Tabula Hungarie
The Tabula Hungarie (often referred to as Tabula Hungariae ) is the oldest surviving map of Hungary . It was printed in 1528. Lazarus Secretarius did the preparatory work , the final cartographic design goes back to Georg Tannstetter . The map was created against the background of the rapid advance of the Turks into Central Europe in the first Austrian Turkish War .
The card was in the year 2007 at the World Heritage of UNESCO added. The only surviving copy is kept in the Apponyi collection of the Széchényi National Library in Budapest . A facsimile edition was reprinted.
The caption
On the right edge of the card, a little below the center, there is a Latin legend in a decorative frame , which informs about the contributors: "Compiled by Lazarus, revised by Tannstetter, edited by Cuspinian, dedicated to King Ferdinand and printed by Apian in Ingolstadt in 1528" :
“Tabula Hungarie
ad quatuor latera per Lazarum quondam Thomae Strigonia [sis] Cardin [alis] Secretarium virum expertum congesta, à Georgio Tanstetter Collimitio revisa auctiorque reddita, atque iamprdinimum à Jo [anne] Cuspiniano edita Serenissimo Hungarie infanti principando Bohemiaiae Regi , Archiduci Austriae etc. sacra, auspitio maiestatis suae, ob reip [ublice] Christiane usum, opera Petri Apiani de Leyßnigk Mathematici Ingolstadiani invulgata Anno Domini 1528. ”
"Map of Hungary
once by Lazarus, the secretary of Thomas, Cardinal zu Strigon, an expert, compiled in all four directions, revised and expanded by Georg Tannstetter Collimitius and previously published by Johannes Cuspinian, dedicated to his Highness Ferdinand, the King of Hungary and Bohemia, the Prince and Infante of the Spanish Lands, the Archduke of Austria, etc., printed under the gracious omen of His Majesty because of the use of the Christian community by the effort of Peter Apian from Leisnig, mathematician at Ingolstadt, in the year of the Lord 1528. "
The editors Lazarus and Tannstetter
The caption says that the map was compiled (congesta) by the Hungarian Lazarus Secretarius , by the secretary of Tamás Bakócz , the Archbishop of Esztergom and thus the Primate of Hungary, who until his death in 1521 was Chancellor of the Kingdom of Hungary and responsible for the Hungary's foreign policy was. The desire for an exact map of Hungary could already go back to him. Only fragments are known of the life of Lazarus. He studied in Vienna , a. a. with Georg Tannstetter (1482–1535), then professor of applied mathematics (this included above all astronomy and cartography). Tannstetter had a map printed as early as 1522, which showed roughly the same regions and also indicated the campaigns of the Turks and the defenders. For the new map of Hungary he "corrected and added to the map originally designed by Lazarus" as an experienced cartographer.
In Hungary in particular, people sometimes simply speak of the "Lazarus card". It is not entirely clear what part the two editors had (what the revisa auctiorque reddita ascribed to the legend Tannstetter means) is not entirely clear. In any case, it was Tannstetter who had received the imperial printing privilege printed on the card (bottom left) (i.e. protection against third-party reprinting for the following five years) - the author usually received such a printing privilege. A letter from Jakob Ziegler speaks for a significant part of the design of the map : In 1529 he wrote to Tannstetter from Venice, referring to this new map of Hungary: "I have seen your Hungary ..."
Editor and printer
Johannes Cuspinian is named as the editor of the map . Perhaps his function was comparable to that of a publisher. In this case, the aim was to find good artisans: the drawn map had to be transferred into a woodcut , and after printing it was hand-colored . The map was printed in 1528 by Peter Apian in Ingolstadt (below the printing privilege is added: In the Academia von Apian, in the month of May).
Cuspinian and Apian were also well versed in cartography. Your contribution to the success of this map of Hungary could have been considerable - in addition to the contribution of Lazarus and Tannstetter, the "actual authors of the map".
Historical classification
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The royal coat of arms of Ferdinand I is shown on the left edge of the map.
A text in the top left of the map describes the threat posed by the Turks and mentions their victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526.
At the bottom of the map there is a detailed description of the history of the Hungarians from Roman times to the present, on the left in Latin (under the title: “Chronographia Hungarie”), on the right in German (under the title: “Eine Kurz und Warhrachtige description of Ungerlands ”).
A map scale as an innovation
The German text at the bottom of the map is about twice as long as the Latin one, because the first half of this German text provides an exact explanation of the scale - which is missing in Latin . It was a novel introduction at the time, probably going back to Tannstetter. As a university professor and editor of astronomical and mathematical texts, Tannstetter had a high level of competence in this field and his tendency to take innovative steps can be observed in several areas (e.g. in the history of science , empirical astrology ). We are less well informed about the work of Lazarus and therefore cannot assess his competence as well. As the author of the German explanation of the scale, Tannstetter is more likely than the Hungarian Lazarus because of his German mother tongue. But the fact that the specification of such a yardstick made sense at all is thanks to the exact location determinations, and these probably go back to Lazarus. This is supported by the fact that the location information is predominantly Hungarian. Von Tannstetter is said to have been to Hungary several times, but to find so many precise places (for more than a thousand places) requires a long journey through Hungary.
A compass is shown on the map at the bottom left. There is also a note in Latin and German - in this it reads as follows:
- Alhie fint the circkel in a short time
- How far one statute leads from the other.
In the “Description of the Ungerland” at the bottom of the card, more detailed instructions for use are provided. With the help of a compass, the distance between two locations can be determined by reading the compass span on the lower scale. This scale extends over 80 "German miles ", with each mile still divided into quarter miles . The length of a German mile was about 7.5 km.
The scale of the map, that is, the reduction ratio, is approximately 1: 1,200,000.
Properties of the map of Hungary
The card is approximately 74 cm × 55 cm. Four woodcut panels were used as templates. The geographical latitude information for the cities is almost flawless, which requires good astronomical location information. The length specifications are also correct - in addition to sundials, a portable pocket watch was also required (the first pocket watches were developed at that time). With their help, the time differences between the locations could be determined.
The map is not oriented to the north, but to the northeast. It follows that the Danube runs from left to right.
The map covers the contested or threatened area, i.e. it extends beyond Hungary. On the left edge is Vienna , at the right edge Sibiu (Sibiu).
This map was very much appreciated, which is also shown by the fact that there were several revised reprints in the 1550s and thereafter (1553 in Venice, 1559 Rome, 1566 Vienna: "Ungariae Tanst [etteri] descriptio").
literature
- Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven : The Viennese humanist Johannes Cuspinian. Scholar and diplomat at the time of Emperor Maximilian I Böhlau, Graz, Cologne 1959, pp. 253–255.
- Bálint Lakatos: Lázár deák Tabula Hungariae - ának (1528) helyrajza és a késo középkori úthálózat / Settlements on Lazarus' Tabula Hungariae (1528) and Late Medieval Road Network. In: Zsófia Kádár / Bálint Lakatos / Áron Zarnóczki (eds.): Archivariorum historicorumque magistra. Történeti tanulmányok Bak Borbála tanárno 70. születésnapjára, (A Magyar Levéltárosok Egyesülete kiadványai, vol. 13), Budapest 2013, pp. 103–128 (Hungarian and English) digital edition .
- Eugen Oberhummer / Franz von Wieser (eds.): Wolfgang Lazius . Maps of the Austrian lands and the Kingdom of Hungary from the years 1545–1563 . Innsbruck 1906, pp. 37-40.
- Zsolt Török: Renaissance Cartography in East-Central Europe, approx. 1450-1650 , in: David Woodward, The History of Cartography, Volume 3, Part 2, University of Chicago Press, from 1987, online (as well as Peter Meurer Cartography in the German Lands 1450-1650 in the same volume).
Web links
- Tabula Hungariae on the UNESCO World Document Heritage website (Memory of the World) (English, Spanish, French)
Remarks
- ↑ See Lajos Stegena (ed.): Lazarus Secretarius. The first Hungarian mapmaker and his work. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1982.
- ↑ On Georg Tannstetter see Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Humanism between Court and University. Georg Tannstetter (Collimitius) and his scientific environment in Vienna in the early 16th century . Vienna 1996. For the map of Hungary see pp. 151–152.
- ^ Eugen Oberhummer / Franz von Wieser: Karten , 1906, p. 37.
- ^ As assessed by Eugen Oberhummer / Franz von Wieser: Karten , 1906, p. 38.
- ↑ About László Bendefy: Regiomontanus in Hungary . In: Günther Hamann (Ed.): Regiomontanus studies . (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Meeting Reports; 364), Vienna 1980, p. 251.
- ↑ "Ungariam tuam his diebus Venetias allatam vidi ..." This letter, written in Venice on April 8, 1529, is contained in a commentary on the 2nd book of the Naturalis historia of Pliny , Basel 1531, p. 395. - Quoted from Graf -Stuhlhofer: Humanism , p. 152.
- ^ So Eugen Oberhummer / Franz von Wieser: Karten , 1906, p. 38.
- ↑ As assessed by Eugen Oberhummer / Franz von Wieser: Karten , 1906, p. 38: "Among other things, he undoubtedly stems from him the scale and the related legend."
- ↑ So László Bendefy: Regiomontanus in Ungarn , p. 251.