Bendefy László: Mikoviny Sámuel megyei térképei, különös tekintettel az Akadémiai Könyvtár Kézirattárának Mikoviny-térképeire. 1. köt (A MTAK kiadványai 71. Budapest, 1976)

Angol kivonat

346 We have no intention to enumerate all the tasks undertaken, at various times, by MIKOVINY. Now we are emphasizing the creation of his county maps and the methods by which they have been produced, MIKOVINY started constructing his county maps on the request of Mathias BEL. But, he also gained an official support for his work from Emperor Charles VI Seven or eight maps had been prepared till the year 1735, when as a consequence of his activities connected to the foundation of the School of Mining Officers at Selmecbánya, his work on county maps had been interrupted; and in the year 1740, both Emperor Charles VI and Mathias BÉL died. It appeared for a time that the useful plan would be discontinued. However, the work of MIKOVINY had received a strong support from Paul II, count of BALASSA, Privy Councillor, Lord Lieutenant of the County Gömör. He presented MIKOVINY to the powerful counts and princes of the Vienna court who interceded with Empress Maria Theresia to renew her father's decree to support MIKOVINY and thus all obstacles were removed from the way of producing the county maps. During the years 1741-1742, the mapping work had been resumed. On the basis of an astronomical determination of positions, covering the area by a triangle grid network with side lengths of 15 to 20 kilometres, on a good "geometrical" (i.e., geodetical) foundation, the map3 of 40 to 42 various Hungarian counties had been prepared in the course of some eight or nine years. These maps are depicting the pattern of the Hungarian kingdom for the 1740's. Towns fortresses, castles, villages, agricultural land, rivers, lakes, marshes, roads and their technical accessories can be found in great detail on these maps. In addition to the small number of maps published in the books of Mathias BEL in the form of copper engravings, a high number of county maps in manuscripts had been prepared till the death of MIKOVINY in the year 1750. The methodological principles according to which the maps had been prepared were published as early as in 1732 in a study by MIKOVINY under the title "Epistola de Methodo Concinnandarum Mapparum ..,". In this work, the basic principles of modern cartographical construction are posed. On the basis of this study, MIKOVINY had been shortly elected to the Pmssian Royal Academy. In this study MIKOVINY stated that maps should be based on astronomical determination of location connected to a triangulation network. Concerning the determination of the t rue North direction he emphasized that magnetic declination should be taken into account. Further on he expressed his opinion that topography should be founded on a foolproof hydrography. There were many reasons for undertaking the detection of the missing county maps of MIKOVINY. These efforts yielded surprising results. While, at the time before sifting the manuscript maps in the possession of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences only about 30 of the county maps of MIKOVINY were of common knowledge, now a total number of 140 county maps of his are known as a result of my search extending to all libraries and archives of this