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Husitské skladby Budyšínského rukopisu: funkce-adresát-kulturní rámec

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Čornej P.

Česká literatura (Czech Literature)

2008

vol. 56

issue 3

301-345

The Bautzen Manuscript, completed on 21 September 1448, contains, in chronological order, six texts written in Czech. They were demonstrably composed in the summer and autumn of 1420. Compiled and edited by Jiří Daňhelka from two Early Modern, yet relatively reliable copies the MS was later published as Husitské skladby Budyšínského rukopisu (Prague: Orbis, 1952). The author of the article has also used a photocopy (in the Photo Library of Middle Czech Printed Books, the Institute of Czech Literature, Prague, No. 1392), which substituted for the considerably worn-out original in Bautzen. All the texts discussed are in the true Hussite spirit, contingent not only on their being written in times of armed struggle against the crusaders led by Sigismund Luxembourg, King of Hungary and the Romans, but also on aesthetics characteristic of Hussite culture. Foremost among these is emphasis on the word, which communicates the Law of God, and on the cognitive and formative functions of literature, which is engaged in the efforts to demonstrate the binding nature of the Hussite programme as the terms and conditions of salvation. The author (or authors) did not, however, succumb to the pressure of Hussite radicals, and anchored his (their) works, in terms of form, in the tradition of pre-revolutionary ‘high’ culture. That is true of the first of the two texts (named after their opening words, Slyšte, nebesa, and Nedávno před), which are prose monologues of the personified Crown of Bohemia, turning to God and expressing the most central interests of Hussite Prague and her allies (in particular, the rejection of Sigismund as the King of Bohemia). The rich lexis and large number of topoi and rhetorical figures rank the author of the texts (both have Latin variants ‘Audite, celi’ and ‘Nuper coram’, not included in the Bautzen Manuscript) among the elite graduates of Prague University. The literary grounding invests the works with pathos and cogency, but was probably not appreciated by the main audience that the author was trying to persuade – namely, the upper Czech Calixtin nobility and ethnically Czech aldermen of the royal boroughs preferring loyalty to Sigismund over loyalty to the Hussite interpretation of the Law of God. After the defeat of the crusades in late July 1420, therefore, from the same circle of authors come three compositions in verse, which were intended for a the same audience, but addressing them more approachably and plainly, that is, in octosyllabic declamatory verse with a dominating trochaic tendency and couplets. The Czech noble audience had been accustomed to such verse since the late thirteenth century, and Czech burghers had been familiar with it from the second half of the fourteenth century.

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Husitské skladby Budyšínského rukopisu: funkce-adresát-kulturní rámec