Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése
Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726
T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE With this, Marsigli came to his own time. Loyalty to the Hapsburgs determined his general attitude. He thought of Emperor Leopold as having been sent by God, who, having swept away the dread Turks from the better part of the country, restored the ancient rights and power of the Hungarian Monarchy. Furthermore, the country was not entirely destroyed after the tragic battle at Mohács against the Turks because our glorious ruler, Emperor Leopold of the Hapsburg dynasty that has given ranks of successors to the Hungarian thrown, has watchfully protected the countries conquered by his ancestors through wisdom and the sword. And what losses befell the old dignity of the country, he will restore with God's help. Then, he introduced the administrative structure and the public offices of the country, dividing it into two parts: the territories beyond and on this side of the Danube. He also spoke about the countries that belonged to the Hungarian Empire: Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, which were headed by voidas, and Transylvania, which had a governor. After this historical sketch, the Danube is returned to the focus of the work. Marsigli deals with the etymology of the name and gives his opinion about the names Danube and Ister. The fast flowing stretches are called the Danube, he said, while the slower stretch of the river after the cataracts on the Lower Danube are called the Ister. Then he describes the counties, the countries, the settlements of various sizes 26 3 and the peoples found along the Danube. At the same time, he relates various interesting things such as the ethnic politics of the Turks in the southern part of the country: The inhabitants of the barren, mountainous Serbia were enticed and collected there. .. It was an inexpressible blessing for these people to exchange their barren homelands for the spacious, fertile fields of the Hungarians and could settle around the swamps of the Danube, the Tisza and other rivers, which abounded in fish. The astronomical section Marsigli made and had others make astronomical observations to determine latitude and longitude. He needed the data for the maps. The application of an astronomical method was becoming increasingly accepted at that time for mapping larger territories. Ehe astronomical base, as Sámuel Mikoviny called it later, 26 4 afforded mapmakers with the position of places according to their latitude and longitude and the cardinal directions. With these in hand, cartographers were able to calculate the distances between points of measurements. Marsigli, although he himself made relatively few measurements, got reference points that helped him to reliably determine some cardinal points on the Danube and its main tributaries. He or Müller calculated latitude using a quadrant with a 2.5 foot (ca. 80 cm) radius, which he had obtained from Nürnberg with Eimmart's help. For other astronomical observations they probably used a 7 foot 3 inch long refracting telescope with an objective-lens with a diameter of 3-4 cm, capable of magnifying 30-60 times. 265 Marsigli first published charts of his observational data in his book and then good depictions of the moon. The charts contain the polar altitudes of the various stationary stars measured in 1699. 26 6 Most of the measurements were made by Müller whose diary of observations tells us that he made astronomical IMAGE No. 21 on page 60: A drawing of a phase of the moon from Müller s diary 263 I'} ] c lj s t arranged in chart form promises to give the distance between settlements. However, it was published only on the first page, probably due to a misprinting. 26 4 Mikoviny Sámuel (1700 - 1750) expounded the essence of the application of the method in his Epistola (1732). Deák A.: A Hungaria Nova megrajzolója. Bp. 1987. p. 59. 26 5 Bartha Lajos: Egy elfelejtett holdtérkép. (A forgotten map of the moon - Meteor Ung. Astr. Verein) Bd. 26. 4. 1996. 26 6 The polar altitude is identical with the latitude. 141
