bondioli, whose dedicated work in the State Archives in Venice has yielded hundreds of documents, and he connected them to the multi-layered historical story told in another part of this book. He was assisted in these efforts by Benjamin Arbel, Anna Bellavitis, Paola Benussi, Giovanni Caniato, Isabella Cecchini, Lovorka Čoralić, John Davis, Claudio dell'Orso, Marco Di Pasquale, Eric Dursteller, Antonio Fabris, Maria Fusaro, Richard Goldthwaite, Vincenzo Mancini, Vittorio Mandelli, Alessandro Marzo Magno, Antonio Mazzucco, Luca Molà, Reinhold Müller, Serap Mumcu, Gianfranco Munerotto, Antonio Musarra, Maria Pia Pedani, Andrea Pelizza, Andrea Peressini, Stefano Piasentini, Claudio Povolo, Franco Rossi, Jan-Christoph Rößler, Mirko Sardelić, Alessandra Schiavon, Ana Šverko, Lorenzo Tommasin, Stefano Tosato, Alfredo Viggiano, Roberto Zago and Guglielmo Zanelli. With their linguistic suggestions, Vladimir Skračić and Nikola Vuletić contributed significantly to the final form of this text.

Most of the text for the Virtual Museum was adapted from the following publication: Radić Rossi, I., Bondioli, M., Nicolardi, M., Batur, K. 2021. The Shipwreck at Gnalić; A Mirror to the Renaissance World. Archaeopress, Oxford, and from the Katarina Batur's doctoral dissertation at the University of Zadar, entitled Production, trade and maritime transport of colouring materials based on Early Modern Gnalić shipwreck finds. Mauro Bondioli also contributed by writting additional texts.

The list of those who participated in previous research encompasses hundreds of names from all continents. We would like to convey our immeasurable gratitude to all of them for their support and cooperation, with hope and anticipation in future common work in stringing together the small pearls of this great historical tale.