COURSE SYLLABUS
Medieval Literature in Bohemia
This syllabus was developed and taught by Adéla Ebersonová at Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, during the winter term of 2023/2024.
Course Description
This course introduces students to the major forms, functions, and cultural contexts of literary production in the Czech lands from the early Middle Ages to the Hussite period. It explores the most important genres of medieval literature—historiography, hagiography, preaching, poetry, drama, and early scholarly and scientific writing—and pays special attention to key figures in Czech history as authors (especially King Charles IV and the church reformer Jan Hus).
Students will become familiar with principal authors and works, including chronicles, saints’ lives, sermons, poems, plays, letters, scientific treatises, and administrative documents, as well as the broader manuscript culture in which these texts circulated. All types of texts are examined through selected primary sources in translation.
The course also addresses the intellectual transformations of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, culminating in the thought of Jan Hus and his milieu. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between Latin and vernacular writing, the interaction between literary and documentary forms, and the ways in which texts contributed to the construction of historical memory, religious practice, education, and political identity.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
Course Requirements
The course is completed for a grade. The final grade is composed of the following components:
(i) Participation and preparation (20% of the final grade): Reading selected texts and discussing their interpretation will form an integral part of the sessions. This part of the grade is assessed on the basis of thorough preparation and active participation in class discussions, especially those focused on the assigned readings.
(ii) Presentation (20% of the final grade): Each student will give a presentation on a topic related to the course content. The aim is not only to inform fellow students about the topic but also to develop rhetorical and presentation skills. The presentation should last approximately 15 minutes and be accompanied by a PowerPoint.
(iii) Final examination (60% of the final grade): In the final test, students will apply the knowledge acquired throughout the course. They are expected to demonstrate a solid theoretical understanding of the topics covered during the semester, as well as familiarity with the required readings and the texts discussed in class.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1 Czech Lands in the Middle Ages: Historical and Literary Overview
In the opening week, the course provides a concise historical and cultural framework for the study of medieval literature in the Czech lands. Students are introduced to the main political and institutional developments from the early medieval period to the time of the Hussite movement. This historical overview is paired with an overview of the principal literary genres cultivated in the Middle Ages, with attention to their functions, audiences, and modes of transmission within manuscript culture. The session also outlines key methodological approaches to medieval texts and clarifies the relationship between Latin and vernacular literary production.
Mandatory reading:
Week 2 Historiography: Chronicles and the Construction of Bohemian History
This lesson examines the development of historiographical writing in the Czech lands from the twelfth to the early fifteenth century, focusing on the chronicle as a central medium for constructing historical memory and political identity. Through close reading of selected passages from the Chronicle by Cosmas of Prague, the so-called Zbraslav Chronicle, the Chronicle of Dalimil, the historiography of the reign of Charles IV (including Francis of Prague, Beneš Krabice of Weitmile, Jan Neplach, Giovanni di Marignolli, and Přibík Pulkava of Radenín), and the Hussite-period chronicle of Laurence of Březová, students explore how authors shaped narratives of origins, legitimacy, and collective destiny. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between Latin and vernacular historiography, the use of sources and rhetorical strategies, and the ways in which chronicles reflect contemporary political, dynastic, and confessional agendas.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 3 Hagiography: The Lives of Czech Patron Saints
This class introduces hagiography as a key genre of medieval literary culture and as a powerful instrument for shaping religious devotion, dynastic ideology, and communal identity in the Czech lands. Through selected Latin and vernacular lives of Saints Ludmila, Wenceslas, Adalbert, and Procop, students examine how sanctity is constructed using conventional narrative motifs, miracle accounts, and moral exempla. The class considers the relationship between historical reality and literary representation, the political functions of saintly cults, and the role of hagiographic texts in the formation of collective memory and patronal traditions. Attention is also paid to questions of authorship, audience, manuscript transmission, and the interaction between local traditions and broader European models of sainthood.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 4 Sermons and Exempla: The Power of the Spoken Word
This lesson explores preaching as one of the most influential forms of textual production in medieval Bohemia and a crucial medium for the dissemination of religious, moral, and social ideas. Focusing on anonymous sermon collections as well as the works and activities of Jan Milíč of Kroměříž and Jan Želivský, students analyse the structure, rhetoric, and didactic strategies of sermons, including the use of exempla as narrative tools for moral persuasion. The class considers the relationship between oral performance and written transmission, the role of preaching in religious life, and its contribution to the development of vernacular literary expression. Particular attention is given to the social and reformist dimensions of preaching and to the ways in which sermon literature prepared the ground for later religious movements.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 5 Charles IV and protohumanism: Literature at the Imperial Court
This session examines the cultural and literary activities of Charles IV and their role in shaping new intellectual trends in fourteenth-century Bohemia. Students explore the emperor’s own writings (especially Charles’s autobiography, his Legend of St Wenceslas, as well as moral treatises, the coronation ordo of the King and Queen of Bohemia, the Maiestas Carolina, and the Bulla aurea) together with his patronage and the works produced in his milieu. Attention is also paid to the political and representational functions of literature, including the construction of dynastic legitimacy, the cultivation of historical memory, and the use of learned culture as an instrument of imperial ideology. The class also considers the concept of “protohumanism” and evaluates to what extent the literary production associated with Charles’s court reflects new attitudes toward authorship, education, and classical learning.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 6 Poetry: Sacred and Secular Voices of Medieval Verse
This class explores the wide spectrum of poetic production in medieval Bohemia, highlighting the permeability between sacred and secular forms. Students examine liturgical poetry—hymns, tropes, and sequences—in relation to their ritual and musical contexts, as well as vernacular and Latin secular verse, including drinking songs, courtly and devotional lyrics, moralising poems, parodies, and narrative epics. The class addresses questions of performance, transmission, and audience, and considers poetry as a particularly flexible medium capable of moving across institutional, linguistic, and social boundaries. Attention is also given to the ways poetic texts participated in education, devotion, entertainment, and the articulation of communal and individual identities.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 7 Drama: Medieval Theatre between Liturgy and Marketplace
This lesson examines the forms and functions of medieval drama in the Czech lands, with particular attention to the relationship between liturgical performance and emerging secular theatrical traditions. Students analyse spiritual plays such as The Three Maries in the context of Easter ritual and ecclesiastical space, alongside comic and farcical texts such as The Ointment Seller, which draw on urban culture and popular humour. The class explores issues of performance practice, audience, and language. Special emphasis is placed on the degree to which medieval drama reflects social reality, negotiates religious instruction and entertainment, and creates spaces for both communal devotion and critique of contemporary life.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 8 Rhetoric, diplomatics, epistolography: Medieval Written Communication
This session focuses on the role of rhetoric, diplomatics, and epistolography in medieval education and intellectual life. Students are introduced to the principles of the ars dictaminis and its application in charters, formularies, and model letter collections, which served both practical administrative purposes and as pedagogical tools. The class examines how training in composition shaped the production of official documents and private correspondence, and how mastery of rhetorical forms functioned as a marker of social and professional competence. Particular attention is given to the transmission of stylistic models and the institutional contexts in which these skills were cultivated.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 9 Scientific literature: Medicine, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Law
This week examines the nature and functions of scholarly and scientific writing in the medieval Czech lands. The class introduces the institutional settings of learning—especially the University of Prague—and the role of the liberal arts as the foundation for more specialized disciplines. Students explore selected texts by Havel of Strahov, Sigismund Albík of Uničov, Christian of Prachatice, and Jan Ondřejův Šindel related to medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and law in order to understand how knowledge was transmitted and legitimised. Particular attention is paid to the dependence on classical authorities and the ways in which scholarly writing circulated in manuscript form. The discussion also addresses the question of whether medieval disciplines can be described as “science” in the modern sense.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 10 Predecessors of Jan Hus: Sources of the Hussite Reform Movement
This week explores the intellectual, theological, and social currents that shaped the thought of Jan Hus and prepared the ground for the Hussite reform movement. Students examine key figures and texts associated with earlier calls for ecclesiastical renewal and the reception of John Wyclif’s ideas in Bohemia. The session situates these developments within the broader tensions within late medieval church and society, such as debates over authority, simony, pastoral care, and the moral responsibilities of the clergy. Attention is paid to the interaction between Latin academic discourse and vernacular preaching, as well as to the role of textual transmission in disseminating reformist ideas. The aim is to examine that Hus’s thought emerged from a complex network of intellectual traditions rather than as an isolated phenomenon.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 11 Jan Hus and his followers: Ideas, Texts, and Reception
This week focuses on the ideas and writings of Jan Hus and their reception. Students analyse Hus’s theological positions on ecclesiology, authority, and moral reform, as well as the literary forms through which these ideas were communicated, including sermons, polemical treatises, and letters. The class then traces the diverse developments of Hussite thought after Hus’s death, highlighting two key figures: Jerome of Prague and Petr Chelčický. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of reformist discourse, the role of vernacular writing in shaping religious communities, and the long-term impact of Hussite ideas on Bohemian religious and intellectual culture. The aim is to assess the literary, theological, and social influence of Hus and his circle within the broader framework of late medieval reform movements.
Mandatory reading:
Optional reading:
Week 12 Conclusion remarks: Approaching Medieval Texts Today
The final week synthesises the themes of the course and situates medieval literary production in the Czech lands within a broader European context. Through comparative discussion, students evaluate the connections between Bohemian texts and wider intellectual, religious, and literary developments in Europe, including questions of transmission, influence, and shared genres. The session also reflects on methodological issues involved in interpreting medieval literature today, such as the use of translations, interdisciplinary approaches, and the balance between historical contextualisation and contemporary critical perspectives. By revisiting key authors and genres discussed throughout the semester, the course concludes with a critical assessment of the enduring significance of medieval Bohemian literature for European cultural history and for modern scholarship.
Selected general bibliography
Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
David Wallace (ed.), Europe: A Literary History: 1348–1418. Volume I and II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ralph Hexter – David Townsend (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Jana Nechutová, Study of Latin Medieval Literature in Bohemia, in: Listy filologické / Folia philologica 115, 1 (1992), pp. 148–156.
Marie Bláhová, Vernacular Historiography in Medieval Czech Lands, in: Medievalia 19, 1 (2016), pp. 33–65.
Peter C. A. Morée, Preaching in fourteenth-century Bohemia: The Life and Ideas of Milicius de Chremsir (+1374) and his Significance in the Historiography of Bohemia. Heršpice: EMAN, 1999.
Thomas A. Fudge, Jerome of Prague and the Foundations of the Hussite Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Pavel Soukup, Jan Hus: The Life and Death of a Preacher. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2020.
Matthew Spinka (ed.), Advocates of Reform. From Wyclif to Erasmus. Louisville (Kentucky): Westminster John Knox Press, 2006 (The Library of Christian Classics).
Ota Pavlicek (ed.), Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia: Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021 (Studia Artistarum 48).
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