Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)

Dr. Péter Rózsa: Robert Townson (1762-1827): a pioneer scientific explorer of the Carpathian Basin

Hungary, mainly because of the turn of Townson's unfortunately short scientific career: by his emigration to Australia, he, so to speak, excluded himself from the scientific life of Europe. Moreover, circumstances in the tow decades following his travels in Hungary were not favourable for scientific travels; when the political situation became to be consolidated again after the Napoleonic wars, his scientific observations had partly lost their actuality and novelty. It must be also noted that the several branches of science, such as botany, mineralogy, speleology, the Tatra research, etc, began to develop in Hungary in the years following his tour. Therefore, fate of his book was influenced by his course of life as well as historical and scientific events. To analyse them, however, requires further studies. NOTES 1 Entry for Roben Townson (pi 1792-1799). Dictionary of National Biography. 19. p. 1060. 2 See Jörgensen, B.C. (1994). 3 Townson, R.: Travels in Hungary with a short account of Vienna in the year 1793- London, 1797. p. ix. 4 Brown, E.: Account of several travels in Hungária, Servia etc. London, 16735 On Townson's route-line see G. Győrffy K. (1991), Rózsa P. - Kaselyák Gy. (1999) and Papp G. (2002). A gazetteer of settlements visited and mentioned by Townson ivas published by Rózsa P. - Kaselyák Gy. (1999). On his tour to the Wieliczka salt mines see Székely K - Wójcik, Z. (1999). 6 See for example concerning works of Jeszenszky G. (1972), Antalffy Gy. (1975), G. Győrffy K. (1991), Kosárj> D. (1996), Nyilasi. (1999) and Balassa l. etat. (1999). 7 On Townson's observations on viticulture in Tokaj see Balassa I. et al. (1999). 8 Townson, R., ibid., pp. 270-271. 9 See Rózsa, P. et al. (2003) for more details. 10 Fichtel, J.: Mineralogische Bemerkungen von den Karpathen I-ll. Vienna, 1791. On Fichtel's "volcanic zeolite" see Papp, G. (1998). 11 Born, t.: Catalogue méthodique et raisonné de la collection des fossiles de Mlle. Eleonore de Raab. 2 vols. Wien, 1790. 12 Townson, R., ibid, pp. 276-277. 13 For more details on geochemical concerns of Townson's book see Szöőr Gy. et al. (1999)14 Esmark,]:. Kurze Beschreibungen einer mineralogischen Reise durch Ungarn, Siebenbürgen und das Banal Freiberg, 1798.