Notitia hungáriae novae historico geographica (Budapest, 2012)

Veszprém vármegye

INTRODUCTION

I. Stemma of the manuscripts

A

I

b1

1

b2

i

c\

^[Com]

c

i

II. Creation process of the county description

The first manuscript of Veszprém county (A) that subsisted was finished cca. after 1731 by the hand of János Matolai, Bél’s chief co-worker - however, as Bél indicated in one of his letters, he had already worked on the description since 1724.1 There must have been a copy (b1) made from this rough and posteriorly completed manuscript, that Bél reviewed and completed - with his own biographical notes among other things - and also modified at some places (b2). Afterwards he got this copy recopied and the fair copy (c1) sent to the Locotenetial Council for revision in August 1735. The Council forwarded it to the county authorities. The general assembly of the county set up a committee for the revision of the manuscript. The members of the committee wrote a few remarks for the description. Bél partly took into consideration these remarks after receiving back the document (see c2). This must have happened some time in the second half of 1736. It was also in 1736 that the Chancellary warned Bél - upon the suggestion of the Locotenential Council - that he should leave out the remarks concerning the religion of the inhabitants of Geese. Bél obviously took offense of this warning (cf. c). Afterwards the matter of the county description got to a hold: there is no evidence that Bél sent the document to the Chancellary although it was in his intentions (see c). In 1772 Ferenc Szarka made a copy (D) from the manuscript revised by the county assembly and corrected by Bél (c2), however at some places he actualised Bél’s work as was his custom (cf. D). Veszprém county’s description needed to be copied obviously because of the water damage that occured to the manuscripts (see the preface of this volume). György Gyurikovits had a copy made from manuscript D in the first half of 19th century (E).

1 L. Bél 1993. nr. 624.