Description

This excellent work is one of the most important 19th Century regional maps of the Balkans, being the first printing of the first broadly accurate map of Montenegro, predicated upon the pioneering scientific surveys of Colonel Count Fedor von Karacsay, a Hungarian artist and cartographer, who was the Austrian military commander of Cattaro (Kotor). Karacsay conduced his surveys in 1836 upon the invitation of the Montenegrin ruler, Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, with whom had formed a personal friendship.

The map embraces the larger region extending from Ragusa (Dubrovnik), in the north-west, down to Scutari (Shkoder), in Ottoman Albania in the south-east. The map is centred upon the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro, which was then an autonomous part of the Ottoman Empire, but was for all practical purposes an independent state. While most of the map is printed in French (then the premier Pan-European intellectual language), the title is written in Serbo-Montenegrin, Ottoman Turkish and French, while the names of certain regions are likewise given in Ottoman Turkish.

Montenegro, outlined in green, then occupied a smaller territory than today’s state, only comprising the interior heartland, with its capital at ‘Zettine’ (Cetinje). The adjacent coastal areas, outlined in pink, are shown to be part of Austrian-controlled Dalmatia, while the regions bordering Montenegro in the interior, Hercegovina, Bosnia and Albania are lands under direct Ottoman administration. The topography is shown in great detail, based upon Karacsay’s itinerary surveys, which while not as accurate as systematic trigonometric surveys, were adequate to give a broadly accurate projection, being a dramatic improvement over all previous mapping endeavours. While the coastal areas had been scientifically surveyed by the British Royal Navy earlier in the century, prior to Karacsay’s mapping, Montenegro’s wild and rigged interior had never been charted to any serious degree of planimetric accuracy.

Montenegro is shown divided into its various districts, while the country’s numerous mountain ranges are expressed through fine hachures. Throughout the map, all cities, towns and villages of various sizes are labelled, as are all significant roads. The table of signs, in the lower-right, identifies the symbols used to denote the locations of forts, convents and country churches. Overall, the map provides a wealth of valuable information, correctly placing the locations of dozens of historically important sites on a map for the first time.

Curiously, the present example of the map features some key military posts contemporarily underlined in blue and certain towns marked with a red dot, indicating that it may have seen practical use in the field.

The map is adorned with the ‘Tablaeu statistique du Pays de Montenegro dans l’année 1838’, a statistical chart noting the number of families and persons resident in each of Montenegro’s eight districts.

The present first issue of the map was lithographed by the Milanese master Pietro Allodi and printed in Vienna. While undated, it is thought to had been published late in 1838. A second edition of the map, with little revision, was issued in Vienna by Artaria & Co. in 1854.

A Note on Rarity

We can trace 6 examples of the first (1838) edition in institutions, at the U.K. National Archives; Biblioteca Teresiana (Mantova); Charles University (Prague); Muzeum Brněnska (Brno); Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We locate only two examples of the second (1854) edition, at the Moravská zemská knihovna v Brně (Brno) and Württembergische Landesbibliothek.

 

Historical Context: The Rise of an Independent Montenegro

The interior of today’s Montenegro, a Slavic, Orthodox Christian land, became an Ottoman vassal in late 15th Century, while much of the adjacent coastal areas were controlled by the Republic of Venice. The interior regions were eventually organized into the Ottoman Vilayet of Montenegro.

From 1696, much of Montenegro was ruled by the Prince-Bishops of Cetinje (vladika), of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty, under the aegis of the Ottomans. From 1711, Montenegro gained its autonomy from the Sublime Porte and was a virtually independent state, save for the fact that it still had to pay annual tribute money to Constantinople.
In the years following the Napoleonic Wars, the Montenegrin vladika, Petar I Petrović-Njegoš (reigned 1784 – 1830), embarked upon a more assertive national policy. He openly challenged the Ottoman Empire’s suzerainty over the region and sought to expand Montenegro’s borders. This not only placed him at odds with the Sublime Porte (which still directly ruled bordering regions such as Bosnia & Hercegovina, Albania and Macedonia), but also the Austrian Habsburg Empire, which ruled the Montenegrin Coast, including the great port city of Cattaro (Kotor). Petar I also revived the historical concept of the Serbian Empire (Montenegrins have close cultural connections to Serbs), seeking Russian support.

Petar I’s successor, Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1813-51, reigned 1830-51), popularly known simply as ‘Njegoš’, was a dashing young ruler and a highly accomplished writer and poet. He strengthened Montenegro’s ties with Serbia and Russia, ensuring that Pan-Slavism became a major threat to both Ottoman and Austrian rule in the Southwestern Balkans. Njegoš was a reformer who implemented Montenegro’s first national tax system in 1833 and commenced the process of opening the country up to the modern world. His decision to allow Fedor von Karacsay to conduct the first survey of Montenegro was a testament to his interest in science and progress. Njegoš has a legacy that lasts to this day, as he was the author of The Mountain Wreath [Serbian: Gorski vijenac] (Vienna, 1847), one of the great classics of Montenegrin-Serbian literature.
Njegoš’s successors, Danilo I and Nikola I, continued Montenegro’s drive for complete independence, which was finally achieved in 1878.

 

Count Fedor von Karacsay: Hungarian Adventurer, Artist and Cartographer

Fedor von Karacsay (1787 – 1859) was a fascinating figure who combined his military duties with cultural, artistic and scientific inquiry in several countries across the Europe, the Near and Middle East, as well as Central Asia. Karacsay hailed from a Hungarian noble family, and while little is known of his early life, he is recorded as having graduated from the Theresianum, the prestigious Austrian military academy in Wiener Neustadt. By 1805, he was a cadet in the Austrian Army and worked his way up the ranks to serve as a lieutenant at the Battle of Dresden (1813). He subsequently served in Mantova as the chamberlain of Archduke Miksa József of Hapsburg-Este. During his early career, Karacsay gained formal training in military engineering and advanced surveying methods.

Karacsay distinguished himself for his great competence and energy, and by the 1830s he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and given the highly important post of garrison commander of Cattaro (Kotor). Kotor was a flashpoint in the southwestern Balkans, as it was an Austrian-ruled port city with a restless majority-Slavic population. It was openly coveted by Montenegro, whose borders lay just a few kilometres inland. While never breaking out into open warfare, the relationship between Montenegro and Austria was tense at best.

However, Karacsay was not your normal Austrian garrison commander. He had a kind and humorous manner that appealed to the local people, including ethnic Montenegrins, and he ensured that Hapsburg rule over Kotor was gentler and more culturally sensitive that it had traditionally been. He was an accomplished artist and travelled around the countryside making beautiful watercolour views, many of which are today preserved in museums.

Amazingly, despite the rocky relationship between Austria and Montenegro, in 1836 Karacsay was invited to visit Petar II Petrović-Njegoš at his court in Cetinje. The two men became fast friends and formed a relationship that transcended national rivalries. Petar II allowed Karacsay to conduct the first scientific survey of the Montenegrin interior, resulting in the present map.

Following his time in Kotor, Karascsay was posted in a variety of different locations, leading him to publish well-regarded travel books on Sicily (including a fine map), Rome, Naples, London, as well as Moldavia, Bukovina, Wallachia and Bessarabia.

In 1849, during the last days of the1848-9 Revolutions, Karacsay was sent to Belgrade at the head of a high-level diplomatic mission to secure the Hapsburg Empire’s southern borders. He subsequently travelled to Constantinople as a special envoy to Sultan Abdülmecid I.

During the early 1850s, Karacsay was based in Brno, and later in Budapest, where he conducted research into Hungarian history in coordination with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Karacsay became fascinated with Pan-Turanism, the notion that Hungarians share ancestry with the Turkic peoples, as well as other Asiatic ethnic groups. He travelled to Herat, Balkh, Bokhara, and Samarkand, seeking to find ancient links between Hungarian and local cultures. Holding the rank of General, Karacsay died in Tehran in 1859.

References: OCLC: 1158590174; Annales des voyages, de la géographie, vol. 3 (Paris, 1844), pp. 109 – 112; Bulletin de la Société de géographie, 2nd series, vol. XIX (1843), p. 490; Jahrbücher der Literatur, vol. 100 (Vienna, 1842), p. 32.