Reisz T. Csaba: Magyarország általános térképének elkészítése a 19. század első évtizedében - Lipszky János és segítői térképészeti vállalkozásának ismertetése (Budapest, 2002)

IDEGEN NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÓK - The Making of Hungary’s First General Map in the first Decade of the 19th Century. The Cartographic Enterprise of János Lipszky

János Lipszky’s military career

János Lipszky’s life may be best founded on his autobiography dated December 1825. György Gyurkovits then László Janovszky had used the memoirs extensively. Gyula Ethey also relied on parts of the material. The most important data were first published in German then Hungarian. Juraj Fojtik translated the autobiography to Slovakian, and then in 1994 (based on a manuscript copy) the Fons journal contained the full text of the German-language memoirs.

The detailed description of Lipszky’s military career could be construed following the analysis of documents in the Viennese military archives. To date, these data may be considered as the most comprehensive and may be found in the present chapter.

János Lipszky was born on 10 April 1766 in Szedlicsna in Trencsén County (today part of Trencianske Stankovce). Having completed his secondary schooling, he chose the military. From the end of 1783 he was with the Graeven-hussars as the regiment proprietor’s cadet, but in practice he was active from 1783 in the cartographic works of colonel ANDREAS VON NEU. Between 1786—1787, Lipszky was involved in the cadastral surveys, and then performed active military service in 1787-1789 in the battles in the south against the Turks. He was stationed with troops in Buda in 1790, then in Galicia in 1790—1793.

From the end of 1793, Lipszky was transferred to the German-French frontier with imperial-royal troops fighting against the French Revolution. From May 1794 Lipszky became the aide-de-camp of Siegbert Vécsey until Vécsey’s death. From 1795 he was staying in Pest with the regiment proprietor.

In the course of 1798—1805 and 1806—1808 Lipszky completed his main work, the general map of Hungary, with a supplementary index and summary map. In addition, he also completed a truly detailed map (1:7200 scale) of the free royal towns of Buda and Pest.

As a result of his participation in wars against Napoleon in 1805—1806, he had to suspend his cartographic activities, which by that time focused on the publication of map pages. With the end of the war, he returned and completed the publication of his works.

In 1809 during the subsequent war against Napoleon, Lipszky performed services in the chiefs of staff as lieutenant colonel alongside JOSEPH paladne, where his excellent organizational abilities gained him recognition. As a result of his excellent performance he was even recommended for the Marie Therese order (he did not get it). Lipszky served in various Hungarian (primarily Transylvanian) towns until his retirement in January 1813.

After his retirement, he attempted to cure his weakening health in a variety of baths, and then returned to this family estate, which as a consequence of mismanagement was in shambles or in other persons’ possession, burdened with mort437