The Tabula Hungariae, or Lazarus map, is the first printed map of Hungary. A copy of it, published in 1528, known to be the only copy in existence, is kept in the National Széchényi Library. In 2007, the map was placed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
The country map of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary could only be made after long preparation. The Tabula Hungariae shows the natural resources and economy of Hungary in the early 16th century. The map gives us an accurate impression of the abundance before the Ottoman Wars, which Bálint Hagymási expressed with the sole sentence ‘There is no richer land than yours’
The story of the only remaining Tabula Hungariae is a story of international collaboration. The manuscript, the prepress work, the press work and the story of the later editions all hold interesting questions.
One of the many goals of the Tabula Hungariae was to show the threat the Ottoman Empire posed to Europe. Part of the map shows the Battle of Mohács (1526), which later proved catastrophic to Hungary. ‘Here sees the pious Christian how the Sultan of the Empire, by the will of God, conquered […] Hungary in an extremely short time’