Bibliographic notes: Atlas of Slovakia

Pierre-Yves Péchoux reviews the Atlas of the Slovak Socialist Republic, edited by Emil Mazur and Daniel Lenko and published in Bratislava in 1980. He praises its precise drawing, careful printing, varied scales, and use of symbols, areas, lines, and colour, presenting it as a useful introduction to cartographic techniques despite its exclusively Slovak legends. He connects the large team’s work to a technical tradition illustrated by historical maps extending from sixteenth-century Hungary to modern cadastral and topographic mapping. Its twelve thematic sections offer broad national coverage, with population receiving the most extensive treatment; Péchoux also highlights vegetation, fauna, crop calendars, and maps combining urban, land-use, industrial, and agricultural patterns. Regional contrasts and detailed local examples address ecological conditions, avalanches, forest limits, and industrial pollution. His principal criticism concerns missing cross-border and historical connections, including labour exchanges with Hungary and Poland, Slovak minorities abroad, and territorial changes through 1945. He finds the silence about the post-1945 annexation of Subcarpathian territories by a large neighbouring state difficult to excuse in an otherwise fine atlas.