This paper is a loose sequel to our 2017 essay “The Hussite Era in the First Edition of Daniel Adam of Veleslavín’s Historical Calendar”, in which we argued that any researcher of an Early Modern Czech historiographic text should thoroughly compare its factual content with the sources it creatively paraphrases, mainly with Václav Hájek of Libočany’s Czech Cronicle. The present article introduces eight Czech manuscripts that emerged in the years 1741–1835 containing passages devoted to the Hussite era and retelling the story of the late 14th and 15th century, each with its own particular angle and emphasis. Since at least six authors are Catholic, their reception of Jan Hus and the militant Utraquist movement is predictably negative; however, our most interesting outputs concern the way historiographers pursued an intertextual discussion with their Humanist predecessors in the first three decades of the 15th century, while paying little or no attention to events that took place after the ratification of the Basel Compacts in 1436.
This study focuses on the late medieval infernal novel The Life of Adam, or Solfernus from Olden Times by Václav Hájek of Libočany (1553). The text is briefly placed in the context of medieval hell novels, combining a biblical pseudepigaf and a legal handbook. A comparison of late medieval manuscripts and Hájek’s elaboration showed that from the 18th chapter onwards, Hájek significantly modified the original text, enriched it with new characters and dialogues, and emphasized the fictional character. The conclusion of the text is completely new. The excellent unique woodcut decoration of the text, the participation of Sixt of Ottersdorf in the text editing, the wording of the foreword and a number of allusions in the text lead to a final reflection on the nonliterary function of the text as part of resistance against Ferdinand I’s government.