Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése
Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726
T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE The section drawings of the Danube The eighteen maps were made with nearly topographic accuracy. It is not far from the truth to say that Marsigli and Müller were, in a certain sense, ahead of Cassini with these maps. 26 0 They depicted the terrain, the mountains, the swamps and the dry territories spectacularly while the settlements were indicated by small houses and towers in numerical proportion to the size of the settlement. The names were given not only in Latin or Hungarian but, where applicable in German and Slavic as well. Furthermore, Marsigli meticulously marked the location and kind of the Roman antiquities he encountered. This also indicates that he intended the maps to fulfill the same function he commonly used them for: to support and illustrate his texts. In his book, he always refered to these maps when describing settlements or islands. The eighteen sections are not equally accurate or rich in detail. The ones representing territories where more material was collected or that had a greater strategic importance which were investigated by Marsigli himself are more reliable than those depicting enemy territory, since the only sources for these latter were the sketches he had made during his diplomatic sea voyages. Those sections, rich in detail, show nearly every settlement along the Danube, sometimes even the small farms or dry lands rising above the swamps, all with their names. 26 1 The towns and settlements along the banks of the river were not simply symbolically indicated, but miniature views of them were also drawn. The depiction of the lands along the banks is so threedimensional, that they provide a true impression of the landscape even without the description. Section II of the Csallóköz and the Szigetköz is an excellent example. We can imagine the region from the map as Marsigli saw it: They seem to be islands within a trap or some kind of a labyrinth. They are nearly totally covered by swamps, among which it is easy to lose your way since, as you search for the right path, you may find yourself entrapped by water and you can extricate yourself only at risk of your life. 26 2 His markings are so impressive that even those not familiar with maps can imagine the landscape: how large the forests and swamps were and how the human settlements of various size among them look. Towards the end of the area under discussion, however, the sheets have less and less detail on them. In this way, the Danube arrives to the mouth of the Jantra, where, as Marsigli believed, it changes name and proceeds to the Black Sea as the Ister river. After he had drawn this picture of the country and its main river the Danube through maps, he carried on sketching the history of the Hungarians who had founded their state within the Carpathian Basin. The idea of the double conquest, frequently mentioned by modern historians, is foreshadowed in his description. The Hungarian Kingdom, he wrote, owes its existence to the despot Attila,. .. who conquered everything with his soldiers, invaded Pannónia, set up his royal seat there, and finally changed its name from Pannónia to Hungaria. After his death, his successors laid waste to the country through strife and returned to their barbarian home. They did not, however, forget the richness andfertility of the Hungarian Lands and decided to return under the leadership of the seven princes. They first conquered Transylvania and from there the whole of Pannónia, which they called Hungaria in memory of the Huns. In the time of St Stephen and Louis the Great, the country flourished, but the country was driven to the edge of ultimate destruction partly by dissension among its own people and partly through the greediness of foreigners. 26 0 Domenico Cassini. Bologna, 20 November 1695 - Paris, 2 June 1698. The first topographic map is attributed to him. The Hungarian, Sámuel Mikoviny, asked for a directive to prepare a topographic map of Hungary in his proposition submitted to the emperor in 1746, which began with the word Conditiones... (see: Deák András: A Hungaria Nova megrajzolója - The drawing of Hungaria Nova. Budapest, 1987. pp. 110-114.) Had he been granted the directive he would have preceded Cassini by three decades. 26 1 VII. Sectio: Tira polie campus, Tinthasa campus, Handok campus; X. Sectio: Kandel, Tuganiva, Zunta. 26 2 DPM Vol. I. Pars I. 140
