Silesia in cosmographic and historical works devoted to the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia in the 16th and 17th century
Abstract
The paper explores the image of Silesia in humanist literature view from the perspective of different scholarly disciplines (cosmography, historiography, law history) studying the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia. The author starts from an in-depth analysis of the work of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, notable his humanistic and anti-Hussite Historie česká (Historia bohemica, Bohemian History, from the 1450s), which influenced very much the later view of the educated Europe of the Crown Lands and especially the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Then he examines Komentáře o českých dějinách (De Bohemiae regni ... commentarii, Commentaries on the history of Bohemia) by the Swiss lawyer Melchior Goldast published in 1627, analyses a Latin, Czech and German version of Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster, and finally, seminal works by Czech humanistic authors: Chronicle of Václav Hájek of Libočany written in Czech (1541), Latin Historia bohemica by Jan Dubravius (1552), and a Latin treatise O státě českém relating to national history and geography by Pavel Stránský (1634). He arrives at the conclusion that Silesia is mentioned marginally in the works devoted to the Czech Lands if it is affected by events of importance for the Czech history: the discourse of these works is clearly Bohemo-centric.
A more concise and accurate view of Silesia, its appearance and history is only found in the works of M. Goldast and P.
Stránský. The descriptions of Silesia are dominated by Breslau as the centre and the biggest city in the land.