Notitia hungáriae novae historico geographica (Budapest, 2012)
Zala vármegye
442 ZALA COUNTY the regular structure of a description, but they are not too rich. Bél used it very slightly, or it is possible that he did not use it at all.6 At some places somebody (probably János Matolai) wrote margin notes beside the text (if. 146v, 147v). 6: It was made between 1727-1733, since in the text Lajos Batthyány is named as vice-chancellor and lord lieutenant (comes supremus) of Zala county,7 who was second vice-chancellor between 1727-1733 and held the position of vicarious lord lieutenant of Zala from 1721 to 1733;8 Afterwards, in 1733 he became Chancellor. a 1:2: [Comitatus Szaladiensis] 3: (the manuscript cannot be found) 4: Description of Zala county. 5: The earliest data about the description of Zala county can be found in the letter written by Bél to the Locotenential Council on 9th July 1732. According to that, “four years ago”, in 1728 Bél gave the descriptions of Zala and Vas to Lajos Batthyány (being the vicarious lord lieutenant of Zala county in that time), but they were still in revision.9 It is very likely that it was this manuscript (hereby denoted as a) that was returned by the Chancellary to Bél on 28th May 1733 together with the description of Vas county, indicating in their letter that the work was carried out by “appointed censors”.10 Unfortunately we cannot know what comments the Chancellary or the county officials commissioned by Batthyány made (at least in Vas county’s case he was the one to intervene), because in the Chancellary’s letter of 1733 it is written that the observations regarding Zala county were marked into the manuscript,11 and it was, as we have mentioned, lost. 6: The base text (a1) was made around 1728 based on the above information, while the corrected version (a2) was prepared between 1728-1733. b 1:2: [Comitatus Saladiensis] 3: (Manuscript cannot be found) 4: Description of Zala county. 5: Bél, after he had received the description back from the Chancellary in 1733, certainly had it transcripted, then on 27th January 1736 he sent it along with six other descriptions to the Locotenential Council for revision.12 We indicated this copy with the letter b. As Bél had written in his letter, the descriptions of Zala and Csongrád needed particularly the revision and completion since they were in quite a rudimentary state. 6 One remark, that is found in both of the texts, can imply an eventual use, saying the county is “longer than it is wide”: „Longior est quam latior” 1. [0] f. 141., “Longior is est quam latior” 1. C p. 2. However this observation is rather general and the takeover is also doubtful since Bél did not use the manuscript anywhere else. 7 See [0] f. i45r. 8 About Batthyányi post as vicarious lord lieutenant of Zala, see Molnár 2000.247. 9 “Szaladiensem, cum priori [sc. cum Comitatu Castriferrei - noted by me, T. GJ Excellentissimo C. Ludovico Bottány [!] ante quadriennium traditus, adhuc in revisione haeret.” See Tóth 2006a App. IV. 75. See also the presentation of ms. b of Vas county, (p. 254-256.) 10 See Bél 1993. 486. See also in the present volume the introduction of Vas county’s description and the presentation of its manuscript b and [Cane], 11 “Respectu alterius vero Saladiensis, quaenam plerisque in Locis et Punctis, fuerint partim addita, partim exmissa, partim vero explanata, videre esset in ipso Authoris opere, ad partem sparsim exposita et expressa.” See Bél 1993. nr. 486. p. 283-284. 12 L. Bél 1993. nr. 574.
