Historical place name gazetteers of Transylvania

Abstract

Over the past few decades, Transylvania has been the subject of numerous historical gazetteers. The most detailed of these present a wide range of historical data on the settlements of the area in chronological order. This data includes historical names, legal status, administrative affiliation, and the dates of the sources from which each piece of information is derived. Thus, the historical gazetteers themselves become highly valuable resources for researching the history of the settlement network in Transylvania. This study aims to provide an overview of the most comprehensive historical gazetteers of Transylvania, reflecting on their significance and highlighting their limitations. To this
end, this paper presents a novel solution: a web-based geographic information system through which the data of several historical gazetteers can be accessed. This significantly reshapes the previously established concept of historical gazetteers, offering a new perspective on the transmission of historical settlement data.