Abstract
The author traces the consequences of war conflicts on the fate of medieval manuscripts presenting the texts of Czech historical writings. In particular, the Hussite Revolution, where we can trace the fate of the manuscripts of the Zbraslav Monastery, which were sold by Sigismund of Luxembourg, and the manuscript of the Zbraslav Chronicle from the property of the Sedlec Monastery, which survived the war along with other valuables at the Jihlava Town Hall.
Another important chapter is the Thirty Years' War, when a number of manuscripts were transported as war booty to Sweden, others were taken abroad, where their owners who were forced to leave the country for religious reasons emigrated; the autograph of the second book of the Zbraslav Chronicle by Petr Žitavský made its way from the Heidelberg library to the Apostolic Library in the Vatican. Czech historiographical manuscripts were also influenced by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when one of the oldest manuscripts of the Chronicle of Cosmas of Prague was burnt along with other manuscripts in the Strasbourg municipal library.
The manuscripts of the Czech chronicles were significantly affected by the Second World War. At that time, the manuscript of the Sázava version of the Chronicle of Cosmas was destroyed in the Dresden Library, two manuscripts stored in the libraries in Wrocław were destroyed, and another was badly damaged.
After the war, the remaining manuscripts of the Wrocław Municipal Library were moved to the University Library. A historiographical collection of Czech origin from the late 14th and early 15th centuries, stored in the Milich Library in Görlitz, was transferred to the University Library in Wrocław.