he paper quantitatively analyses a sample of 300 Czech prayer books and other popular religious handwritten material (not including songbooks) from the 18th and 19th centuries. The author maintains that most of the material consisted of (partial) transcriptions of popular printed books and their widespread popularity was influenced by the growth of literacy and the individualization of piety. Their use was by no means limited to the milieu of the secret non-Catholics which were proscribed until 1781; indeed the majority of Catholic writings were not fully orthodox. The character and decoration of the writings in question were not directly related to the confessional nature of their originators and/or users; in fact the general rules of early modern popular culture played a much more important role and in many cases it is difficult to determine whether the source is catholic, protestant or sectarian. Prayer books fully reflected official forms of religion relatively late i.e. from the tum of the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of church domination over popular piety. However, even at this time the process did not result in absolutes: religious writings substituted the non-existence of baroque literature the printing of which was prohibited by the enlightened censorship prevalent at the time. Only a change in religious forms and new opportunities for the printing of pre-enlightenment books in the mid-19th century led to a decline in handwritten prayer books.
This article aims to investigate the viewpoint of the
Austro-German liberal movement - both ideologically and practically - towards the arguments for Bohemian state rights made by the conservative Bohemian Great Landowners and Czech political parties in the period from 1861 to 1879. The February Patent of 1861 is a convenient starting point because it reintroduced representative bodies to the Habsburg Monarchy and facilitatedthe development of modern democratic politics. The 1879 parliamentary election is this article’s end point since it constituted a significant turning point in Austrian and Bohemian politics. The Austro-German liberals lost the majority in central parliament while the conservative Bohemian Great Landowners and Czech parties attended parliament after a sixteen-year absence, joining the conservative-Slav coalition supporting the government.
The principal argument is that while the Austro-German liberals (particularly the Bohemian-German faction) were generally opposed to Bohemian state rights, this must be qualifi ed by the genuine desire for compromise (under certain conditions), considerable tactical fl exibility and the wider Imperial context. Chronologically, the article focuses on key parliamentary debates to
illustrate the changing relations: the fluid 1860s, the crucial period from 1867 to 1871 (when there was a real possibility of Bohemian state rights) through to the turning point of 1879. and Článek zahrnuje poznámkový aparát pod čarou
The large compendium titled Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild contains two volumes devoted to Bohemia (1894 and 1896) and one volume devoted to Moravia and Silesia (1897). Chapters on folk culture are accompanied by a plethora of pictures, a significant number of which depict rural residents wearing traditional dress. However, the informative value of illustrations depicting folk costumes from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia as a source for ethnological research is limited. The unbalanced selection of examples from individual regions is problematic. Understandably, a great emphasis was placed on the German ethnic group, but even ethnographic regions inhabited by Czech population are not represented proportionally to the preservation of traditional culture, so the resulting visual perception does not even correspond to the reality in the late nineteenth century. Czech painters were addressed to illustrate two volumes about Bohemia, but the Moravia and Silesia volume was illustrated almost exclusively by artists with ties to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied or taught, and to the imperial court. However, not only Viennese, but even all Czech painters had no direct experience with the folk culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. They worked according to supplied photographs, the availability of which eventually influenced the choice of illustrations. The successful level of both the drawing and painting templates and their xylographic treatments posed a positive aspect. And what is essential - the comparison with the traced model photographs confirms their basically faithful interpretation. Even so, the ethnologist cannot underestimate the critical insight into the documentary value of the illustrations accompanying the admirably monumental work Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, named Kronprinzenwerk after its initiator and partly co-author, Crown Prince Rudolf.
Fictional King of Morocco is mythical figure of Biblical proportions, herald of Apocalypse, usually associated with prophetical songs of Tolerance Sectarians from eastern Bohemia. Presented article deals with the motif of King of Morocco in these songs and tries to analyze its origin. Various sources of this oral tradition are discussed, like great influence of Protestant political prophecies, heterodox prophecies and folklore narratives of the period. The character of King of Morocco represents an affiliated motif to a specific corpus of oral traditions, consisting of apocalyptical narrative pattern about the Judgment Day. Origin of the motif of King of Morocco remains obscure; however, the popular reception of diplomatic visit of envoy of Sultan of Morocco to Vienna in 1783, combined with misinterpreted news about Tolerance Decree, seems to be the most probable source. Although associated with oral culture of Tolerance Sectarians, the whole narrative pattern was disseminated more widely and lived on in Czech oral tradition at least until 1848.
The topic of this article is the engagement of Lipolt Krajíř of Kraig († 1433) in the Hussite wars. Krajíř was among the innumerable members of Sigismund of Luxembourg’s retinue who actively fought the Hussites in three central European lands. Lipolt’s importance within the Catholic party is especially proven by the fact that he was transferred—by Sigismund of Luxembourg and then by the Austrian Duke and Moravian Margrave Albert II of Habsburg—to places which were long threatened by the Hussites (České Budějovice) or actually under attack by them (Moravia, Austria).
The paper focuses on the patronage of Cardinal Jacoppo Stefaneschi (died 1343) viewed from the perspective of book and monumental painting in the context of more general problems. First it analyses the relationship between the aesthetically discerning patron and Giotto, a celebrated artist tending towards a different style orientation and then it outlines some conceivable ramifications of this association for the further development of Giotto´s workshop. It examines the possible iconographic significance of the Stefaneschi altar in the period political context, and following this proposes more precise dating of the Stefaneschi Triptych and the Codex of St George. This layer of Italian art is immensely inspiring for the subsequent development of Bohemian painting in the period of the Luxembourgs.
Studie představuje příspěvek k poznání procesu výroby cínového bronzu v době bronzové na základě výpovědi kovových slitků. Jedná se o doklady metalurgické aktivity jak ve formě materiálových polotovarů/ingotů, tak odpadu vznikajícím při výrobní činnosti. Kovové slitky se vyskytují po většinu doby bronzové v různých kontextech. Mají rozmanitou povahu, funkci a původ. Kromě materiálových analýz nebyla dosud slitkům původem z Čech věnována komplexní systematická pozornost, a to zejména z hlediska jejich podrobné deskripce a z ní vyplývajících dat k posouzení druhu produktů. Výzkum se zaměřil na studium formálních vlastností slitků, kategorií hutnických a slévačských produktů v rámci operačního řetězce metalurgie bronzu a vzorců organizačního a technologického zacházení v rámci různého prostoru a času. Využity a komparovány byly jak klasické archeologické metody dokumentace, tak přírodovědné analytické metody. and The study contributes to knowledge of the Bronze Age tin bronze production process based on the testimony of metal raw materials. This concerns evidence of metallurgical activities both in the form of semi-finished products/ingots and waste generated during production activities. Metal raw materials of a diverse nature, function and provenance occur in various contexts throughout most of the Bronze Age. Besides material analyses, metal raw materials originating in Bohemia have not yet received comprehensive systematic attention, especially in terms of their detailed description and the resulting data to assess types of products. The research focused on a study of the formal properties of metal raw materials, categories of smelting and casting products within the operational chain of bronze metallurgy and patterns of organisational and technological treatment in various space and time contexts. Both classical archaeological methods of documentation and scientific analytical methods were used and compared.
Studie otevírá diskusi s názory o původu a vývojových proměnách keramiky vytáčené kompletně na hrnčířském kruhu a opatřené pásovou výzdobou. Tato keramická třída byla používána v raném středověku (po dobu asi jednoho století) komunitami žijícími na jihu Velkopolska a v severovýchodní části Dolního Slezska. Dosavadní představy naznačující úzký vztah s obdobně zdobenou keramikou produkovanou v severních částech Čech jsou přehodnoceny s poukazem na vnitřní rozmanitost celé keramické třídy. Inspirační zdroje nepřicházely pouze z jihu (tj. z Čech), ale také ze severu (Pomořansko) a ze západu (oblast středního toku Labe). V rámci tohoto druhu keramiky lze pozorovat proměny, které se v produkci malých lokálních komunit objevují nezávisle na vnějších impulsech. and The article underlines the need to re-discuss the prevailing views in archaeological literature on the provenance and transformation stages of completely wheel-turned ceramics decorated with zoned ornament. This class of ceramics was used in the Early Middle Ages (for about 100 years) by communities living in the area of southern Greater Poland and the north-eastern part of Lower Silesia. The previous ideas suggesting a close relationship between zoned ceramics and vessels produced in northern Bohemia are reconsidered, with the internal diversity of zoned ceramics being pointed out. We argue that inspiration in ceramics manufacturing came not only from the south (Bohemia), but also from the north (Pomerania) and the west (the middle Elbe region), and that there were also changes that appeared independently of these impulses in the ceramics production of small, native communities.
This article evaluates once more the historiographic and literary images of John of Bohemia and his son Charles IV in Italian texts from the 14th and early 15th centuries. What we find is a peculiar mixture of criticism and apotheosis, sometimes stated by the same authors, depending on the point in time they were writing, and of course the expectations of their potential readers. While John of Bohemia faced overwhelming expectations from Dante after the death of his father, he was branded a naïve yet greedy papal mercenary from the beginning of his Italian Expedition in the early 1330s. His son was more successful in avoiding negative stereotypes and harsh criticisms during his Italian expeditions in his youth, as well as in 1354/55 and 1368/69. In the end, however, even chroniclers that are traditionally considered to have had a positive view of the Luxemburg king and emperor harshly rejected his political actions in Italy. Most of the time, this is connected with the financial interests all foreign monarchs had when establishing temporary rulerships in Italian cities, and the monetary pressures this bore on their citizens; the worn-out cliché, both of contemporaries and historical researchers, that labelled foreign, Central European monarchs as barbaric intruders, could hardly be confirmed. Charles and his father are blamed for being unable to solve the structural problems of Italian and Imperial politics.