Behind the first Habsburg map of Transylvania – comparative analysis of contemporary manuscript maps

Abstract

ABSTRACT Along with the historical changes, the Habsburg mapping of Transylvania started off at the end of the seventeenth century. Much more detailed maps were made, showing a few hundred settlements that had not been marked before. The best-known printed work of the time is Morando Visconti's map of Transylvania (1699). This study analyses for the first time three other contemporary manuscript maps: Mappa della Transilvania, ca. 1691–1699, Kriegsarchiv, B IX a 691; Continet mappas comitatuum, ca. 1685–1700, ELTE Egyetemi Könyvtár, Collectio Hevenesiana 91; Müller: Mappa Geographica Transylvaniae, ca. 1705–1711, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.icon. 180 tb. They bear no date, only one has an author, but they show a close correspondence to Morando Visconti's map. What is the relationship between the printed map and the manuscript maps, what were their sources, of what are they copies? What can we find out about the authors and the date of the manuscript maps? How did the Habsburg mapping of a new province begin?