A new interactive gazetteer of Perczel’s globe

Abstract. As a result of the Perczel Project outlined by Mátyás Márton in 2007 at the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), the complete digital restoration and then reconstruction of the 127.5 cm diameter manuscript globe was completed in 2019. The final cartographic completion of the ongoing task at the department by 2013 – led by Mátyás Márton, the project manager, who carried out this work with the help of Judit Paksi –, which included the work of many lecturers and students, aimed at saving the globe.

Using this augmented digital processing, it was also possible to create three artistic copies of Perczel’s globe, which was originally made in 1862. This unique work of art, which has suffered irreparable damage due to the ordeals of the 20th century, is of great cultural value and also very important for our cartographic heritage, has been reborn.

Following the digital reconstruction, there was a good opportunity to revive another related project. The website, “The interactive gazetteer of Perczel’s globe”, which was born as a result of the work of Zsuzsanna Ungvári and Tibor Tokai earlier, was also created with a new, expanded content. The present study presents the antecedents of gazetteer creation and describes the most important steps of current processing.