The Chronicle of the Czechs
The Chronicle of the Czechs
Cosmas of Prague
Translated with an introduction and notes by Lisa Wolverton
Series: Medieval Texts in Translation
Copyright Date: 2009
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fgpmb
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Book Info
The Chronicle of the Czechs
Book Description:

The Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague (d. 1125) is a masterwork of medieval historical writing, deeply erudite, consciously researched, and narrated in high rhetorical style.

eISBN: 978-0-8132-1713-0
Subjects: History
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.1
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.2
  3. LIST OF MAPS, FIGURES, AND TABLES
    LIST OF MAPS, FIGURES, AND TABLES (pp. ix-x)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.3
  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. xi-xii)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.4
  5. [Illustrations]
    [Illustrations] (pp. xiii-xviii)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.5
  6. INTRODUCTION
    INTRODUCTION (pp. 3-26)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.6

    Sometime before 1120 an elderly Czech cleric sat down to write a Latin history of his land and people. Frustrated by the civil conflicts that had dominated the previous two decades, he decided to give his contemporaries an account of their past that might inspire them to better conduct in the future. He knew this would not make him popular: “men in present times,” he comments, “do nothing good themselves and so refuse to believe the good deeds they hear of others.”¹ But however difficult it might be to describe the deeds of men yet living, he found that the...

  7. THE CHRONICLE OF THE CZECHS
    • BOOK ONE
      BOOK ONE (pp. 29-108)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.7

      To Lord Severus, provost of the church of Mělník,² endowed with both literary knowledge and spiritual understanding, from Cosmas, dean in name only of the church of Prague,³ who after the contest of this life will have his reward in the celestial kingdom. I submit myself to your paternity with so much love and devotion of my mind that—I call God as my witness—I cannot speak, just as human reason cannot comprehend a love so great. True love can in no respect be kept one’s own, private or hidden; it should be expressed to the one whom it...

    • BOOK TWO
      BOOK TWO (pp. 109-181)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.8

      To Clement, the spiritual father of the monastery of Břevnov,¹ thus possessing a name drawn from reality [i.e., clemency] while always engaging deeply in theory, from Cosmas, hardly worthy to be called dean, the partnership of the angelic senate. Turning things over in my mind, I resisted sending a thing so worthy of charity to a man of such holiness that indeed weights of gold and silver are of no account to him and only those things that are spiritual please him. Still I considered it best merely to follow your will. I understood through your cleric named Deocarus, who...

    • BOOK THREE
      BOOK THREE (pp. 182-254)
      https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.9

      With God’s piety supporting me, I have now fulfilled the promises I consider myself to have made you, reader.¹ Remembering a few things among many concerning exploits, causes, and times past, I have now brought my narrative’s history up to the time of Duke Břetislav the Younger. But why I have now decided to delay this pressing work, this work of value, is not irrelevant.

      Concerning present-day men and times it is more beneficial for us to remain completely silent than to speak the truth, because the truth always makes us unpopular and we incur loss by it. But if...

  8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
    BIBLIOGRAPHY (pp. 255-260)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.10
  9. INDEX
    INDEX (pp. 261-274)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.11
  10. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 275-275)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt3fgpmb.12
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