"Praga caput regni": Prague in records of Bohemian citizen chroniclers in the end of the 16th century

Abstract

This paper deals with image of Prague in the citizen milieu in the end of the 16th century through records in the chronicles of citizen annalists, i.e. in which connections was Prague mentioned in the records of an individual chronicler, what was the opinion about its importance within the land and which attention enjoyed Prague from the point of view of particular town or author, even with regard to distance from concrete towns. This paper makes it using the categorization into particular "types" of events which were recorded by selected chroniclers of these times in their works as "out-of-town" events (namely Václav Kněžoveský in the chronicle of Slaný, Jan Adam Nožíř in the chronicle of Litoměřice, Pavel Mikšovic in the chronicle of Louny, an unknown author in the chronicle of Kadaň, Šimon Plachý from Třebnice in the chronicle of Plzeň, Řehoř Smrčka from Sabinov in the chronicle of Soběslav and Simon Hüttel in the chronicle of Trutnov).

The chronicles are one of the sources where the world of thought of the early modern citizen and the impulses appear that influenced and formed the citizen and determined what they decided to bequeath to the next generation.