Digital analyses concerning Honter’s map

Abstract

Johannes Honter (Honterus) made the first map of Transylvania in 1532 (Chorographia Transylvaniae Sybembürgen). The preceding researchers supposed that his base map was the map of Hungary made by Lázár (Lazarus) in 1528, but this statement was not checked, evidenced or documented yet. A recent work proposed a probable projection for Lázár’s map: one of Ptolemy’s projection (Equidistant Conic Projection with two standard parallels). In this study the author publishes the results of his research using mostly the MapAnalyst software. The result of the quantity methods is that the north direction, the accuracy of the projection network is the same at both of maps. As a conclusion the author supposes that Honter used the Lázár’s map (or a similar map) as base structure. The author identified the majority of the settlements. He confirms that the main purpose of Honter was mapping the Saxon districts: here the density of the settlements is remarkably higher than in other parts of Transylvania. Finally the author mentions that the German name in the title (Sybembürgen) referred previously to a smaller territory than nowadays (it meant only the Saxon districts).