Against the background of modern nation-building the article looks at the work of two eminent 19th century historians, the Pole Joachim Lelewel and the Russian Mikhail Pogodin. The text investigates how they tried to shape a modern Slavic Idea by means of historical and political writing.

Vymýšlení slovanské jednoty nebo politické využití romantické koncepce. Případ Mikhaila P. Pogodina a Joachima Lelewela

Ancient History of the Slavs in Slávy dcera by Ján Kollár

The paper focuses on history and historicism in the poetry book by Ján Kollár Slávy dcera. It casts light on the historiography of the first half of the nineteenth century and its connection to nationalism, Romanticism and the formation of a modern nation.

Jaroslav Valenta and Polish historians in the collections of the Science Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning in Kraków

The paper presents the relations of Jaroslav Valenta (1930-2004), a prominent Czech researcher of the most recent Polish history, with a number of Polish historians. The picture of these complex relations in the years 1965-1996 has been built up the basis on archival sources.

Cosmas’ Tale of Five Martyr Brothers and its possible sources – a brief contribution to the discussioncontribution to the discussion

Apart from the legend scribbled down by Bruno of Querfurt and a mention in the Life of St. Romuald by Peter Damian, the history of the martyrdom of Five Martyr Brothers, was also noted by a Czech chronicler Cosmas, even though is at variance with the other two stories. All manuscripts of the Cosmas’ chronicle contain wider information on Polish eremites, except for the Stockholm copy, that is to say a version in Codex Gigas, generally believed to be an unfinished copy of the edition of the chronicle prepared when Cosmas still alive. What was the basis of Cosmas version – whether it was a scholarly figment of his imagination, or, alternatively, a completion of copyists or information he based on oral sources or a written legend, which had arrived from Poland – has been a subject of much debate among the historians. The comparison of another fragment of the chronicle, which mentions the translocation of the relics of Five Martyr Brothers, seems to indicate that Cosmas completed the original version of his chronicle with a wider version of the legend himself. The analysis of chronological elements of the original version of Cosmas’ chronicle from the Stockholm Codex and later copies containing extensive descriptions devoted to the life of the Five Brothers suggests that apart from a more extensive legend, Cosmas also revised the chronology of events, thereby furnishing a more accurate dating in the second version (the day of death – 11th November, instead of the original 12th November), in accordance with the version of Bruno of Querfurt. Such dating is incompatible with the version that appears in the Czech and Polish calendars starting from the second half of the eleventh century, which means that Cosmas must have found it, along with an extensive legend, in a written version. The analysis of Czech calendars has shown that day of Five Martyr Brothers was not fixed in Bohemia at the beginning of the twelfth century, which could have disposed Cosmas towards including a broader story of the Polish hermits (whose relics were stored in some Czech centres) in his chronicle, with a view to disseminating their worship. The legend itself, the one Cosmas grounded his story on, is likely to have originated in Bohemia, as evidenced by the unmistakable ignorance of either the Polish realities or the hermits’ life and was probably written down only after Bretislaus I brought the relics of the martyrs to Prague in 1039, thereby creating a burning need for the legend which would disseminate the cult of new saints. This legend is based on oral tradition, formed by the Czech clergy (hitherto cooperating with Bolesław the Brave) coetaneous to the events, and, on the other hand, on an obituary record comprising the names and dates of the brothers and a day date, which could have arisen in Prague shortly after the events. This tradition also recorded the name of the sixth hermit, who escaped death owing to the deputation to Rome – it is reasonable to assume that the hermit frequented Prague to report the ruler with his deputations. Due to the collision of the day of the brothers’ martyrdom and St. Gregory of Tours, in the Czech calendars, the holiday was postponed for 12 November already in the second half of the eleventh century. Writing the first editorial of his chronicles, Cosmas had probably only vintages, vague oral tradition (which retains the name of Barnabas) and an updated calendar at his disposal, hence the manuscript of Stockholm lacks a broader description of the martyrs and 12th November as the date of their death. Before making the final editorial, Cosmas must have discovered a written version of the legend, produced after 1039, and under its influence included a more extensive description of events and the modified day date of hermits’ death.

Understanding feudal issues in the Czech and non-Czech literature from the perspective of historiographical discourse

Similar to other historical phenomena, understanding feudal issues has always been closely related to the changes of historiographical discourse. In the nineteenth century, the institution of fief was treated as a component of feudalism and as such fairly negatively valued, whilst when in later literature, popular became a notion of feudal law, a kind of a legal system, its importance was highly overrated. Examined within the framework of legal history, the issue of fiefdom gained independence with the advent of processuality of the historical process in historical sciences, e.g., in the form of influence of sociology in the monograph from the late 1920s La société féodale by Marc Bloch, who saw elements similar to feudalism and feudal institutions in areas outside Europe. Positive assessment of the feudal system emerged in the context of the formation of territorial structures of the state, mainly due to the German scholar of history of law – Heinrich Mitteis. Further impulses, largely referring to older ideas, occurred together with the problematisation of some institutions formerly deemed immutable, such as feudalism, as well as the recognition of the feudal system as an independent social structure, not subject to the influence of historical factors and processes, e.g., in the 1953 monograph of Georges Duby La société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région mâconnaise. Some shortcomings of the structural perspective were overcome by a more flexible interpretation of the phenomena in the spirit of the postmodern discourse, e.g., through studies on vassals. The postmodern critique inspired the work of Susan Reynolds (Fiefs and Vasalls), who in addition to the use of traditional concepts, undermined the continuity of the historical process, or our understanding of the continuity of the historical process in accordance with Neo-Kantian philosophy. The Czech historiography, naturally, went through analogous processes, the change best attested to in the 1952 paper Lennie právo v Čechách by František Graus, who, within the Marxist discourse on the periodisation of history, applied the structural approach to the problems of feudal system, yet, as regards the title of the said article, still remained within the former discourse.

Aleksander Gieysztor in His Own Eyes

This article presents the figure and views of Aleksander Gieysztor (1916-1999), one of the most important historians of the twentieth century. The text is based on his own statements (printed and non-printed, especially letters).

Ideology and Symbolism of Monarchic Power in the Research of Aleksander Gieysztor and Gerard Labuda

This paper discusses Aleksander Gieysztor’s and Gerard Labuda’s research on the problem of ideology and symbolism of power and presents the main directions of their studies in this field.

Interpretatio Polonica of the Teutonic Order. Remarks on the Teutonic Knights Theme of Gerard Labuda’s Research

This paper describes the approach of one of the greatest Polish medievalists, Gerard Labuda, to the question of the Teutonic Order and its role in the history of Poland and the whole Baltic region.

Nineteenth-century Czech history in the light of Ukrainian historiography of the past three decades (1991–2020)

The article is an attempt to describe the achievements of contemporary Ukrainian historiography on the 19th century history of the Czechs and Czechia. The author analyzed syntheses, monographs and journal articles published in Ukraine in 1991–2020. In particular, three directions of research conducted in Ukraine were noticed: the Czech-Ukrainian intellectual, educational and cultural contacts in the Habsburg Monarchy, the Czech minority and its elites in the Ukrainian lands in the Russian Empire, and the history of the Czech lands in general.

The history of South Slavs in West European literature from the second half of the 17th century to the early 19th century. The aim of this article is to present the most important issues related to West European perceptions of the history of South Slavs in the second half of the 18th and the early 19th century, a time of an increased interest in Slavic history, a process that ran parallel to the development of the Enlightenment perception of history. The analysis shows that in the second half of the 18th c. and the early19th c., in the face of the increasing weakness of Ottoman Turkey, the local Slavic communities were rediscovered in the Balkans. Although West European historiographies were familiar with them, the invention of new historical tools and contexts in the Age of Enlightenment resulted in a selective treatment thereof. It made it easy to consider South Slavs as uncivilised communities which, contrary to historical facts, remained at a primitive, tribal stage of development.