Notitia hungáriae novae historico geographica (Budapest, 2011)

BEVEZETÉS - A szöveg tipográfiája - Irodalomjegyzék és mutatók

INTRODUCTION'

Mátyás Bél’s (1684-1749) Notitia Hungáriáé novae historico-geographica,1 2 the great geographical description of Hungary, is a well known and renowned resource for the historical science and other scientific disciplinaries such as folkloric science, art history or even archeology and their Hungarian and regional representatives.3 Its main value is the rich and various presentation of Hungary by counties in the beginning of the 18th century. He wrote about each county’s natural geography, nationalities and their folkloric costumes as well as towns’, castles’, palaces’, villages’ contemporary state and data. Bél received his information from acquaintances living in the given region or from trained collaborators who gathered data travelling all around the country and using Bel’s questionnaires.4 He thus created the county descriptions that are characteristic for their exquisite style, the author’s overall knowledge and scientific curiosity, and besides strong historical and critical sense. The gigantic work of several thousand pages is still one of its kind that requires our admiration.

The Notitias complete edition could not be achieved during Bel’s lifetime. Only eleven county descriptions were issued in print: Szepes county’s description as a specimen was published in Bél’s plan for the Notitia, the Prodromus in 1723,5 the other ten county descriptions - namely Pozsony, Turóc, Zólyom, Liptó, Pest-Pilis-Solt, Nógrád, Bars, Nyitra, Hont, Moson - were published in five volumes

1 Significantly modified and completed version of our plan for edition already published as study. Ct. Tóth 2008.

2 Bel, Matthias: Notitia Hungáriáé novae historico geographica, divisa in partes quatuor, quarum prima, Hungáriám Cis-Danubianam; altera, Trans-Danubianam, tertia, Cis-Tibiscanam, quarta, Trans-Tibiscanam: universibus XLVIII. Comitatibus designatam, expromit. Regionis Situs, Terminos, Montes, Campos, Fluvios, Lacus, Thermas, Caeli, Solique ingenium, Naturae munera &c prodigia; Incolas variarum Gentium, atque harum mores; Provinciarum Magistratus; Illustres Familias; Urbes, Arces, Oppida, & Vicos propemodum omnes; Singulorum praeterea, Ortus & Incrementa, Belli Pacisque Conversiones, & Praesentem Habitum; Fide optima, Adcuratione summa, explicat. Opus,

hucusque desideratum, Sc in commune utile... elaboravit-----. Accedunt Samuelis Mikovinii Mappae, singulorum

Comitatuum, Methodo Astronomico-Geometrica concinnatae. Viennae Austriae, I-IV. 1735-1742. On the volumes’ page preceding the title page: Matthiae Belii Notitia Hungáriáé novae geographico historica (!). Partis primae, Cis- Danubianae, Tomus primus (secundus etc.). The fifth volume containing Moson county alone was published, in our opinion, after Bél’s death (probably in 1749) and it only has a preceding page title: Matthiae Belii Notitia Hungáriáé novae geographico historica (!). Pars secunda Trans-Danubiana. Tomus quintus. [S. 1., s. a.] (Tie quoting of the five volumes henceforth: Bél 1735-1749?)

3 Mátyás Bel’s oeuvre’s first and till now fundamental study: Haan 1879. Imre Wellmann’s articles about Bél are also important, especially regarding the relationship between Bél and the authorities and the creation of the Notitia (Wellmann 1979., Wellmann 1984.). Further important Hungarian comprehensive studies: Tarnai 1984.; Zom- BORi 1984.; Szelestei 1989. 62-76. The Slovak research has also achieved significant results, mainly in the 1980’s. Blazej Bélák has prepared a bibliography about Bed’s printed works and the reference literature about him until 1984 (Bélák 1984.). Ján Tibensky wrote an extensive monography about Bél and his oeuvre, nevertheless it is a little insufficient in the matter of Notitia since it concentrates only on actual Slovak regions (Tibensky 1984.). A collection of remarkable studies respecting mainly Slovak-oriented approach: Matula 1987. Recently certain parts of the printed county descriptions of Notitia were published in the original Latin and in Slovakian translation, alongside with studies attached to each text. See Skoviera-Juríkova 2010.

4 See about the data gathering and the collaboration with the local habitants and authorities as presented by the example of Nagyszombat (Trnava) in Juríková 2009.

5 Bél 1723. 69—124.