Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése
Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726
T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE VOLUME III. MINERALS The rich metal and mineral depositscarried by the left side tributaries of the Danube directed Marsigli's interest in the famous mines of Upper Northern Hungary. He was lucky to be provided with an exceptional opportunity to get acquainted with the underground world, a world that the mineralogists he knew never saw. He was allowed to descend into the mines and collect numerous rare rocks and ores on the recommendation of the emperor and the friendly support of a count who supervised the operation of the mines. In addition, he developed fruitful persona] contacts with the inspectors of the mines, which were to prove very useful for his book, as we have already mentioned. Some samples of the minerals he collected at that time can be seen even today in the Museo Archeologico in Bologna. He illustrated the method of exploring the topic with an example borrowed from anatomy: if we want to present a man, he says, we usually first speak about his outlook, feelings etc, and only then about his more hidden organs. Similarly , first we have to give a general picture of the minerals and only then can we proceed to the anatomy of the rocks. Sand and stone on the bed of the Danube He started his substantial discussion of the topic with the microscopic analysis of the sand. The analysed samples were collected from the northern bank of the Danube near Vienna and at Pest and from the sands of the Tisza above Szeged. He similarly dealt with the sands of the Maros, the Lajta and the Rába rivers. Then, he discussed the semiprecious stones, the less precious stones and ordinary stones. He illustrated these rocks in more than 150 drawings. 288 Miiller's drawing; measurements: 45.5 x 67 cm. 28 9 DPM Vol. III. p. 22. 45.5 x 70.5 cm. The thematic mining atlases A summary map of minerals begins the description of the stones and ores found in the mines. 2S S In this map he indicated the mines of northern and southern Hungary and Transylvania, from where the rivers carried deposits into the Danube. The mountains in which mines were opened stand out with stronger hatching and small, horizontal and oblong entrances drawn in their sides. The mark beside them indicates whether it is a gold, silver, copper, iron, salt, mercury or lead mine. Then, another map follows of the same size, which was intended to be an annex to the previous one. It shows the mines in northern Hungary on a larger scale, ignoring the actual distances between them. He drew straight sections through the mines so that he could indicate in which direction the ore veins ran in the individual mines. At the same time, he divided the whole field of the map by 24 straight lines numbered counter-clockwise, so that the above-mentioned directions could be discerned from the angle at which they ran to these straight sections. We can find three famously well-drawn and suggestive drawings of mines under this heading. They show how the mines and their shafts penetrate into the belly of the mountain and how the miners worked down there. The description following the map of the famous ore mine in Selmec in Northern Hungary 28 9 reveals that Marsigli was awed by the view of the, according to him, most famous mine in Europe. In the drawing he shows all the operations carried out as the veins of ore were followed deep into the mine in 1695. He was obviously enchanted by the way the ore and sterile layers were dug out, transported and lifted to the surface IMAGE No. 26 on page 69: The ruins of Roman watchtowers and earthworks near Dunaharaszti, Dunapentele and Dunaföldvár IMAGE No. 27 on page 70: The map of Selmecbánya's famous metal mine in Upper Hungary, where gold mixed with silver was mined IMAGE No. 28 on page 71: The operation at the Herrengrund's (Selmecbánya) copper mine 148
