This article charts the path and the activity of the Andalusian nobleman Pero Tafur in the Czech lands at the end of 1438 and beginning of 1439. The visit formed part of his extensive four-year journey across European countries, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The main motive was to meet with King of the Romans and of Bohemia Albert II. The meeting occured in February 1439 in Wroclaw, where Tafur arrived via Prague and Saxony in the entourage of the royal chancellor Kaspar Schlick, and from there he continued through Moravia to the south to Austria. The rather obscur testimony of the well-travelled knight is not only a remarable document of this monarch as a person and the contemporary historical context of Albert´s brief reign, but also provides an interesting image of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the atmosphere of the slowly extinguishing Hussite wars., Jaroslav Svátek., and Obsahuje literaturu a odkazy pod čarou
The official Burgundian historiographer Georges Chastellain (perhaps 1415-1475) left an extensive work of various genres behind. We also find in the Chronicle noteworthy Bohemicalia and Luxemburg passages, concerning particularly the origin of Hussitism. Chastellain saw the roots of this revolution in the lascivious alliance of Prague girls and the monks of one monastery there. To be able to sleep with their lovers, the girls cut their hair and wore monk´s cowls. It was the beginning of absolute chaos and reversal of the established hierarchies in Bohemia. We do not know the direct source of the author´s inspiration, but ideologically the story is close to a number of works of anti-Hussite propaganda, emphasising the destructive role of women in the revolution. It is also not an accident that Chastellain included the chapter on the Prague girls just before the narrative on Joan of Arc, for whom as an author from Burgundy he did not sympathize. Also she changed into men´s clothing and her behaviour led to wars and chaos according to the author. The parallel was to be obvious. At the time when he wrote the passage on Hussitism, Georges Chastellain also considered the mission of historians and their place in the period society. He ascribed a place to them almost on the same level as aristocrats. It was a parallel: like aristocrats use the sword, the tongue must serve men of the quill for the elimination of the injustice of this world. and Martin Nejedlý.
The 700th birth anniversary of King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV has been designated as one of UNESCO´s important world anniversaries for 2016-2017. The Czech Academy of Sciences recreates the period of Charles IV at the exhibiton entitled Seven Towers. Charles IV through the eyes of academics (1316-2016) at the Science and Art Gallery. The visitors have an oppportunity to see the unique gold ducats with a picture of Charles IV. For this first time the most valuable archaeological discoveries of glass goblets are exhibited. Everyday items used by residents of the medieval city are also on display. The exhibition also shows a rare treasure of coins, which was hidden in the Emmaus monastery about 1370, as well as copies of the Constitutive Act of the Charles University, Charles´s Code Maiestas Carolina or late-medieval transcript of Charles´ Golden Bull. Personality of Charles IV is documented by commemorative coins, medals and seals bearing his image. Part of the exhibition is also a faithful copy of the statue of Charles IV from the Old Town Bridge Tower, the last sculptural portrait of the monarch before his death. and Marina Hužvárová.