Staročeská kronika Martimiani

The publication brings for the first time ever a critical edition of the first Czech-language chronicle of the world that recounts events from the creation of the world to the death of Emperor Charles IV. It also presents biographies of popes up to John XXI. Its creation is dated to the turn of the 14^th and 15^th centuries or to the first quarter of the 15^th century and has traditionally been attributed to the knight Beneš of Hořovice. The old Czech text is, however, a fairly accurate translation of the first chapters of the German chronicle of the Strasbourg canon Jacob Twinger von Königshofen and part of the famous and extended Latin papal and emperor chronicle of the Dominican, papal penitentiary and appointed archbishop of Gniezno, Martin of Opava.

The quantity and character of the preserved medieval Czech-language manuscripts, the allusions to the text in contemporary texts of historiographical and other character, but above all the fact that the Old Czech Chronicle became one of the first Czech prints in 1488, testifies to its considerable popularity and popularity, evident throughout the second half of the 15^th century.

The edition is accompanied by essays describing and interpreting this literary work from the codicological, historical and palaeobohemistic perspectives. Although the publication is intended primarily for a specialist audience, the presentation of the historical text in the form of a transcription applying contemporary spelling principles makes the text accessible to the general public.

The publication is one of the outcomes of the Czech Science Foundation project, ID: P405/12/G148 Cultural Codes and Their Transformations in the Hussite Period.