“The physical setting for this history is fixed easily enough: the lands of the present-day Czech Republic, which closely correspond to the core of the historical Kingdom of Bohemia (Bohemia proper, Mora- via, and part of Silesia) lie between 51° 03’ and 48° 33’ north latitude, and 12° 05’ and 18° 51’ east longitude.”
[1]
This polity period begins and ends with the rule of the House of Luxembourg, which succeeded four centuries of the Přemyslid dynasty. “From 1310 to 1437 Bohemia was ruled by the House of Luxemburg, many of whom were Emperors of Germany as well as Kings of Bohemia.”
[2]
“Sigismund, who it will be remembered, became emperor in 1410, succeeded his brother Wenzel as King of Bohemia as well, where he reigned from 1419 to his death in 1437, so far as the Hussites, indignant at his betrayal of their leader, would let him. On Sigismund’s death, Bohemia and Hungary, like the imperial office which he had held, passed for a few years to the House of Hapsburg. But then, through exercise of the old custom of election by the nobility, the two lands came under the rule of native kings and did not again come into the possession of the Austrian dynasty until well into the sixteenth century.”
[3]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 4) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[2]: (Thorndike 1917: 552) Thorndike, Lynn. 1917. The History of Medieval Europe. Massachusetts, USA: The Riverside Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KJSEM6KC
[3]: (Thorndike 1917: 553) Thorndike, Lynn. 1917. The History of Medieval Europe. Massachusetts, USA: The Riverside Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KJSEM6KC
| Year Range | Late Medieval Bohemian Kingdom (cz_bohemian_k_2) was in: |
|---|
“At the end of the Middle Ages, Prague ranked among the top cities of Europe. It featured the oldest university in Central Europe and was the seat of an archbishopric; both foundations had been established in the 1340s. During the third quarter of the fourteenth century, Prague became a center of relics and religious practice. The extent of this visual religious culture suggests a conscious sacralizing of a late medieval city. The city likewise served as the residence of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. There was every reason to regard Prague as a center of political and religious authority. The city’s virtues had been praised since the tenth century and that reputation remained intact extending to the fifteenth century.” [1] Language “The elements of humanism which penetrated the Czech context opened up possibilities for the use of national languages, which were already employed at various levels. German was the first to be used in the chancelleries and private correspondence of nobles and burghers, and shortly after that Czech. Gradually however, and mainly during the era of Charles IV, Czech came into use in the ruler’s chancellery, even though German was given priority because of the frequent official contact with imperial addressees. In the opinion of some linguists, it was in the context of the royal chancellery in Prague that the first attempts at unification of German (New High German) orthography are to be found, which was important especially for the lands of southern and central Germany. The refined style is to be found in the translation of the Old Testament into German from the time of Wenceslas IV, and the famed work Ackermann aus Böhmen, which reached Czech readers in an adapted translation as the well known work Tkadleček. Czech did not lag behind either, developing dynamically even beyond the court environment. In the second half of the 14th century, the first Czech translation of the Bible was made (entitled the Leskovec or Dresden Bible; in Moravian it overlaps with the Olomouc version), and so the Czechs were numbered after Italy and France among the first nations to undertake such a task. Bartoloměj of Chlumec, known as Klaret, along with several assistants and most likely supported by the Emperor, concentrated on lexicographical works which throw light on the scientific terminology of the time, which up to this employed mostly Latin.” [2] “The church gave him educated officials to administer his possessions, so Latin was widely used in Charles IV’s court, and links existed to the first Italian humanists. German was common, especially for contacts with other parts of the empire. But Czech also made its way in to administration and justice, with the first preserved official document in Czech dating to 1370.” [3] “Charles IV furthered Bohemia the prosperity of the land and founded the University of Prague (1348), where the students formed four nations of Bohemians and Poles, Bavarians and Saxons. He encouraged the Czech language and the native merchants, although he continued, like Ottocar II and other previous princes, to call in German colonists, and although his chancery at Prague did much to fix a written form of Middle German which marks an important step in the development toward a common German tongue.” [4]
[1]: (Fudge 2010: 19) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 149) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[3]: (Agnew 2004: 35) Hugh LeCaine Agnew, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press, 2004), http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[4]: (Thorndike 1917: 552) Thorndike, Lynn. 1917. The History of Medieval Europe. Massachusetts, USA: The Riverside Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KJSEM6KC
“During the 14th century, Czech society underwent fundamental changes. The consolidation of royal power and the international prestige of the ruler’s line, as well as the harmony between Charles IV and the Church, eased the conflicts with the nobility. The latter’s representatives were temporarily satisfied by appointments to important offices and the easing of the pressure that they experienced under the Přemyslids. This peaceful state of affairs enabled the nobility to improve their position, which relied on the economic prosperity of the Bohemian crown lands and their political and cultural blossoming. The Czech state found itself at its zenith at the end of the 14th century and it was recognized throughout Europe not only as the heart of the Holy Roman Empire but also as one of its engines of political and cultural change.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 150-151) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Inhabitants. Prague was the capital city and largest settlement: “Population figures for Prague are rather inexact, as calculations of this nature are for practically all medieval cities. The estimates range from 30,000 up to 100,000 but the figure most defensible for Prague city at the end of the fourteenth century is in the vicinity of 40,000. One hundred years later the population had diminished by 35 per cent to around 25,000.” [1] “As for population, that of Prague most likely rose to 35,000 by 1400, and thus joined the largest imperial towns such as Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main and Cologne.” [2]
[1]: (Fudge 2010: 20) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
in squared kilometers. “An index of the successful governance of the two first Luxemburgs on the Bohemian throne was the significant territorial gains which influenced the development of the Czech state and its society. Bohemia itself had an area of approximately 55,000 km2, Moravia about 27,000 km2 and the Bohemian crown lands all together (omitting Brandenburg and Luxemburg) 125,000 km2. All adjacent lands thus made up 43,000 km2.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 141) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
People. Approximate figures. “It has been estimated that the population of Bohemia in the fourteenth century was about two million.” [1] “Information about the population numbers of these extensive territories can only be estimated; for the Bohemian kingdom the figure is about two and half to three million people. In the years 1348–1350 Bohemia and Moravia were struck by plague, which was referred to as the Black Death. While in Italy and other southern countries in Europe, where it entered from Asia Minor, it became a pandemic that decimated the populations of large towns and whole territories; in the Bohemian crown lands it was not as intense. To the end of the 14th century, the fall in population numbers evened out and since the Bohemian crown lands had not been afflicted by any wars, a certain increase in population occurred.” [2] “Crisis caught up with the Bohemian lands at the end of the fourteenth century, beginning with the belated arrival of the plague in 1380. It carried off up to 15 per cent of the population, reducing demand and disrupting production.” [3]
[1]: (Fudge 2010: 20) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 141) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[3]: (Agnew 2004: 38) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
levels. “There was every reason to regard Prague as a center of political and religious authority. The city’s virtues had been praised since the tenth century and that reputation remained intact extending to the fifteenth century.” [1] “An important phenomenon in Czech society in the late Middle Ages were the towns which were now centres of production and commerce. They were divided according to laws and freedoms into royal towns (of which there were 56 at the beginning of the 14th century in the Bohemian crown lands and Silesia), subject towns (60) and smaller towns again (136). Although at the beginning of the 15th century the number of royal towns hardly changed (in Moravia it even decreased), the numbers in the other categories almost doubled. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia had in total 556 town centres, which made for a relatively dense urban network.” [2] “As for population, that of Prague most likely rose to 35,000 by 1400, and thus joined the largest imperial towns such as Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main and Cologne. Other Czech royal towns had between one and four thousand inhabitants, with the exceptions of Cheb and Kutná Hora, which were larger. Responsibility for the royal towns was the Vice-Chamberlain’s, who had to levy taxes for the royal chamber. Subject towns for the greater part had less than a thousand inhabitants and were subordinate to an aristocratic or religious authority.” [3] “Settlements of German farmers in many places spread out into larger surrounding tracts (the areas around Broumov, Trutnov, beneath Ještěd, near Loket, Svitavy, in some parts of the Bohemian-Moravian highlands and south Moravia), and accepted Emphyteusis in large numbers; for them it was the ideal arrangement of villages and their farmlands. The wave of indigenous colonization on the contrary continued rather in the old manner. Its villages were not as extensive and there was a looser arrangement of farmsteads and fields… Since the population was continually growing and larger towns in particular were demanding in consumer terms, attention turned once again to the old, fertile settled territory. From the previous scattering of smaller settlements and isolated farms there emerged in the environs of some large towns a network of populous villages with regularly shaped tillage, which offered better usage of three-field crop rotation. These changes spread in north-western Bohemia (near the towns of Litoměřice and Most) before the mid-13th century (the three-field crop system was best mainly for grain production).” [4] : 1. Capital and imperial city (Prague) :: 2. Royal towns ::: Subject towns :::: Small towns :::: 4. Villages ::::: 5. Farmsteads
[1]: (Fudge 2010: 19) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 143) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[3]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[4]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 105) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
levels. “The Golden Bull of 1356 is therefore rooted in Charles’ concept of sovereign power. According to that concept, the king must legislate. The sovereign was entitled to intervene and modify the law because of his grasp of divine justice and reason, with which he held council during sleepless nights, as well as by his effort to elevate the country and ensure general peace and security for the people, whose benefit Charles sought in his capacity as a good king.” [1] “The high nobility of the 14th century wished to consolidate its influence over the administration of the land and reduce its dependence on rulers. In accordance with the agreement with the constituency of Czech nobles from 1310, King John named his most important Land officials – i.e., the Supreme Burgrave, Supreme Chamberlains and the Land Judges – from the ranks of the noble lines. The first of these took executive power as the ruler’s deputy; the others looked after finances of the country and ran the Land court, generally considered the foundation of legal order in the country.” [2] “Not only did Bohemia both settle on primogeniture as the guiding principle for its elected sovereign and gain influence in the Empire, but the internal governance of the kingdom also became more institutionalized. In the second half of the thirteenth century, the settlement of land disputes among nobles changed venues from general judicial assemblies to a special court, the land court (zemský soud). The higher nobles thus assumed jurisdiction over their own and their immediate vassals’ land disputes, and at the same time gained a venue that helped define them as a group ritually, institutionally, and with respect to authority in the land.” [3] : 1. Monarch :: 2. Monarch’s appointed advisory council ::: 3. Land officials (Supreme Burgrave, Supreme Chamberlains and Land Judges) :::: 4. Local noble authority ::::: 5. Provincial Officials (judges etc) :::::: 6. Lesser administrators
[1]: (Antonin 2017: 325) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 142) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[3]: (Grant 2014: 8) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
Town halls. “The towns had held on to their rights and administrative principles, as well as their judicial code, from the 13th century, but where possible they tried to gain further economic and political privileges. They especially canvassed for the strengthening of autonomous town councils at the expense of the authority’s representative, the magistrate (rychtář). As a result of this pressure, the right to establish a town hall as the centre of autonomous administration was given first to the Old Town in Prague (1338), and inside ten years, to the Moravian towns of Brno and Olomouc; of the Bohemian towns, Slaný, Žatec, Most and others.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 143-144) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
“The Hussite Revolution disrupted the administration of law throughout the Bohemian lands. The wars destroyed libraries, such as the one in the Opatovsky monastery, and caused Prague’s law university and some law courts to be suspended. Some other courts that fell into Hussite hands, such as the municipal court in Kutna Hora (Kuttenberg), bring to light that the Hussites also had a more subtle effect on the practice of law.” [1] “John of Luxemburg was bound not only by relations with the Empire, but he also had to take into account the troubled state of the Bohemian crown lands. His agreements with the leaders of the Bohemian and Moravian aristocracy had not been as successful as both sides had hoped. The King continued to employ the services of foreign advisors and bureaucrats, as it was difficult for him to adapt to the Czech situation, the language and culture of which was quite alien to him, more accustomed as he was to life in France and the Rhineland.” [2] “Christianity also contributed to state-building, providing a core of educated, experiences administrators and an organisation patterned after the Roman empire.” [3]
[1]: (Grant 2014: 43) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 129) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[3]: (Agnew 2004: 23) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“In the political thought of the 13th and 14th centuries, the idea of the transpersonal nature of the kingdom was further elaborated to the point of regarding kingdoms as entities existing in themselves… The concept of mystic body (corpus mysticum) was at the same time adopted by lawyers to refer figuratively to some kind of legal entity—a corporation or society.” [1] “This raises the obvious question about Jan of Jesenice. He was a legal expert and Hus’ lawyer. Unfortunately, had Jesenice been able to advise Hus directly, at every turn in the legal process, Hus would have fared much better. But Jesenice left Prague in late 1410 and went to Rome as Hus’ representative.” [2]
[1]: (Antonin 2017: 27) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
[2]: (Fudge 2010: 130) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
“In accordance with the agreement with the constituency of Czech nobles from 1310, King John named his most important Land officials – i.e., the Supreme Burgrave, Supreme Chamberlains and the Land Judges – from the ranks of the noble lines. The first of these took executive power as the ruler’s deputy; the others looked after finances of the country and ran the Land court, generally considered the foundation of legal order in the country.” [1] “Clergymen were subject almost exclusively to ecclesiastical law and their local highest-ranking judge was either the bishop or archbishop of their diocese. Before the Hussite Revolution, the seats of the dioceses in and around the Bohemian lands were: Prague (the only archbishopric before the Hussite Revolution), Litomyšl, Olomouc, Wrocław (Breslau), Meissen, Naumburg, and Passau.” [2] “Ondřej’s tenure as the highest judge on the land court spanned most of Charles iv’s and Vaclav iv’s reigns. Because his father was a member of Charles iv’s court, Ondřej had early and frequent access to the royal court, and may explain why he was appointed highest land judge at the young age of approximately twenty-five. Charles iv appointed him land judge on June 6, 1343, to replace Oldřich Pluh.” [3]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 142) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Grant 2014: 32) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[3]: (Grant 2014: 52) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
Bohemia had its own laws which were codified in the 12th century. Laws were issued directly from the monarch who was believed to have the divine right to legislate: “Seen through medieval optics, only a pious king can be a wise judge and a peacemaker, by punishing, taking people’s lives, issuing laws and making just war. This is because only a pious king is a ruler sent by God. Such observations urge us to consider the further social roles of the medieval sovereign.” [1] “Ondřej z Dube wrote his Bohemian Land Law (Práva zemská česká) in a complex legal culture filled with a variety of laws and jurisdictions, among them ecclesiastical (canon) law, royal law, customary law, urban law, and land law. In one respect the inhabitants of the kingdom of Bohemia shared one law: the privileges associated with being a special electorate of the Empire. By the end of the fourteenth century, Bohemia’s inhabitants could not be cited to appear before an alien court, that is, one outside the kingdom, and the kingdom, as an electorate, was not subject to the Empire the same as other lands within the Empire during an interregnum. Therefore, any discussion of law in the other imperial lands can be for comparative or narrative purposes only. Bohemia’s varieties of laws appeared in different forms, some in codices and books by glossators, some in formularies, some in proverbs, such as the proverbs from Dalimil and Smil Flaška cited at the beginning of this chapter. The Bohemian Land Law was both written and understood in the context of these varieties of law existing together in an entanglement. As in most medieval communities, more than one type of law had jurisdiction in the kingdom of Bohemia in the late Middle Ages. In fact, different laws had jurisdiction in different cases. A brief overview of these types of law makes clear that inhabitants of the Empire and Bohemia lived in a web of jurisdictions. Urban and mercantile law were types of law to which city dwellers were subject. In some medieval German cities, such as Freiburg, jus civilis made burghers free — free from the law that prevailed in the countryside, but still subject to law that governed trade, the primary function of such towns.” [2]
[1]: (Antonin 2017: 268) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
[2]: (Grant 2014: 31) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
There was the royal law court (dvorský soud), which the king presided over, and the land courts (zemský soud) which dealt with all other matters: “If a dispute regarding land held from the king arose, the case went before the royal law court (dvorský soud) and it was exempt from the land court (zemský soud). The king’s authority with respect to both the royal law and court and the land law and court arose from two very different positions of authority. Klassen characterizes the king’s position in royal law as ‘sovereign and absolute ruler,’ perhaps exaggerating his position here to contrast it to his position in the land law. Klassen writes, ‘In the land government, on the other hand, the king was only first among equals.’ Furthermore, the ‘land court met four times a year in Prague and its meetings merged with the land diet especially during the reign of Wenceslas [Vaclav] iv who called no special diet.’ As a result, the ‘highest power was the land court (zemský soud).’ Because ‘[a]ll free landholders, knights and nobles were under the jurisdiction of the land court and of the justices in the rural districts,’ the land law governed the powerful group that owned their land free.” [1] “The nobility could be arraigned only before a Land court of the larger kind; due to the growing number of disputes, a new smaller Land court was established alongside these in 1383 which dealt with less serious cases, and for the most part became the forum for the legal problems of the lower nobility. The courts kept systematic records of their sessions (Land rolls); these however were destroyed in the fire of 1541 in Prague.” [2]
[1]: (Grant 2014: 34) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 142) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
“The number and structure of towns in Bohemia and Moravia answered to their economic strength. Urban production and commerce was however concentrated for the most part on local or regional demand. Only rich merchants looked to markets through which ran the transit routes to neighbouring countries and to towns with the right of compulsory storage… “In the towns, those crafts and commerce developed most which were dedicated to meeting local demands (for provisions, clothing and footwear, common metal implements and pottery, and further basic goods). Merchants in the larger towns, who were in contact with foreign businessmen, purchased goods from the countryside (honey, leather, freshwater fish, game) and ordered foreign products, mostly spices, wines (from Italy, Austria, Franconia, the Rhine), salted sea-fish, fabrics and jewels. Cattle and horses came from Hungary and Poland, the smaller part of which remained in the Bohemian crown lands, and the rest was sent on to the West. The Gold Road, along which flowed carriages from salt chambers of Austria loaded with sacks, became an important source of income. Fruit from the south was also available, as well as the paper necessary for the ever-growing work of administration and correspondence (as opposed to pergamon, which was expensive). These types of goods were imported mostly from the Low Lands, Germany and Italy. Prague took on special importance in this area of commerce, as it had the most advantageous storage rights, and also because it drew upon the presence of the royal court and its guests, for whom it provided luxury goods. Markets in the other Bohemian and Moravian residential towns (mostly Brno and Olomouc) responded to higher levels of consumption.” [1] “Towns were subject to specific town law, and a large part of the population including free craft workers produced for the market with- out devoting their time to agriculture. Towns could hold markets, build fortifications, and insist that merchants stop and offer their wares for sale.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Agnew 2004: 20) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“With the development of medieval river navigation and timber rafting, mainly on the Vltava and Elbe, fairly intense water-engineering activity began in the Czech Lands (weirs were built, river-beds were adjusted). The first artificial reservoirs – ponds – were established by the damming of streams and smaller rivers, probably from as early as the 13th century.” [1] “The greatest and most important pond basins in the Bohemian crown lands were established in the areas of Pardubice, Poděbrady and Třeboň. In Pardubice, the level territory of the Pernštejn domain, kept extremely wet by the meandering Elbe, had good conditions for the construction of a pond system. The ponds were linked by two long artificial canals – the Opatovice canal, built from the end of the 15th century to 1513, and Počaply canal of the same period. Together with the Golden Canal and New River in Třeboň, and the Sány Canal and the New Canal in Poděbrady, these artificial canals were an index of how advanced water construction was. The important Czech pisciculturist and knight, Kunát of Dobřenice, worked in the service of the Pernštejns, and Štěpánek Netolický was one of his students. The Pardubice pond system was completed half way through the 15th century. Now there was hardly any further space to be found in the landscape for new water reservoirs. In the environs of Pardubice and the Mount Kunětice, there were about 230, of which the largest was some hundred hectares (the largest pond in Pardubice, Čeperka, measured about 1,000 hectares, constructed in 1491–1496, submerged several villages).” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 41) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 42) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
“With the development of medieval river navigation and timber rafting, mainly on the Vltava and Elbe, fairly intense water-engineering activity began in the Czech Lands (weirs were built, river-beds were adjusted). The first artificial reservoirs – ponds – were established by the damming of streams and smaller rivers, probably from as early as the 13th century.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 41) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Places of worship; workplaces such as mills; schools; universities; libraries. “Houses around the Old Town Hall, the palace of the lords of Kunštát, parts of the university residences and a number of churches of the time provide indices of an extraordinary amount of construction activity, influenced by western architecture. Gothic cathedrals were built in a number of towns (Brno, Olomouc, Hradec Králové, Plzeň and elsewhere), as well as in the subject towns (foremost of which was Český Krumlov, which belonged to the Rožmberks)… In the villages, alongside the small numbers of rich farmers, owners of iron and saw mills, and above all of flour mills, there was the more numerous class of labourers of small to middling wealth, whose rents ensured the income of their authorities.” [1] “Before the Hussite Revolution, the university in Prague had a vibrant law faculty who studied across Europe and taught primarily canon law and sometimes Roman law, as well as a library of standard legal texts. In addition to the law faculty, the contents of two monasteries’ libraries demonstrate the more general availability of legal resources with the kingdom of Bohemia.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Grant 2014: 38-39) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
Churches and cathedrals. “Houses around the Old Town Hall, the palace of the lords of Kunštát, parts of the university residences and a number of churches of the time provide indices of an extraordinary amount of construction activity, influenced by western architecture. Gothic cathedrals were built in a number of towns (Brno, Olomouc, Hradec Králové, Plzeň and elsewhere), as well as in the subject towns (foremost of which was Český Krumlov, which belonged to the Rožmberks).” [1] [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Agnew 2004: 24) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
Schools; collages; universities; libraries. “The Church, through its parochial and monastic schools, which were more numerous than urban schools, contributed to the spread of basic education throughout the social classes. From the foundation of the Prague university in 1348, it was closely connected with its administration and pedagogy, since the theological faculty was the supreme faculty, ranked above the faculties of arts (philosophy), law and medicine. Thanks to contacts with top European scholars, Prague gained influential teachers, who brought to the intellectual, cultural and social circles of the city ideas and theories that were current in the west.” [1] “Before the Hussite Revolution, the university in Prague had a vibrant law faculty who studied across Europe and taught primarily canon law and sometimes Roman law, as well as a library of standard legal texts. In addition to the law faculty, the contents of two monasteries’ libraries demonstrate the more general availability of legal resources with the kingdom of Bohemia.” [2] “Charles IV also founded important cultural institutions, the most outstanding of which was the university that bears his name, established in 1348. Underlying the impact of the Charles University were general developments in schooling, as towns and town culture flourished beside church, court, noble castle, and village. During the thirteenth century many royal towns established schools known as particular schools, which imparted chiefly Latin and the rudiments of the arts. After 1348 responsibility for overseeing these schools was vested in the university, though the monastic or parish schools were controlled by the church. Charles IV’s new university influenced the whole of central Europe. Like other medieval universities, Prague’s was international, admitting students from all Christendom. Under its chancellor, the archbishop of Prague, the university was a society of corporations based on territorial principles and known as nationes, or “‘nations.” The chief executive of- ficer was the rector, elected by the four nations, while each faculty was headed by a dean. The academic officials, students, and teachers formed a special corporate body with its own privileges, and lived together in colleges. The most famous, the Great College or Charles College, ob- tained the Karolinum, the oldest surviving building of the university, in 1383. At its height, Prague’s university was a fully integrated part of the intellectual world of Western Christendom, developing domestic intel- lectuals and exposing them to the leading trends of European thought.” [3]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 147) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Grant 2014: 38-39) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[3]: (Agnew 2004: 35) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“Land routes homed in on Prague from all sides. From the north, there were roads from Zittau, Chlumec (Serbian) and Most; from the west the Via Magna and from Domažlice. From the south-west, there was the well known Gold Road, also named the Via Aurea, from Austria the Austrian road. From Prague to the east, there were the main routes to Poland (the Kłodzko road, or Silesian, the Polish or the Náchod road); to the south-east to Brno, named the Trstená road; and through Jihlava, the Habry road.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 41) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Bohemia is landlocked. If there were canals and/or ports for them during this period it has not been discussed in the literature consulted.
“By the end of the twelfth century stone houses surrounded the marketplace in Prague’s Old Town, and in 1172 a stone bridge, the oldest in Central Europe after Regensburg’s, was built with the support of Vladislav II’s wife, Judita.” [1] “The Judita bridge in Prague has already been mentioned; not until the second half of the thirteenth century would the stone bridge at Pisek rival this achievement.” [2] “Bohemia’s well-being was central to Charles’s concerns, and in spite of dynastic and imperial involvements, he devoted himself to it. His choice of Prague for his residence stimulated a building boom that brought foreign-born masters such as Matthias of Arras and Peter Parler of Gmiind to Prague. These artists worked on the reconstruction of the castle, including St. Vitus’s cathedral, in Gothic style. Parler’s workshop contributed the church of the Virgin Mary before Tyn in Prague’s Old Town, and other Gothic churches in Kolin and Kutna Hora. A new stone bridge replaced the Judita bridge, joining Prague’s Old Town with the Lesser Quarter beneath the castle.” [3]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 18) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[2]: (Agnew 2004: 24) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[3]: (Agnew 2004: 33-35) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“Mining of and trade in precious and other metals played an important role in the economics of the Bohemian crown lands. While gold lodes and alluvial deposits of gold did not return especially large profits, the Bohemian lands became one of the greatest powers in the mining of silver… Since the profit from the mining of precious metals and minting of coins was one of the ruler’s rights, the coffers of the Luxemburgs were enriched, enabling them to finance their policies, both at home and abroad, as well as undertake new construction work and cultural enterprises. Although the value of the Czech groschen fell with the lower silver content throughout the 14th century (gradually half of what it originally was), this specie remained in demand in all neighbouring countries as late as the Hussite period. On the reverse of the Czech groschen a number of German towns impressed their mark as evidence of its high quality. However, the affluence of the Czech state was increased by the mining of other metals, and pewter, copper and lead – partly the by-products of silver mining – were exported to the German lands.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144-146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Churches and cathedrals. “Houses around the Old Town Hall, the palace of the lords of Kunštát, parts of the university residences and a number of churches of the time provide indices of an extraordinary amount of construction activity, influenced by western architecture. Gothic cathedrals were built in a number of towns (Brno, Olomouc, Hradec Králové, Plzeň and elsewhere), as well as in the subject towns (foremost of which was Český Krumlov, which belonged to the Rožmberks).” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Cemeteries; tombs. “Charles devoted unusual attention to the construction of Prague. As early as the establishment of the Prague archbishopric, he laid the foundation stone of St Vitus Cathedral in 1344, in which the bodies of the royal dynasts were to be interred. Situated within Prague Castle, the cathedral symbolized the conjunction of royal and spiritual power, and at the same time provided safe housing for the coronal insignias.” [1] “After examining the books of Hus and finding them infected with ‘erroneous, scandalous, offensive, seditious and notorious heresies’ the Council determined they must be destroyed by fire. They were burned in the church cemetery.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 138) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Fudge 2010: 143) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
Chronicles, literature, autobiographies (Charles IV’s Vita Caroli), royal documents, court documents, legal documents, land records etc etc. [1] [2] [3]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 30-31, 35) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[2]: (Grant 2014: 26, 33, 36) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[3]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 142) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Czech-Roman alphabet. “Czech is a Slavic language and uses the Roman alphabet. To represent sounds in their language that the Romans did not have, the Czechs eventually adopted diacritical marks placed above standard Latin letters. The language is entirely phonetic; each letter has only one sound, unlike English. Stress in Czech is always on the first syllable, and even though some diacritical marks placed above vowels look like accents, they do not alter this stress pattern.” [1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: xxxvii) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
Stamps and seals. “Seals became important when in the course of the 13th century transactions that would otherwise take place as an oral agreement had to be put in writing and thus became legal evidence. The seal confirmed that what was written in the document corresponded to reality. The seal guaranteed the legal transaction described in writing, but at the same time made the ruler and his will (and therefore also the will of God) present symbolically whenever such as transaction took place. The ruler depicted on the seal — whether enthroned or on horseback — became a substitute image of the ruler’s person. Gradually, that image was replaced by the ruler’s coat of arms.” [1]
[1]: (Antonín 2017: 63-64) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
“Bartoloměj of Chlumec, known as Klaret, along with several assistants and most likely supported by the Emperor, concentrated on lexicographical works which throw light on the scientific terminology of the time, which up to this employed mostly Latin.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 149) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
The Bible; manuscripts. “In the second half of the 14th century, the first Czech translation of the Bible was made (entitled the Leskovec or Dresden Bible; in Moravian it overlaps with the Olomouc version), and so the Czechs were numbered after Italy and France among the first nations to undertake such a task.” [1] “Wenceslas IV followed in Charles’s footsteps. The former had an unusual interest in the book and created a collection of superlative illuminated manuscripts, of which are preserved only a handful scattered through European libraries and galleries.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 149) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 148) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
Texts such as the Devotio Moderna (New Devotion) encouraging personal religious experiences. Religious reformers and preachers also had their written works published. [1] Jan Hus, the reformist martyr whose execution by the Catholic Church led to the Hussite Wars, wrote many books on religious matters: “Hus stayed at the small castle of Kozí Hrádek, near Tábor, from autumn 1412 until the spring of 1414. He then went to Sezimovo Ústí for a short period of time before taking up residence at Krakovec Castle, west of Prague, from mid July until October 1414. During these two years in exile, Hus wrote no fewer than fifteen books, some of them among his most important and influential. Shortly after his departure from Prague, Hus completed his ‘Expositions’ on the faith. These were commentaries on the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, as well as the Lord’s Prayer. These commentaries reflected the perspective of pastoral care and a desire for the education of people in basic Christian teachings. Hus employed a fairly simple but nevertheless effective pedagogical approach to an understanding of the faith. By early 1413 he completed an important book on the problem of simony, or the buying of spiritual power. It amounted to a relentless and scathing attack upon a widespread practice in the later medieval church. In an entirely different vein, Hus produced a classic of spirituality aimed at providing instruction on how to find and follow the path to salvation. The most important of his works from exile was his large book De ecclesia, an exposition on the nature of the church. This was completed by May 1413. The pace of his writing was almost frenetic but much of what Hus put on paper during those two years had been developed in his thought and practice over the previous ten years. He translated and expanded his treatment on the errors of the Mass not long after he completed De ecclesia.” [2] “Numerous educated men emerged from the university and many of these were concerned with questions about the fair division of society, the mutual relations of social groups and moral standards. Among these was the educated yeoman Tomáš Štítný, who wrote a range of books in Czech on philosophical and religious issues.” [3] “The earliest sources that one could confidently call ‘princely mirrors’ cannot be dated before the second half of the 14th century. The first is in fact associated with Charles IV, or with authors working at his court. Such are the 12 meditations of the Jewish King Zedekiah included in the Moralities (Moralites) of Charles IV. These passages were subsequently (apparently already after Charles’ death) combined with other texts, especially excerpts from the Bible and St Augustine’s De vera et falsa poenitentia (On True and False Penitence).” [4]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 40) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
[2]: (Fudge 2010: 16) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F
[3]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 148) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[4]: (Antonín 2017: 41) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
“Beginning with the second half of the 14th century and until the 16th century, a number of ‘guidances’ (advice given to a new ruler on how to govern, often as parables) made their appearance in the Czech lands. Under Wenceslas IV, Smil Flaška of Pardubice published his New Guidance, the first of all animal guidances of Czech provenience. Flaška imagined the summoned animals at a diet advising their king—a lion, and this was an opportunity to spell out the principles and approaches the ruler was expected to observe for his reign to be just and effective. In the early 1th century, Jan (Johannes) Dubravius reshaped Flaška’s New Guidance into his own work, Theriobulia, which he wrote for King Louis II of Hungary. The Guidance of Beasts and Birds for Man, a work attributed to Jan Mantuan-Fencl, was apparently written as a reply to Dubravius’ Theriobulia. All three works are extremely important for the interpretation of the sovereign ideal and its development in medieval thought, and I will return frequently to them in the following chapters. Besides animal guidances, this genre also includes The Guidance of a Father to a Son, attributed also to Smil Flaška, the Administrative Office by Pavel Židek (Paulus de Praga), Marini’s Guidance to King George on Improving Trade in Bohemia, a work by Jan Hasištejnsky of Lobkowicz entitled Report and Teaching to My Son Jaroslav on What to Do and What to Avoid, and The Teaching of Lord Albrecht of Oušava to His Sons. All those treatises are particularly interesting, because they were written at a time that Humanism had just started to spread across the Alps, into Central Europe.” [1] “Besides such sources, there are also princely mirrors created in the Czech lands during the second half of the 14th as well as in the 15th century. The treatise De quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus pro eruditione principum by Michal, the vicar of the Smichov Carthusians, was written in 1387 in the form of a conversation with Rupert II, Elector Palatine, to whom it is dedicated. Michal and deals with the four cardinal virtues, as each of the four books of his work is dedicated to one of them, and deals with questions of behaviour and princely obligations in relation to each specific virtue (De prudentia, De temperantia, De iustitia and De fortitude).” [1] “Ondřej z Dube wrote his Bohemian Land Law (Práva zemská česká) in a complex legal culture filled with a variety of laws and jurisdictions, among them ecclesiastical (canon) law, royal law, customary law, urban law, and land law.” [2] “Preceding Ondřej’s lawbook existed several kinds of legal texts: unsystematic compilations of law by individuals legal scholars call “officials’ memoirs”; collections of models for documents, complaints, oaths, etc., called either “Formae querelarum” or “Formulae juramentorum”; as well as systematic lawbooks similar to Ondřej’s. Scholars generally associate Ondřej’s The Bohemian Land Law with three other lawbooks from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries: the Rosenberg book (Latin: Liber domini a Rosenberg; Czech: Kniha starého pána z Rožmberka), written, in Czech, around the turn of the fourteenth century, contains remedial and proprietary laws for the nobility; the Ordo judicii terrae (Řád práva zemského), written in Latin and then translated into Czech during the reign of Charles iv; and the Officium circa tabulas terrae, written near the end of the fourteenth century.” [3] “
[1]: (Antonín 2017: 44) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
[2]: (Grant 2014: 31) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
[3]: (Grant 2014: 35-36) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ
“Numerous educated men emerged from the university and many of these were concerned with questions about the fair division of society, the mutual relations of social groups and moral standards. Among these was the educated yeoman Tomáš Štítný, who wrote a range of books in Czech on philosophical and religious issues.” [1] “In addition, one needs to take into consideration a number of key texts written during the second half of the 14th century, which were also introduced to the cultural milieu of Bohemia. Such was a treatise by Walter Burley entitled De vita et moribus philosophorum veterum, a description of the deeds of ancient philosophers and personalities, with an emphasis on their virtues. In Bohemia, this treatise was reworked and put together in one corpus with the work by John of Wales, Breviloquium de virtutibus antiquorum principum that dealt directly with the question of virtue. It was precisely that treatise that enjoyed great popularity in the Czech lands, and which by the late 14th century was translated into Old Czech.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 148) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Antonín 2017: 42) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
“Charles IV himself contributed to literary life with his autobiography Vita Caroli and in his proposals relating to the imperial and Czech jural code, as well as further works on religion, where he emphasized the continuity between the Luxemburgs and the Přemyslid dynasty from the time of St Wenceslas, thus stressing the continuity of his line back to ancient Czech history. For him, as for other rulers, history was an instrument for the celebration of his own personage and dynasty. This is why he supported so strongly a range of chronicle works which at that time originated under the auspices of the court and thus propagated these ideas (the works of František of Prague, Přibík Pulkava of Radenín, the Italian Marignolli and others).” [1] “Charles IV’s autobiography, which includes a great deal of information on the ideal ruler, refers to chronicles for the purpose of creating an image of the historical development of the Czech lands in agreement with his own ruling ideology. Conversely, Peter of Zittau’s chronicle provides abundant evidence that his author was aware of the most recent trends in political thought in Europe at that time.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 150) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Antonín 2017: 45) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
Poetry; music; songs; nursery rhymes. “From their journeys in Italy, France, the lands of Austria and Germany, as well as Poland, the ruler along with his courtiers, lords and religious, brought ideas which they wished to put into effect in their seats. This was manifest in the life of the royal court, in the construction of castles and their furnishings, in literature, music and the visual arts… The court, the Church and the towns ensured a range of translations of well known literary works into Czech; also, university students created nursery rhymes and songs.” [1] “It is certainly true that the first signs of the courtly type of knight and its acceptance within the sovereign ideal appeared in Bohemia at the time of the last Přemyslids in association with poetry written in German. Much has been written about Minnesangers at the courts of Wenceslas I, Přemysl Otakar II and Wenceslas II, a topic, to which I will return in the chapter dealing with the ancient tradition. Given the origin of those Minnesangers, it is no surprise that they regarded generosity as a fundamental trait of Bohemian kings. The poets themselves were materially dependent on that generosity.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 148-149) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Antonin 2017: 225) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6
Gold; silver; copper. “Mining of and trade in precious and other metals played an important role in the economics of the Bohemian crown lands. While gold lodes and alluvial deposits of gold did not return especially large profits, the Bohemian lands became one of the greatest powers in the mining of silver... Since the profit from the mining of precious metals and minting of coins was one of the ruler’s rights, the coffers of the Luxemburgs were enriched, enabling them to finance their policies, both at home and abroad, as well as undertake new construction work and cultural enterprises. Although the value of the Czech groschen fell with the lower silver content throughout the 14th century (gradually half of what it originally was), this specie remained in demand in all neighbouring countries as late as the Hussite period. On the reverse of the Czech groschen a number of German towns impressed their mark as evidence of its high quality. However, the affluence of the Czech state was increased by the mining of other metals, and pewter, copper and lead – partly the by-products of silver mining – were exported to the German lands.” [1] “The ‘Black Death’ did not affect the Bohemian crownlands as it did the rest of Europe between 1347 and 1352, but this was because the Bohemian crownlands lay outside the main European trading routes… Bohemian artisan products had no demand abroad, so exports consisted of raw materials, Prague silver coins, or silver ingots.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144-146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Agnew 2004: 37) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“Kutná Hora took on this leading role from the end of the 13th century, and by the beginning of the next century it was the main mint of the country for the production of Czech groschen. Since the profit from the mining of precious metals and minting of coins was one of the ruler’s rights, the coffers of the Luxemburgs were enriched, enabling them to finance their policies, both at home and abroad, as well as undertake new construction work and cultural enterprises.” [1] “Royal towns were entrusted to the chamberlain or, in the case of mining towns, the master of the mint. When a rich silver lode was discovered at Kutna Hora, the town grew rapidly. German mining experts and workers arrived in great numbers, and in 1300, Vaclav II established a centralized royal mint there. Imported Italian master minters helped create an entirely new coin, with a standard purity and weight, called the Prague gros. This coin would remain the foundation of Bohemia’s currency for centuries.” [2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
[2]: (Agnew 2004: 21) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
“Jews worked for the most part in commerce and finance, and, as in Europe in general, they met with significant problems in the Czech state. On the one hand they were welcomed for usury and pawn-broking (i.e., activities that were forbidden to Christians), but at the same time they were hated for their wealth and different faith, which was apparent in their features, clothing and religious rituals. Jews of course paid large amounts to the royal coffers, which helped run the royal court and its investments, but they also contributed to the towns.” [1]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 141) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ
There was no postal service during this period. “The state also developed communications such as railways, the telegraph (made available to the public from 1850), and postal service (the first Austrian post- age stamps date from 1850).” [1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 127) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
There was no postal service during this period. “The state also developed communications such as railways, the telegraph (made available to the public from 1850), and postal service (the first Austrian post- age stamps date from 1850).” [1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 127) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
By 1300 a standard weight was being was for coins. [1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 21) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI
eg Bohemia used Strych and Merice. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 104) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
eg Bohemia used Mile, Latro, Sah and Loket. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 104) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
eg Bohemia used Lan, Jitro, Korec and Merice. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 104) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34