Matthias Bel: Notitia Hungariae novae historico geographica ... Comitatuum ineditorum tomus quintus, in quo continentur... Comitatus Sarosiensis, Zempliniensis, Ungváriensis et Bereghiensis. Ed. Gregorius Stephanus Tóth, Bernadett Benei, Zoltanus Gőzsy, Rudolphus Jarmalov. Bp. 2018. (FULL VERSION) (original) (raw)
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In our 10-volume series, we have undertaken to publish, in a critical edition, with detailed prefaces and content summaries, the county descriptions of Mátyás Bél's (1684–1749) Notitia, which have been preserved in the form of manuscripts. The present volume, the fourth in the series, contains the descriptions of Fejér, Tolna, Somogy and Baranya counties, thus completing the descriptions of the Transdanubian counties. We would like to express our hope that, like the earlier volumes in the series, this volume will also promote local historical research and provide a useful contribution to the work of historians, archaeologists, art historians and other researchers.
In Volume 6 of our textual edition series we present four new portions of Matthias Bel’s large-scale encyclopedia of Hungary. The descriptions of Abaúj, Gömör, Torna and Borsod counties were hitherto available in manuscript form only; none of them had ever been published in print with the original Latin text. In terms of the translations, the descriptions of Gömör and Torna counties had earlier been published in Hungarian, while only small sections of the description of Borsod County had been translated, and nothing of Abaúj County. We therefore have every confidence that the current volume will be received with interest by researchers, as well as by the wider professional public: archaeologists, art historians, curators and local historians.
During the Late Liburnian period (4th-1st cent. BC), and then under the Principate, three native hill-fort settlements in the fertile Kotari area of the North Dalmatia – Nedinum, Asseria and Varvaria – grew up to become flourishing cities with municipal constitution. Their growth was obviously sustained by relative abundance of arable and grazing land, but this fact can hardly be taken as an explanation of their exceptional development. Discussing the case of Asseria, the author argues that it is necessary to take into account two aspects of city’s economy. (1) The central position of the city in the regional road network, favored the development of commerce (regional as well as with the interior beyond the mountain ridges of Velebit and Dinara). (2) It is very probable that the city was the main urban centre for a large karstic hinterland, encompassing the Bukovica plateau, Zrmanja River and southernmost part of the Velebit Mountain. The archaeological evidence for extensive sheep rearing supporting the production of traditional Liburnian rough wool cloth is discussed, insisting on the importance of seasonal exploitation of high mountain pastures. The author briefly reconsiders the question of the identification of river Telavium, mentioned by Pliny as the border between Liburnia and Iapudia: there is no good evidence to suppose that Telavium could be Zrmanja River and, consequently, that the Liburnian communities in North Dalmatia had not access to the Velebit Monutain and its woods and summer pastures.