Tabula Hungariae
Documentary heritage submitted by Hungary and Croatia and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2007.
© National Széchenyi Library
Tabulae Hungariae, Lazar 1528
This document is a map representing faithfully and in much detail the structure of settlements that could be found on the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom (corresponding to the territory of modern Hungary, Slovakia and including parts of modern Austria, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia). This representation has an even greater value due to the fact, that many settlements disappeared during the Turkish wars of the 16th century fought there.
It should be noted, that for several centurie, sresearch workers and interested persons had only an indirect knowledge of this document, up to the time, when it reappeared in the 1880’s, when the collector Sándor Apponyi acquired it. He later offered it (in 1924) to the National Library, which included it in the Library’s collection of rare and historical works.
As is clear from the title, the Tabula Hungariae was a collective work. The Hungarian Lazarus Secretarius made the surveys on which the map was based (with assistance from Jacob Ziegler, q.v.) and probably supplied a draft of the map; Apian's mentor Tanstetter (Collimitus), an accomplished cartographer, put it into proper shape and completed it by adding data of his own and a scale (the privilege is also in his name); and Cuspinianus published the map or authorized the funds for it and dedicated it to the king. He contributed, moreover, some place-names, mainly taken from classical sources. Cuspinianus had intended the map for his commentary on the Roman consuls in which he stated, "I have dedicated the descriptions of the Kingdom of Hungary and its map, [which] I have added, to King Ferdinand of Hungary, a map that is printed and is now being circulated and that, I may say without boasting, is an especially distinguished work."