182. (Bél Mátyás) Bel, Matthias: Compendium Hungariae geographicum...

... ad exemplar Notitiae Hungariae novae historico-geographicae, ~, in partes IV... Editio quarta auctior & correctior.
Posonii et Pestini, 1792. Sumptibus Joan. Michaelis Landerer de Füskut. 1 pl. (engraved frontispiece)+(14)+318+(50)p.+5 coloured folding maps.
The celebrated geographical handbook of the extraordinarily prolific 18th-century polymath first appeared in 1753; the present copy actually represents the fifth edition. What makes our example a true cartographic rarity is that a former owner replaced the originally included Fritsch maps with five maps from one of the rarest Hungarian atlases.
The creator of these maps, János Tomka Szászky, Lutheran pastor and pupil of Mátyás Bél, lends additional significance to the volume. As rector of the Lutheran lyceum at Pozsony, Tomka Szászky compiled the first Hungarian historical atlas, the untitled collection commonly referred to as the “Parvus atlas Hungariae”, published in 1751. The atlas contained nineteen maps. Alongside the historical plates, it also included an administrative section consisting of six maps. Two of these depicted the entire Kingdom of Hungary: one showing the administrative divisions, the other the judicial districts. Lajos Szántai associates these maps with the 1753 edition of the Compendium, suggesting that they may originally have appeared there as well (though probably not simultaneously). Since binding both general maps into the volume may have seemed unnecessary, the owner apparently chose only the latter. The remaining four maps depict the individual judicial districts. As these maps are of exceptional rarity, their titles are given here:
1. Hungaria in Partes II et comitatus LII divisa
2. Circulus I. Cisdanubianus in Comitatus XIV divisus
3. Circulus II. Transdanubinaus in Comitatus XIII divisus
4. Circulus III. Cistibiscanus in Comitatus XI divisus
5. Circulus IV. Transtibiscanus in Comit. XIII Proc I distinctus
Only four complete copies of the atlas itself are known. Considering furthermore that the present maps are strong impressions and beautifully coloured, this lot represents a genuine treasure of Hungarian cartographic history.
Contemporary hardpaper.
Prov.: From the library of József Horváth.
Szántai: Szászky 4–8.
 
Starting price: 300 000 Ft