GISta Hungarorum

Több, mint térkép: történeti térinformatikai rendszer

About us

GIS applications have already become regular in administration, business and economics during the process of planning and decision making, but its possibilities remained unexploited in many other disciplines (in history). Behind this project and website one can find historians, geographers, ethnographers dealing with the past of the Carpathian basin who want to contribute to the spreading of GIS-techniques among the researchers offering a new approach, which might help reconsider some still debated questions or help reinterpret old statements that seemed to have firm basis.

In order to do this purchasing GIS softwares is essential but not sufficient enough. Basemaps (shapefiles), databases have to be created and before doing this the database structure, the the question of projection systems, resolution and the lowest-level units has to be discussed and the temporal variation of unit names and administrative changes has to be handled, as well as the question of extendability and the attachment to already existing databases and basemaps has to be considered.

In order to answer these challenges some historians, ethnographers of the HAS RCH and the Pécs University, the geographers and IT experts of the University of Debrecen and the Eötvös University at Budapest joined their forces to overcome the obstacles with the financial support of the Hungarian Research Fund.

Our R&D project was named GISta Hungarorum referring both to the abbreviation of Geographic Information System and the first concise historical work on Hungary, the Gesta Hungarorum. The results will be shared with the researchers and everyday users free of charge. As our goals fit into the broader concept of geographers, it is not surprising that many of the participants are members of the HAS Committee of Historical Geographers and that our project is incorporated into the website of the committee.

The menu Partners also indicates that the realization of our project is supported by numerous institutions. We are open to cooperation. For contact see the menu.

GIStorical Studies

In order to make GIS applications for historians more popular, as well as to advertise the perspectives of historical geography the team launched a new peer-reviewed series named GIStorical Studies in which we invite researchers who use GIS to conduct historical geographical research (in a broad sense including landuse, urban history, social history, economic history, regional analysis, demography, migration, climate, cliometrics etc.) to publish their studies online and in print either based on the released database or on other data sources from Hungary and Central-Europe. We welcome interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, as well as methodological researches focusing on the region using GIS methods.

  1. DEMETER, Gábor – BAGDI, Róbert: Tracing the Transforming Urban Elite and Methods to Analyze Spatial Patterns, Social Composition and Wealth Based on Census Data (Northeast-Hungary, 1870). Download here.

  2. DEMETER, Gábor – PÉNZES, János – RADICS, Zsolt: The Effect of Geopolitics on Regional Development: Did Changing Borders Influence the Regional Development Level in Central Europe Between 1920–1940? Download here.

  3. DEMETER, Gábor – BOTTLIK, Zsolt – KARÁCSONYI, Dávid: Phantom borders in Eastern Europe. The historical roots of regional inequalities and their relationship with present–day peripheries and conflict zones 1897–2010 (2022) Download here.

  4. SZEPESINÉ SIMON, Éva – DEMETER, Gábor: The Impact of Ottoman Rule on the Population and Settlement Structure of Southern Transdanubia (1540s–1780s) based on hGIS investigations (2023) Download here.

  5. DEMETER, Gábor: The 18th Century Historical Statistical Atlas of SZEPES / SPIŠ COUNTY / Szepes vármegye 18. századi történeti statisztikai atlasza. (2023) Download here.

  6. DEMETER, Gábor: A munkácsi görögkatolikus püspökség 1806-os összeírásának történeti statisztikai atlasza / A Historical Statistical Atlas of the Greek Catholic Bishopric of Munkács based on the conscription of 1806 (2023) Download here.

  7. DEMETER, Gábor: „Számok és történelem” – a rurális Magyarország térképeken (1767–1867) / Stats on maps – rural Hungary, 1767–1867 (2023) Download here.

  8. DEMETER, Gábor: The 18th Century Historical Statistical Atlas of Pest County / Pest vármegye 18. századi történeti statisztikai atlasza (2024) Download here.

  9. DEMETER, Gábor – SZ. SIMON, Éva – F. ROMHÁNYI, Beatrix: Észak-Magyarország és Dél-Szlovákia társadalmi-gazdasági viszonyainak atlasza a török uralom kezdetén és a 15 éves háború után (Nógrád és Borsod megyék) / A Historical Statistical Atlas of N-Hungary and S-Slovakia in the beginning of the Ottoman penetration and after the 15-years war (Nógrád and Borsod counties) (1546-1640) Budapest – Prešov (2024) Download here.

Történeti Térinformatikai Tanulmányok

The periodical contains studies in Hungarian in the topics formerly mentioned.

Partners

  • • Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History
  • • Hungarian National Archives
  • • Debrecen University
  • • Eötvös University of Budapest
  • • Pécs University
  • • Arcanum Kft.
  • • University of Nyíregyháza
  • • Central Statistical Bureau, Library (http://konyvtar.ksh.hu)

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