Renaissance Cartography in East-Central Europe, Ca
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61 • Renaissance Cartography in East-Central Europe, ca. 1450 –1650 Zsolt G. Török Geography alone cannot explain the meaning of the term sian state, Poland remained a power during the sixteenth “East-Central Europe,” which is best described as a his- century until its gradual decline after 1650 led to its com- torical region.1 Renaissance East-Central Europe is here plete disintegration by 1795. But the major polities vying defined as the continental area east of the Holy Roman for power in this area after 1526 were the Habsburgs, Rus- Empire covered by the Kingdoms of Poland, from 1387 sia, and the Ottoman Empire. unified with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the King- The shifting boundaries of political influence pro- dom of Hungary, including Croatia, as well as the terri- foundly affected cartographic activity in the region. Be- tories under their political or military influence.2 Despite cause of its character as a zone of conflict, whether active the great diversity within the region, this chapter assumes or potential, East-Central Europe did not develop the sta- a cultural unity and organizes the different modes of car- ble cartographic and publishing centers found in Central tography into one cultural cartographic region. and Western Europe. At the same time, changing politi- This outline of the history of cartography in East- cal fortunes and the quest for territorial sovereignty and Central Europe during the Renaissance does not represent defense generated significant maps for administration the kaleidoscope of changing political-territorial entities. and war. The region comprised a series of feudal Christian states by The surviving maps of East-Central Europe also reflect the eleventh century. Each ruling dynasty within the re- the turbulent history of the Renaissance period. After the gion sought to extend its power and thus ensure its revolutionary development of chorographical mapmak- longevity and independence. Louis the Great, the Angevin ing in the earliest decades of the sixteenth century, only king of Hungary, was elected king of Poland in 1370, but derivative country maps were compiled and printed. his empire did not unify all East-Central Europe. After his Most of the cartographic works in the region remained in death in 1382, his daughter Mary inherited the throne of manuscript and were only rarely printed. A striking fea- Hungary, while his other daughter, Jadwiga, married ture is the paucity of commercial cartography. Works Jagiello, the grand duke of Lithuania who established the could not be printed locally, mainly because the nobility Polish-Lithuanian union in 1386. The lillies of Anjou gave dominated the social structure. Consumer interest, how- way to the symbols of dynasties that would dominate the ever, led map publishers in Central and Western Europe sixteenth- and seventeenth-century struggle for power in to print maps of East-Central Europe, and those maps East-Central Europe, the Jagiellos and the Habsburgs. preserved traces of now-lost manuscript maps. For the se- In addition to internal conflict, the incursions of the Ot- toman Empire along the region’s southern border in the fif- teenth century posed significant problems. The Ottoman The author acknowledges his gratitude for the encouragement and in- threat was abated only by military campaigns. In 1456 tellectual support of David Woodward and the staff of the History of Cartography Project. He also thanks Jadwiga Bzinkowska (Biblioteka Belgrade was successfully defended by János Hunyadi, Jagiellon´ska, Cracow) and Katalin Plihál (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, whose son Matthias Corvinus was crowned king of Hun- Budapest) for research assistance. gary in 1458. Matthias stopped the Turkish advance and Abbreviations used in this chapter include: Honterus-emlékkönyv reinforced the southern borders, but in his imperial ambi- for Ágnes W. Salgó and Ágnes Stemler, eds. Honterus-emlékkönyv/ Honterus-Festschrift tion he fought against both the Habsburgs and the Jagiel- (Budapest: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Osiris Kiadó, 2001), and Lazarus for Lajos Stegena, ed., Lazarus Secretarius: los. He died in Vienna in 1490, and the struggle for power The First Hungarian Mapmaker and His Work, trans. János Boris et al. between those royal families continued until 1526, when (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1982). the long-feared invasion of Hungary by Süleyma¯n the 1. Andrew C. Janos, East Central Europe in the Modern World: The Magnificent shook the very foundations of the state sys- Politics of the Borderlands from Pre- to Postcommunism (Stanford: tem. The peak of Jagiellonian dominance in East-Central Stanford University Press, 2000). 2. Bohemia, as part of the Holy Roman Empire, is excluded, and Europe was 1490 –1526. Thereafter, despite a long series much of the German cartography in the region is treated in chapter 42 of wars against the Turks, Sweden, and the emerging Rus- in this volume. 1806 fig. 61.1. REFERENCE MAP OF EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE. Places mentioned in this chapter are shown. 1808 State Contexts of Renaissance Mapping ries of wars in the area, especially the Turkish wars, mil- 1613 Radziwill map was described and mathematically itary operations and fortification works resulted in maps, analyzed by Henryk Merczyng and Jan Jakubowski.12 plans, and sketches, many preserved outside the region. Around the same time, the eminent Hungarian geogra- Figure 61.1 provides a reference map. pher Pál Teleki published a facsimile atlas and study of the history of cartography of Japan.13 After extensive in- The Study of Early Maps in ternational research, Teleki initiated a study of the history East-Central Europe: of Hungarian cartography. In 1911, while serving as the Historiographic Overview general secretary of the Hungarian Geographical Society, he advocated the systematic collection and study of early The study of old maps as important historical sources in Hungarian maps.14 East-Central Europe was pioneered in the eighteenth cen- A large accumulation of material on the history of Pol- tury by the historian Matthias Bel, who systematically ish military cartography was published by Bolesiaw collected old maps for his great historico-geographical Olszewicz in his comprehensive work of 1919.15 These work on Hungary.3 References to old maps in other early historical outlines were the starting point of his future printed works were fleeting. A rare exception was Jan Po- studies, especially his chronological bibliographic reviews. tocki’s 1796 treatise on the history of the Black Sea in Although a lack of critical methodology allowed the in- which he described six medieval portolan charts.4 In an clusion of insignificant and unreliable pieces of informa- 1807–8 discussion, the poet and linguist Ferenc Kazinczy described Wolfgang Lazius’s 1556 map as the earliest 3. Matthias Bel, Notitia Hvngariae novae historico geographica, map of Hungary, but Ferdinánd Miller, director of the 4 vols. (Vienna: Pavlli Stravbii, 1735– 42). The first historical overview Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (National Museum) in Pest, on the mapping of Hungary was given by Karl Gottlieb von Windisch, 5 Geographie des Königreichs Ungarn (Pressburg: Löwe, 1780), 9–11. corrected this view by noting the 1528 map by Lazarus. 4. Jan Potocki, Mémoire sur un nouveau peryple du Pont Euxin In 1836, in an age of growing national awareness, a short (Vienne: M. A. Schmidt, 1796). and general overview of the history of Hungarian cartog- 5. Ferdinánd Miller, “Jegyzések Magyar Ország’ régi Mappáiról,” raphy beginning with the work of Lazarus was published Hazai Tudósítások 10 (1808): 79–80, and idem, “Folytatás Magyar in a popular journal.6 Ország’ régi mappáiról,” Hazai Tudósítások 11 (1808): 86 –87. Miller’s account was based on the catalog of the collection of Bernat Moll (to- Joachim Lelewel was an eminent scholar and pioneer day in Brno, Czech Republic). of the history of cartography in East-Central Europe, es- 6. D. Novák, “Magyarország’ térsége és földabroszai,” Hasznos Mu- pecially Lithuania and Poland. Although his research on latságok 21 (1836): 162–66, and 22 (1836): 170 –71. the history of Polish cartography was not systematic, in 7. Joachim Lelewel: Géographie du Moyen Âge, 5 vols. (1852–57; the 1830s and 1840s he published various works on me- Amsterdam: Meridian, 1966), and Edward Rastawiecki, Mappografia dawnej Polski (Warsaw: S. Orgelbranda, 1846). dieval geography and maps. Lelewel’s work was comple- 8. János Hunfalvy, A Magyar Birodalom természeti viszonyainak mented by that of Edward Rastawiecki, who published leírása, 3 vols. (Pest: Emich Gusztáv, 1863–65). the first outline of a general Polish map history in 1846.7 9. Flóris Rómer, “A legrégibb magyarországi térkép,” A Hon 45 In 1863 János Hunfalvy summarized the contemporary (1876): 2. The article describes the 1553 edition. knowledge on early maps and assessed their scientific 10. Sándor Márki, “A magyar térképírás múltja és jelene,” Földrajzi 8 Közlemények 24 (1896): 291–303. value. An edition of the Lazarus map of Hungary was dis- 11. V. Kordt, Materialy po istorii russkoy kartografii, 3 vols. (Kiev: covered and exhibited in 1876, and the Benedictine histo- Komissiya dlya razbora drevnikh aktov, 1899, 1906, 1910). rian and librarian Flóris Rómer mentioned that he had 12. Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer, “Marco Beneventano, Kopernik, been seeking the Lazarus map for fifteen years.9 The first Wapowski, a najstarsza karta geograficzna Polski,” Rozprawy Wy- i general study of the history of Hungarian cartography, by dzia u Matematyczno-Przyrodniczego Akademii Umieje¸tnos´ci, ser. A, 10 41 (1901): 134 –222; Henryk Merczyng, “Mappa Litwy z r. 1613 ks. the historian Sándor Márki, added no new information. Radziwilla Sierotki pod wzgeledem matematycnym,” Sprawozdania More systematic and extensive research on national car- Tow. Naukowego Warsawskiego, Dept. III (1913); and Jan Jakubowski, tographic histories began in the late nineteenth century. V. “W spravie mapi Litwy Tomasza Makowskiego, 1613,” Przeglad Geo- Kordt’s three-volume history of Russian cartography, pub- graficzny 1 (1918–19): 297–306.