Notitia hungáriae novae historico geographica (Budapest, 2012)
Zala vármegye
INTRODUCTION 445 D 1: Manuscript Collection of OSZK, Fol. Lat. 3634. 2: Mathiae Belii Notitia Comitatus Szaladiensis per Georgium Gyurikovits ex exemplari Biblioth. Primatial. T. I. hhh. descripta. 3: 36 ff. 390x245 mm. 4: Description of Zala county. 5: As it is evident fromt he title the manuscript was copied by György Gyurikovits from the previous manuscript (C; see the catalogue note in the title). 6: First half of 19th century. IV. Brief review of the county description and the principles of the text edition Zala county’s description is quite deficient, it remained in a rudimentary state. It doesn’t show much wanting in its general part, however the lack of an appropriate data provider is evident. In the physical-geographical segment (C pp. 1-16.) the author achieves the standard by following the usual syllabus eventhough not providing real curiosity. Only chapter eight (C pp. 13-14.) stands out in which Bél deals with the viticulture of Zala and the quality of its wine (this subject is usually a strength of the geographical section, and not by chance). In the political segment (ibid. pp. 14-25.) when reviewing the inhabitants, Hungarians are described by nothing but stereotypes, only the part on the Croatians contains some interesting features, e.g. Bél remarks that the Croatians send their children to study more often than the Hungarians do and that almost every one of them speak Hungarian. He notices that Hungarians call them bohmh and he also gives an explanation to this name (p. 22.). Chapter six is also worth mentioning in which the author enumarates the domains of the county (pp. 24-25.). The special part is unconventional already in its division since in the first segment (Membrum I.) the author presents the fortresses and castles, eventually the market towns as well - except for the Muraköz -, without categorising them by districts. This implies firstly that he was not aware of the precise boundaries of the districts, secondly that he did not know anything about the villages thus deciding to deal with them at the end of the description hoping to get additional information later. As mentioned above, it’s due to the lack of a suitable data provider. The 17 descriptions of castles, fortresses and market towns (pp. 26-79.) is quite penurious. In the presentation of Kanizsa (see pp. 28-61.) Bél is naturally exquisite in describing the military history of the castle in 16—17th century based on the standard historians (Istvánffy, Wagner) and others, however he remains in debt of writing a presentation of the contemporary state of the castle and the market town. When presenting the other towns, he can only provide short chapters. The section dealing with the castles concludes with the above mentioned demand for the revisors to supply the missing castles and towns (see C). The second segment (pp. 91-143.), in which Bél describes the Muraköz district, begins with much more promise. In its introduction the author writes many pieces of interesting information about the district’s inhabitants, such as their clothing, housing etc. This is followed by the description of Muraköz’s cities. In the review of Csáktornya (pp. 93-121.), that begins the line, the historical past dominates just as in the case of Kanizsa (the conspiracy by Péter Zrínyi, the memory of the two Miklós Zrínyi - one the hero of Szigetvár, the other the poet-general), besides Bél incorporates successfully Jacobus Tollius’s (1626-1696) report on the castle and its internal design, he writes about the contemporary state of the castle and the town and relates about the belongig domain. The following description of Uj-Zrínyivár, alias Zrínyiújvár (pp. 122-133.), is again merely history. The segment concludes with the enumeration of “further market towns” (p. 134.). And thus ends the description. Bél - and the scribe imitating him - only notes the titles of each district, completing it with a modest introduction at times, and leaving many empty pages after each for the eventual supplements
