Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése
Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726
T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE addressed the foreword to the Royal Society, the wise men of merit in the preeminent sciences. The ca. 60 page promotion was published in 1699 and 1700. First he introduced himself, the soldier who was interested in science, whom the dubious glory of the God Mars, the weapon-clatterer, could never bind tightly enough to deter him from the desire aroused by the sights of nature to learn its mysteries. This passion was so strong that it never slumbered even during his military and political commissions. And those, he wrote, who would demand and even expect greater efforts and more outstanding results from a man who had spent most of his life in tents and dressed in a military coat should judge with caution... Then a little later: 1 am a soldier who has always found it necessary that the appreciation of books and sciences should not be left last in my life. After he had introduced himself to the world and the Royal Society, he called on the members of the Society to help him with their benevolent criticism to correct the faults in his work so that nothing incorrect would remain in the structure and depiction of the material. Finally, he expressed his reverence to Mr Niuthun (Newton), the most meritorious chairman of the English Scientific Royal Society. While Marsigli was occupied by the editorial tasks surrounding the text of the Prodromus, his people in Nürnberg began rapidly working on the drawing and engraving of the illustrations still missing from the Danube monograph. Thus, there was a realistic chance that the work could be published in 1704. However, as a consequence of the events at Breisach, the unfortunate work lost its protector and supporter — the favour of the emperor was withdrawn. Hopes of publication were left to an uncertain future. BREISACH THE VICISSITUDES OF WORK AND THE AUTHOR I have lost all my spiritual strength and the opportunity to send it to the print, since bbws pounding upon me from all directions have robbed me of the necessary peace of mind and the countless worries make it impossible for me to engross myself in work - he wrote about this period in the foreword to his Danubius. Guicciardini and Scheutzer, Marsigli's new secretary, left Vienna on the 12 t h of August 1704. 22 0 The manuscript of the Danubius must have been hidden in their luggage. The author of the manuscript also turned his back on Vienna and travelled first to Ferrarra and Modena, then to Milan in the hope that he could win Prince Lorraine, the governor of the Spanish king's, sympathy and perhaps as an experienced soldier be offered a suitable position and support to publish his apologia, in which he could explain himself to Vienna and the world concerning the Breisach affair. 22 1 Although he was received with courtesy, he was deceived in his expectations. He left Italy and travelled to Switzerland across the Alps 22 2 as we can learn from the elder Scheutzer. 22 3 He had barely settled in his new home when he set out for the Po valley across the St Gotthard pass, probably on the invitation of the French. On his way through the mountains he made altitude measurements with his barometer. He arrived in Milan on the 4 t h of August 1705. By that time, the copperplates of the Danube monograph sent from Nürnberg and the notes and manuscripts connected to the book 224 had arrived to their destination in Bologna. It had been necessary to smuggle them out of Emperor Leopold's empire, since the Danube monograph, together with the highly valuable copperplates, were made from the emperor's 22 0 Scheuchzer Mss, Zentralbibliothek, Zürich. 22 1 John Stoye: Marsigli's Europe 1680-1730. Yale University Press New Haven and London 1994. 257. 22 2 Johann Georg Scheuchzer's name was already mentioned among Marsigli's informants. His son Johann Jacob became Marsigli's secretary after J. C. Müller yielded to the temptation and left for Vienna. 22 3 The Hapsburg court in Vienna charged J. C. Müller with an independent task, the survey of the hereditary provinces. 22 4 BUB Mss di Marsigli Vol. 80. C pp. 33-34. Nürnberg, March 19, 1705. Joh. Heinrich Müller to Marsigli. 130
