Geography

The first volume of the six-volume Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus is divided into three parts, with the first part devoted to the geography of the Danube and the second and third parts dedicated to astronomical observations and hydrography respectively. The geography section begins with a schematic map of the Danube from its source in the Black Forest, shown at the top of the map, to the Black Sea, shown at the bottom, with its tributaries depicted where they join the river. This is followed by a large small-scale fold-out general map, ‘Mappa Generalis’, illustrating the course of the Danube from the Kahlenberg Mountain, west of Vienna, in Austria to the confluence of the Yantra river, west of Ruse in Bulgaria on the opposite bank to Giurgiu in present day Romania.[1]

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus: Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historicis, Physicis (The Hague & Amsterdam, 1726), i, Plate 2. Mappa Generalis.

The Danube is divided into eighteen numbered sections by straight lines on the general map with each section then being illustrated sequentially by a large-scale double-page sectional map. The richly detailed sectional maps depict topographical features along the course of the Danube such as the mountains, forests, wetlands, lakes, river channels, and islands. Walled cities and fortresses are depicted as fortified citadels while other settlements are denoted by symbols of houses and towers proportionate to their size. Place names are recorded and are accompanied, where applicable, by their variations in different languages. Ancient Roman fortifications, earthen works and roads along with the border markers recently constructed across the Syrmia region during the demarcation of the Habsburg-Ottoman border are also shown.[2]

The sectional maps are not all as reliable and highly detailed as each other. The sections representing territories that Marsili had gathered the most material on or he had himself surveyed and was very familiar with due to their military importance are more accurate than Ottoman held territories. Marsili was relying on sketches he made travelling during diplomatic missions as the only source of information on these latter sectional maps.[3] The final versions of the general map and eighteen sectional maps were drawn by Johann Christoph Müller (1673-1721) in Nuremberg from 1702 to 1703.[4] The image below is of the first sectional map showing the stretch of the Danube between the Kahlenberg Mountain and just east of the settlement of Petronell-Carnuntum in Austria.

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus: Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historicis, Physicis (The Hague & Amsterdam, 1726), i, Plate 3. Sectio I map.

Marsili gives a history of the Hungarians following the sectional maps and describes the structure of the administration and public offices of the Kingdom of Hungary including its constituent countries and provinces. The territories that were part of the kingdom at the time extended far beyond the present day borders of Hungary and included much of present day Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. He then discusses the etymologies of the different names ascribed to the Danube and lists the numerous settlements dotted along its course in addition to the various peoples and ethnic groups that inhabited them.[5]

TEXT: Mr Antoine Mac Gaoithín, Library Assistant at the Edward Worth Library.

SOURCES

Deák, Antal András (ed.), A Duna Fölfedezése. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Tomus I, A Duna Magyarországi és Szerbiai Szakasza = The Discovery of the Danube. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Volume I, The Hungarian and Serbian Section of the Danube (Budapest, 2004).

Deák, Antal András, Maps from under the shadow of the crescent moon = Térképek a félhold árnyékából = Carte geografiche dall’ombra della mezzaluna = Landkarten aus dem Schatten des Halbmondes (Esztergom, Hungary, 2006).

Deák, Antal András, ‘Marsigli, Luigi Ferdinando’, in Matthew H. Edney & Mary Sponberg Pedley (eds), The History of Cartography. Volume 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment (Chicago & London, 2019), pp 920-922.

Deák, Antal András, ‘Müller, Johann Christoph’, in Matthew H. Edney & Mary Sponberg Pedley (eds), The History of Cartography. Volume 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment (Chicago & London, 2019), pp 1019-1020.

Stoye, John, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730 : the life and times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, soldier and virtuoso (New Haven & London, 1994).

[1] Deák, Antal András (ed.), A Duna Fölfedezése. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Tomus I, A Duna Magyarországi és Szerbiai Szakasza = The Discovery of the Danube. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Volume I, The Hungarian and Serbian Section of the Danube (Budapest, 2004), p. 138; Stoye, John, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730 : the life and times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, soldier and virtuoso (New Haven & London, 1994), pp 128 & 151-154.

[2] Deák, The Discovery of the Danube, p. 140.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., p. 120.

[5] Ibid., pp 140-141.