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
On 23 July 1799, the Council of the Governor-general issued a decree ordering all counties to correct the respective sketch map and register. Reminders urging counties in delay were issued on altogether nine occasions (20 May 1800: 4 counties; 3 June: 7; 8 July: 6; then again on 5 August 1800: 19 counties; 14 October: 12; 19 May 1801: 10; 9 September: 7; 9 February 1802: 4 counties were called on repeatedly to make corrections.). Finally on 6 September 1802, Bihar county was ordered to perform the task within two weeks. It took until 1 October 1802 until the last county returned the corrected materials. County activities took three years and three months in a national average (although Bars county only needed less than one month) as well as constant reminders from the Council of the Governor-general until their completion. Naturally, due to the difference in counties’ size, smaller ones could return their materials more rapidly. Still, it was not the size of the county that determined the promptness of their reaction. The editor of the map and the Council of the Governor-general initially calculated with a six to eight months long correction period, and only started to remind counties once this period had passed. One of the elements of encouraging responses was referring the positive examples set by other counties, and mentioning that the map will increase the country’s prestige. Furthermore, losses of already invested funds in case corrections are not completed were invoked in the reminders. It may be seen from the rapidity of the responses that after one year, half of county authorities, and after two years, nearly ninety percent of counties had submitted the register and map. Taking these figures into account, it seems that one year or eighteen months should have been sufficient for completing the work on the condition that counties truly support the making of the map. Number of half- years passed Authorities that had sent back their materials during the half-year Total authorities having sent back the materials number % number % i 9 18 9 18 2 16 32 25 50 3 13 26 38 76 4 6 12 44 88 5 2 4 46 92 6 3 6 49 98 7 1 2 50 100 The task of correcting registers and possibly maps was not entirely alien to counties, which had been receiving a number of similar requests for the same purpose from ‘insider’ individuals (e.g. the settlement lexicon of János Mátyás Korabinszky and ANDRÁS VÁLYI, Demeter Görög’s county map series). It cannot 442
