Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)

Dr. János Kubassek: Mosaics from the natural heritage of the Carpathian Basin

SU> VC O was certainly influenced by what he saw and experienced, and this made him start to write down the oral tradition of the stories of the Hungarians. Anonymus was a pioneer in the sense he placed the historical events in geographical settings. His work became one of the most frequently cited history books through centuries. We should not forget the Italian diplomat, Pietro Ranzano, who is also known in his Latin name as Petrus Ransanus. The Italian ambassador from Naples lived in the court of the Hungarian King, Matthias. He wrote the history of Hungary on the basis of chronicles that he probably received from Hungarian authors. His manuscript, Epitome return Ungaricarum was published in print in 1558. The book draws the attention to many interesting geographical features, including several caves. It was György Dénes, who recently brought Georgius Wernherus's book, De admirandis Hungáriáé aquis hypomnemation back into the focus of interest of speleologists. This book was published in 1549, and it gave a short description of the Aggtelek Cave. y/yï átyás Bél (1684-1749) published his first work, Hungáriáé antiquae et K^yvV novae prodromus in Nuremberg in 1723. This book, The forerunner of the description of old and new Hungary, is of essential importance for the study of the natural heritage of Hungary. This is a very promising title and already suggests the plan of the preparation of a great encyclopaedia. Mátyás Bél wrote the following interesting ideas in 1723: "You can never spend too much money on science, particularly if you want to serve the glory and honour of the homeland. Small-minded is the man who without noble thinking reproaches the muses with expenses or makes profit of dealing with it, " Several examples demonstrate since the recording of the above thoughts that we suffered terrible losses when the race for profit or the momentary interests led to the negligence of our values. The lost values cannot support the building of the present and future. The next great work of Mátyás Bél is an important source even today. Notitia Hungáriáé novai historico geographica was published between 1735 and 1742 in A POLYHISTOR AND HIS FOLLOWERS