Klatovy Must Be Founded after all or Jan Klatovský's Fundací and Its Relationship to Václav Hájek's Chronicle
Abstract
The article deals with the Czech manuscript prose work Fundací aneb Založení a vystavění města Klatov (Foundation or the Founding and Construction of the Town of Klatovy), written in 1599 by Jan Klatovský, a Prague burgher and native of Klatovy. The text pretends to be a summary of an older manuscript, allegedly written by the first abbot of the Klatovy monastery Rotoman, who in turn suppposedly used the notes of the first Klatovy parson Votík.
The text describes the founding and first centuries of the town in a similar fashion as Václav Hájek z Libočan described the founding of other cities in his Czech Chronicle (1541). The aim of the study is first of all to introduce this unique text, its author, the content, the extant manuscripts, and the context of its genesis, particularly the possible role of a major contemporary work on Czech history, Diadochos by Bartoloměj Paprocký z Hlohol (1602).
Consequently, its genre and the goals of its author, which both influenced its language and composition, are characterized. Finally, the types of relations to its model, Hájek's Chronicle, are analysed, as well as the similarities and differences between the genre, composition, language and style of these two works.