Literature History and Cartography – Kazinczy’s Correspondence and Its Cartographical Demonstration
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Kis, R.; 2Czifra, M.; 3Gede, M.
1DEPT. OF CARTOGRAPHY AND GEOINF., EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY Email: rekuskis@gmail.com
2RES. GROUP OF CRITICAL EDITIONS, HUN. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Email: czfrmrnn@gmail.com
3DEPT. OF CARTOGRAPHY AND GEOINF., EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY Email: saman@map.elte.hu
Abstract
Hungary has commemorated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ferenc Kazinczy (1759–1831), a key figure in the literature of the Hungarian Enlightenment, in 2009. Thanks to the contribution of the Research Group of Classical Hungarian Literature Textology, which operates with the support of MTA and through a consortium partnership of the Universities of Debrecen, Szeged and that of ELTE, critical editions of the 18-19th century Hungarian literature have been published and the life work of Kazinczy is gradually re-issued in both electronic and printed form on the occasion of the jubilee. A major part of Kazinczy’s legacy is his correspondence dating predominantly from the period after his captivity (after 1801). More than 6,500 letters have been published in 25 volumes: 21 volumes between 1890 and 1911, two supplementary bands from the mid-20th century and further two supplementary bands from 2013. Nearly 800 partners were involved with Kazinczy’s correspondence. They were prominent cultural, political, literary and religious figures of Hungarian and, in a lesser part, of other European origin. Due to the large quantity, the letters cover the entire Kingdom of Hungary, often surpassing even the country’s borders. That’s why the topic is worth considering from not only a literary but also a cartographic viewpoint. The idea to demonstrate even the aerial extension has given itself. Thanks to various researches, a great deal of the correspondences of other European masters of the Enlightenment, often twice or thrice as large as the present one, has already been catalogued. In our country, such a work may prove to be one covering great debts of literature history and enabling cartography to contribute to a deeper understanding of the Hungarian literature studies about the life work and, more notably, about the correspondence of Kazinczy, with the latter one already researched with remarkable accuracy. In the autumn of 2013, we have targeted the cartographisation of the entire correspondence at request of the above named research group as part of an MSc thesis at the Dept. of Cartography and Geoinformatics of ELTE. The main objective of the cartographisation was to help the work of the researchers by placing the letters into the geographic space and to shade the public image of the writer, if necessary. The printed map provides a convincing illustration of how extended Kazinczy’s social network was. To deal with the subject, we have been provided with a database that catalogues the senders, the addressees, the places and the time of composition. It also contains further bits of information but these are the most important ones for the research. A total number of 6,521 letters was to be ordered. The database consists of 424 settlement names and of 800 partners, among whom there are approx. 450 senders and 460 addressees. Hence, the correspondence becomes cartographisable with the help of the settlement names that define the geographic reference of the letters. Since the indication of the places of composition has occurred by using the 18th century orthography, which was before the creation of a uniform Hungarian spelling system; it was necessary to unify them with the contemporary usage. This step was inevitable to place the letters in a global geographic space. As result, the set of data has been completed with the current Hungarian names of the settlements, with the countries to which the settlements belong today and with the present-day denominations. The poster presents the preparation, the procedures and the opportunities of demonstration and the bases for a possible web-cartographic procession. The demonstration has been prepared both with traditional cartographic means and with the help of Fusion Tables API, a programme of open Google-access. The latter one may be easily applicable even for less skilled users. After the precise completing and uploading of a data-table, it ensures simple handling and spectacular visualisation.
Keywords
correspondence; literature; cartography