The work Počátkové českého básnictví, obzvláště prozódie (The principles of Czech verse, with special reference to prosody, 1818) by Pavel Josef Šafařík (1795-1861) and František Palacký (1798-1876) (and Jan Blahoslav Benedikti [1796-1847]) and its influence on early-nineteenth discussions about the character of Czech verse have till now usually been considered in the context of Czech (and Slovak) literature. By contrast, this article, after a characterization of the work, considers its relation to the German concepts of prosody and meter (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Gottfried Hermann, and Johann August Apel), and also to Josef Jungmann´s (1773-1847) no-longer extant Nepředsudné mínění o prozódii české (An impartial opinion on Czech prosody, 1804). This article explores Šafařík and Palacký´s treatment of those relationships. Although the authors of Počátové turned it only selectively, Hermann´s work appears to have been an important intellectual basis for Šafařík and Palacký´s endeavour to develop a complex delineation of modern Czech verse, which had much in common with the principles of music. In its conclusions, the article thus follows on from Miroslav Červenka´s later ideas that it would be useful to study the history of Czech verse in its European context, without detracting from what made Czech verse special.
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