Revising, Rectifying and Regulating the Danube: Cartographic Reconstructions of the River and the History of Maps of South-Eastern Europe in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The representation of the Danube was always important for makers of maps representing Central and Southern Europe. This paper suggests that, instead of a steady progress, the improvement of cartography characterized by increasing accuracy was actually a slower and complex process. Cartographically, the depiction of the Danube Bend, a spot where the direction of the river takes a sharp turn, was highly important. From the mid-sixteenth century the region was occupied by the Ottoman Empire and could not be surveyed. After the more realistic representation on the Lazarus map (1528) the alternative images compiled by Lazius (1566) and Sambucus (1571), as well as by the Angelini family of military engineers distorted the spatial structure. Western European map makers in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries misrepresented the river’s course and distorted the spatial structure (e.g. Mercator, Blaeu, Coronelli). As exemplified by the map of the Habsburg military engineer Stier, field work only could not improve the entire structure. The river running across the former battlefield was first surveyed by Marsigli and his assistant, Müller. They calculated the coordinates of very few places from data collected by astronomical observation. Based on the new information alternative representations were published by Delisle (Paris, 1703) and Müller (Vienna, 1709). The revised and rectified river course in Marsigli’s Danubius (1726) eliminated earlier problems—but brought new local distortions. European cartographers in the eighteenth century reconciled different representations for their compilations. The situation changed after Lipszky’s map (Pest, 1806), which was based on a network of reference points, and the systematic hydrographic survey of the Danube (1823).