Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése

Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726

T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE edge of Hungary, to draw up a proposal on the development of new commercial contacts and trading routes. He tried to fulfill this honourable task by carrying out a study in four parts entitled Allgemeiner Discurs über den Traffico.w Similarly to every report he sent to the emperor related to discussion of a complicated geographical problem, he illustrated his ideas on maps. His independent intellect is reflected in the fact that he placed the commercial centre in Baja, a small town on the Danube in southern Hungary, instead of in Vienna and Buda, the centres of the empire. Baja was a main supply depot for the army's provisioning during the Turkish liberation wars. For Marsigli, it was not only the centre of the over land roads leading to Turkey, Poland and the ports of the Adriatic, gateways to the Mediterranean Sea, but also, to use his words, the terminus a quo, that is, a starting point for the river trade on the Maros, the Tisza, the Sava and, last but not least, the Danube rivers. The map is unique in four respects: - it was the first to outline possible trading routes and contacts points for Hungary; - as far as we know, this is the earliest map of its kind in the world;

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0 - it contains the earliest accurate and precisely dated Marsigli-Müller depiction of the Danube bend and the Hungarian stretch of the Danube; - it is the first map that indicates flood dikes along the Hungarian stretch of the Danube. 4. The first postal map of Hungary

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1 This map was drawn up for the use of couriers and the postal service. In the spring of 1700, Marsigli, who was staying in the southern part of the country, was charged with carrying out another similarly important task. He was asked to submit a proposal to show how the recently liberated Slavonian and Croatian territories and Buda and Vienna, the two centres of the empire, could be connected by a postal service. Marsigli, before sending his proposition to Vienna, discussed the matter with postmasters in the southern part of the country. He had J. C. Müller illustrate his scheme on a map. This was how the first postal map of Hungary came into being. It depicted the western part of the country bordered by the Danube. Maps kept in Bologna Many sketches, drafts and finely detailed manuscript maps are preserved in Marsigli's bequest collection. They are of immeasurable significance for those who study the way these regions and waters were long ago.

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2 The drafts of the frontier maps sent to Vienna owe their importance to the fact that Müller systematically noted on each one when, by whom, and the document they were attached to when they were taken to Vienna. With their help it should prove possible to reunite the above-mentioned and described maps from Vienna with the documents they originally came with, since separately neither the maps nor documents can be fully interpreted. The documents from Vienna — Őst A HKR:Akten, BLG 1701; 76, 77, 78. cartons - are listed in the right column. For clarity's stake, I also included their origin. I listed the notes that are from the corresponding Bolognese Emporium in the right column. You can find Müller's note that he put on maps in footnotes: IMAGE No. 13 on page 30? Hungary's first postal map delineating possible postal routes that could connect the newly reconquered territories with Vienna and Buda. (Oriented in the opposite direction; 1700) 8

9 A general treatise on commerce. Vienna; ÖStA KA HRK Akten 1701. BLG Juli/42. Attachment to Relation 10. 9

0 The responses to my question addressed to the gathering at the IS'

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1 International Conference on the History of Cartography indicated that none of the participants had come accross a commercial thematic map with such an early date. 9

1 A geographical map, which we made for the benefit of officers nominated by the Imperial Office of Postal Affairs to assist in drawing up the regulations concerning the establishment of post offices. ÖStA KA HKR. 1701. BLG July - 42. Relatio 21. 9

2 I have been working on cataloging them. Ill