Budapest Régiségei 38. (2004) – Tanulmányok dr. Gerő Győző tiszteletére
Végh András: Matrakcsi Nászuh Buda ábrázolása 207-215
MATRAKCSI NÁSZUH BUDA ÁBRÁZOLÁSA A DEPICTION OF BUDA BY MATRAKCSI NASZUH If a reader interested in historical studies or a historian would like to see the view of Buda in Turkish times he is fortunate to have a wide choice of depictions - the catalogues merely listing the pictures make up large volumes. However, the large amount should not mislead professionals or non professionals wishing to evoke the past, there are only a few pieces in the collection of pictures that would represent an authentic view. The number of the ones depicting the city in the period before the devastation of the sieges and the building construction of the Turks at the beginning of the transformation of the mediaeval royal seat coming to end, is especially limited. The catalogue showing former views of Budapest knows four such depictions: The Woodcut in the World-chronicle by Schedel (published in 1493),the woodcut by Erhard Schön depicting the siege of 1541, a detail of the woodcut by Virgil Solis from 1542 and finally, the cut by Enea Vico also from 1542. Three German - all from Nürnberg - and an Italian print. And the Turks? Did not they have an authentic depiction of the occupied royal seat of the Hungarian Kingdom? The present study deals with a depiction of the city of an illuminated manuscript describing the warfare of sultan Suleyman II in 1543 by the Turkish historian Matrekcsi Nászuh (Matrakci Nasuh). Géza Fehér reviewing the miniature in Hungary says that the picture represents Esztergom and Párkány and his views became widely accepted throughout historical writing in Hungary. It was the person feted in our volume, Győző Gerő, who formed a contrary opinion, claiming the depictions to be Buda and Pest. The author of this paper agreeing with Gerő' s statement attempts to prove in details that the Turkish miniature bearing accurate topographical information concerning both the general features of topography and the correspondence of delicate details of the main buildings present the picture of Buda and Pest in the end of the Middle Ages. Thus, there is a fifth picture to be added to the four mentioned above, being very different from them showing the seat of the defeated Hungarian Kings, through the eyes of the conquerors. 213
