Corpus toponymicum slovaciae medievalis (CTSM) – On-line database of medieval toponymic material and its application in onamastic and linguistic research

Abstract

Identification of localities mentioned in historical sources is one of the basic components of medieval historians’ daily work. Different types of publications can be exploited in this practice. Above all, specialized gazetteers and works aimed at settlement reconstruction belong to them. However, there does not exist a tool which would cover the whole territory of the medieval Hungarian kingdom and within it the territory of the present day Slovakia. Furthermore, this group of publications lacks uniformity and unification. As a result, the effective localization of the objects is difficult and slow. The paper presents the basic principles of the CTSM database (toponymica.sk) functioning and its system of populating, because the CTSM has the ambition to resolve the outlined fragmentation of gazetteers. The paper also shows the possibilities of its application in other scientific disciplines, especially in linguistics and onomastics.