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Czech and Slovak Humanism∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Joseph F. Zacek*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Albany

Extract

Let me open with two caveats. First, given the very brief length dictated for this treatment of Czech and Slovak humanisms, I have chosen to concentrate on their main lines of development and on their primary — i.e., literary — aspect. Second, domestic humanism has received comparatively little attention from Czech and Slovak historians to date. The former have been occupied primarily with the great national-religious revolt, the Hussite Reformation, with which European humanism coalesces when it reaches Bohemia and Moravia. And Slovak historians are still doing basic research into much of their nation's past.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the Study of Nationalities, 1979 

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References

Notes

1. I have found the following works particularly valuable for their detailed texts and bibliographies: Jakubec, Jan, Dějiny literatury české, 2 vols. (Prague, 1929), vol. 1; Josef Truhlář, Počátky humanismu v Čechách (Prague, 1892); Truhlář, Humanismus a humanisté v Čechách za krále Vladislava II (Prague, 1894); František Šmahel, Humanismus v době poděbradské (Prague, 1963); and L'udovít Holotík and Anton Vantuch, eds., Humanizmus a renesancia na Slovensku v 15.-16. storočí (Bratislava, 1967). In the last-named work, see especially Ján Mišianik, “Vývin humanizmu na Slovensku,” pp. 197–233, and Josef Macúrek, “Humanismus v oblasti moravsko-slezské a jeho vztahy ke Slovensku v 2. polovině 15. a počátkem 16. století,” pp. 332–55. A helpful bibliographical essay on Czech research on humanism and the Renaissance is given by František Smahel, “Přehled českého bádání o renesanci a humanismu,” Československý časopis historický, vol. 9 (1961), no. 2, pp. 265–79.Google Scholar

2. Quoted in Kavka, František, An Outline of Czechoslovak History (Prague, 1963), p. 37.Google Scholar

3. Another famous Italian, Cola di Rienzo, also visited Charles in Prague, in 1350. The emperor's negative reaction to his plea that Charles establish tight imperial control over a centralized Italy free of papal and tyrannical rivalries is often cited as illustrative of Charles's own shallow appreciation of humanistic ideals. Cool to Rienzo's antifeudal, anticlerical, “popular” movement, Charles first imprisoned him, then turned him over to the Pope.Google Scholar