Český časopis historický 122 (2024), 3
ČESKÝ ČASOPIS HISTORICKÝ | THE CZECH HISTORICAL REVIEW https://doi.org/10.56514/cchročník 122 č. 3/2024 S. 464-688
STUDIE / STUDIES
Karel PACOVSKÝ Pražské benediktinky mezi klášterem a světem. Klauzura ve svatojiřském opatství ve středověku (Benedictine Nuns of Prague Between the Convent and the World: Enclosure in St. George’s Abbey in the Middle Ages) S. 467
The study focuses on the issue of monastic enclosure in St. George’s Abbey at Prague Castle. It gathers sources related to the contacts of Prague Benedictine nuns with the outside world and examines how their separation from the world evolved from the beginnings of the convent in the 10th century to the enforcement of strict enclosure in the first third of the 17th century, which was accompanied by extensive architectural modifications influenced by the Council of Trent. Special attention is given to the visitation of the monastery by Cardinal Guido in 1143, which may have resulted in the initial tightening or introduction of enclosure, though not comparable to later regulations. Based on this finding, it newly interprets the account of the siege and fire of Prague Castle in 1142 from the addition to the Annals of the so-called Vyšehrad Canon as an effort to legitimize monastic reforms through miracles associated with the relics of the abbey’s patron saint, St. Ludmila.
Keywords: St. George’s Convent in Prague - Prague Castle - Benedictine nuns - monastic enclosure - visitation - Gerhoh of Reichersberg - St. Ludmila - Annals of the Canon of Vyšehrad - Admont
RESUMÉThe ideal of enclosure has always been a part of the lives of monastic communities, but its implementation has varied significantly throughout history. Sources related to St. George’s Abbey at Prague Castle show that it would be anachronistic to form an image of the life of medieval nuns based on regulations shaped by the post-Tridentine Roman Church. Medieval sources do not attest to any strict separation of the Prague Benedictines nuns from the outside world. The earliest mentions of the nuns in Prague, from the 10th to the early 12th century, present them as independent, confident women who appeared outside the convent without obstacles in certain situations.
The first attempt to introduce or tighten enclosure in the nunnery can be linked to the visitation of the community by papal legate Cardinal Guido in 1143, as inferred from a letter by Gerhoh of Reichersberg about the deposition of the Prague abbess, who apparently resisted these reforms. This sheds new light on the account added to the Annals of the so-called Vyšehrad Canon about the fire of the abbey in 1142. The narrator likely aimed to legitimize the new regulations by using the popular motif of miraculous rescue from flames (known, for example, from the Benedictine convents in Admont and Marcigny) in connection with miracles linked with St. Ludmila. St. Ludmila, who did not allow her relics to be moved from the abbey, became a model for the nuns, encouraging them not to leave the abbey either.
Although enclosure, of course, constituted an integral part of life in late medieval St. George’s Abbey significantly, it was probably not very strict. The nuns left the monastery under certain conditions, whether for official matters, visiting relatives, or some pious purpose. In the mid-16th century, even a part of the sisters, led by the abbess, lived at a convent’s estate near Prague. The strictest form of enclosure began to be applied at St. George’s Convent only in the first third of the 17th century under Abbess Sophie Albínka of Helfenburg, particularly with the support of Archbishop Ernst Adalbert of Harrach. The convent had to be significantly rebuilt to meet the tightened requirements for nuns’ enclosure after the Council of Trent, to prevent any direct contact between the nuns and laypeople. The need for such architectural modifications demonstrates that the stricter monastic enclosure imposed in the 17th century was not a return to an original ideal but rather a new measure, one that the medieval buildings of the abbey were not designed to accommodate.
Jana VOJTÍŠKOVÁ Historickogeografické determinanty středověkého a raně novověkého vývoje královských měst v Čechách: metodický koncept (Historical-geographical Determinants of the Medieval and Early Modern Development of Royal Towns in Bohemia: a Methodological Concept) S. 487
The presented paper focuses on a demonstration of the methodological concept of the key role of historical-geographical factors in the development of medieval and early modern towns, using the example of royal towns in Bohemia. What is foremost of interest here is how significantly urban development was conditioned by the historical landscape, which can already be grasped as a basic platform, from the knowledge of which and possible reconstruction, medieval and early modern urban research can be successfully elaborated, striving to overcome the fragmentation of the interpretation of urban history and create conditions for syntheses based on functional comparative urban history. In this context, findings from the systematic research of medieval and early modern chancelleries of royal towns in Bohemia are also purposefully used, the conclusions of which very effectively help with comprehensive research of our urban history: by determining the level of chancellery activity, they relatively reliably reflect the prosperity of a certain royal town in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, understood in all its complexity not only as an integral part of (Central) European, state, land, and regional history, but also explored locally as a town in a landscape. Nevertheless, the research necessarily uses the knowledge of other historical disciplines, without the involvement of which it would not be possible to examine towns in the context of political, religious, economic, and cultural contexts in the broadest sense of the word, and to observe the external and internal influences on the urban organism and their impacts in the positive or negative sense of the word.
Keywords: Middle Ages – Early Modern Period – Bohemia – urban history – royal towns – methodological concept – town in the landscape – historical geography
RESUMÉEvery methodological concept entails the danger of a certain stereotypical pattern. If it is to be functional, usable, it is necessary to think through the issue properly, apply it with balance, with awareness of its advantages. The presented study focused on the town in the landscape with longue durée intentions and observed, in the context of political, economic, and cultural contexts in the broadest sense of the word, the key role of historical-geographical factors in the development of medieval and early modern royal towns in Bohemia. It was fundamental to determine the unique local combination of these factors, which take on different importance in the case of individual towns, and to also monitor strategies to overcome their potential disadvantage, because it turned out that geographical conditions could have caused towns to fall behind, or, on the contrary, could have contributed to their long-term prosperity and created reserves for overcoming adverse periods (e.g. the effects of war or natural disasters, especially fires).
In the interests of comparative urban history, we therefore asked ourselves why some royal towns located on the River Labe (Elbe) traditionally prospered better during the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period and why some lagged behind the others. Based on a selected sample of towns with the same legal status, which is unified by their location on the Elbe River, so that the differences stand out better, we documented the real differences between the Elbe royal towns, which are based on their location in the landscape. Based on a selected sample of towns with the same legal status, which is unified by their location on the River Labe, so that the differences are more conspicuous, we documented the real differences between the royal towns on the Labe, which arise from their location in the landscape. Through this case study, we drew attention to the need for historical-geographical research in our urban history, so that information obtained from research of the sources can be adequately evaluated within individual towns by various historical disciplines and their methodological procedures, and at the same time so that the findings can be compared with other urban centres. The advantage of the presented concept – the town in the landscape, which uses the knowledge of a multitude of scientific fields, is the possibility of revealing processes that have so far remained hidden from historiography, while at the same time, it has the potential to prevent the fragmentation of research, because it develops urban research from a common platform – the historical landscape, which was fundamentally affected by industrialisation and urbanisation.
Tomáš GECKO Dispoziční fond T. G. Masaryka v pavučině klientelistických sítí a peněžních toků meziválečného Hradu (The Discretionary Fund of T. G. Masaryk in the Web of Clientelistic Networks and Financial Flows of the Interwar “Castle”) S. 515
The study analyses the clientelism of the interwar Castle, which is interpreted as a cluster of many separate social networks functioning along multiple institutional and personnel axes. The argument focuses on the monetary funds behind the Castle’s clientelism. Influential actors representing the Castle carried out monetary transfers to subsidize the media, civic and scientific institutions as well as cultural, memory, charitable or legionnaires’ organizations. They sponsored related personalities, politicians, and journalists. Through money, they interfered in public discourse. The study analyses the mechanisms of the aforementioned clientelistic ties with an emphasis on the Discretionary Fund of President T. G. Masaryk, which was established in 1919 and remained the backbone of the Castle’s money transfers throughout the interwar period.
Keywords: Interwar Prague Castle – Analysis of social networks – Clientelism – Fundraising – Phenomenon T. G. Masaryk
RESUMÉThe political and social aspirations of the interwar Czechoslovak presidents T. G. Masaryk and E. Beneš outgrew the structures of the democratic state. The intentions of both presidents, as well as the ambitions of their partners, were aimed at consolidating and stabilizing the republican system in Czechoslovakia. In order to reach this goal, Masaryk, Beneš and their associates initiated the creation of several different social networks consisting of actors interacting along several different thematic and social axes. By gathering these networks into one cluster, the so-called Castle was created.
One of the most visible and criticized manifestation of the Castle at the time, which has not yet been analysed in historiography, was the existence of clientelist networks consisting of Castle patrons and their sponsors and clients. These networks arose not only as a result of the conscious actions of Masaryk, Beneš and their associates, but also from the traditions of Central European political culture and from the experience of Czechoslovak elites from resistance activities during the First World War.
The study interprets the importance of clientelistic networks for the existence of the Castle, the circumstances of their creation and the mechanisms of their functioning. The argumentation focuses on the (dis)continuities of the Castle clientelistic system with the period of the Habsburg monarchy and the resistence during the First World War, and on specific discretionary funds as a source of finance. Attention is not only focused on T. G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš as the creators of the Castle’s clientelistic system, because key roles were played by other actors, such as the Chancellor Přemysl Šámal, the financial officer of the Office of the President of the Republic Karel Strnad, the head of the third section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jan Hájek, Masaryk’s literary secretary Vasil Kaprálek Škrach or the attorneys and financial advisors of both presidents František Veselý, and Ludmila Kloudová-Veselá. They specialised in different clients and sponsors, and formed the core of different clientelistic networks of the Castle. The task of each of them was to bridge the so-called structural holes between the Castle and other social clusters of interwar Czechoslovakia, i.e. to connect the Castle with different influential structures, such as political parties, media, entrepreneurs, or public associations.
Castle clientelism was supported by a system of hidden and public funds oscillating during the entire interwar period at around half a billion Czechoslovak crowns. This money lubricated the cogs of the interwar Castle, facilitating the clustering of social networks under its standard. Within the Castle accounting, individual funds were differentiated into private, state, and public according to the nature of their sponsorship. The Castle’s monetary system also included “black” funds, as anonymized items in the state budget that were not subject to accounting controls were called at the time. The main sources of income were subsidies from state authorities and individual sponsorship, whether from wealthy businessman and bank managers or from ordinary citizens, for example compatriot collections in the USA during the First World War and immediately after its end, or public collections in Czechoslovakia for so-called jubilee funds, etc. The functioning of the Castle monetary system is illustrated by a case study of the President’s Unofficial Discretionary Fund, the Castle’s largest individual financial package. The income of the discretionary fund amounted to CZK 127 million for the entire interwar period. The fundraising mechanisms of the Castle as well as the basic trajectory of its clientelistic ties with sponsors and clients can be well demonstrated using the example of this fund.
PŘEHLED BÁDÁNÍ / RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Jiří HUTEČKA – Vítězslav PRCHAL Česká historiografie vojenství: trendy a přehled bádání 2002–2022 (Czech Military History: Trends and Research Overview 2002–2022) S. 551
The article is a retrospective analysis of the last twenty years of academic historiography of war and military institutions written in Czech. It follows on from a similarly conceived text by Ivan Šedivý, published in 2002, and its ambition is to cover the fundamental trends in the development of the field over the past two decades. Through the analysis of monographic production supplemented by crucial shorter text formats, the authors postulate a thesis about a pyramidal structure with the prevalence of methodologically conservative production supplemented by a smaller part of the field that takes inspiration in a combination of methods from social and cultural history. The authors attribute the minimal shift in the development of the field during the monitored period to a number of factors working in concert, starting with a methodological closure and ending with institutional barriers.
Keywords: historiography – Czech historiography – history of war and military science – methodology
RESUMÉThe purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive survey of two decades of Czech-written historical scholarship on war, warfare, and military institutions. Covering both the most as well as the less important works on topics ranging from medieval history up until early 21st Century, the authors put their subject matter into the context of developments in military history in general, identifying several methodological frameworks that dominate the recent scholarly efforts in the field. Standing on the broad and discursively influential base of popular military histories, the dominant concept of writing and understanding military history is strictly positivist, with little to no attention given to any specific approach or methodology. Here, even traditional operational history is largely missing, with majority of works focusing instead on institutional and organizational histories, or biographies. In the case of the latter in particular, the authors identify strong undertones of heroic national discourse of modern history. Only a minority, albeit strong, betrays methodological inspiration by various strains of social history approach in the vein of new military history, while some especially more recent works are being inspired by the cultural study of war. The authors see this rather conservative outlook of the field as a direct result of a variety of institutional and structural causes, combined with the ongoing tendency both in the field itself and in the broader historical profession to sideline military history as something apart from academic research. Overall, there is little progress identified over the studied period, especially when compared to the situation from around the turn of the century when various authors felt hopeful of future developments in terms of methodology and integration of the field into the wider scholarship.
OBZORY LITERATURY / REVIEW ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
Recenze
Eva SEMOTANOVÁ – Pavel CHROMÝ – Zdeněk KUČERA (eds.) Historical Geography in Czechia: Themes and Concepts S. 589 (Jiří Kupka)
PETR CHELČICKÝ Postila I. K vydání připravil Jaroslav BOUBÍN
PETR CHELČICKÝ Postila II. K vydání připravil Jaroslav BOUBÍN S. 595 (František Šmahel)
Marek STARÝ Cizozemci a spoluobyvatelé. Udělování českého obyvatelského práva (inkolátu) v době předbělohorské S. 598 (Lukáš M. Vytlačil)
Marian HOCHEL (ed.) Opavský kongres 1820 a politika Svaté aliance mezi časy S. 603 (Vojtěch Szajkó)
Petr VALENTA – Richard DOTZAUER Podnikatelský příběh z doby počátků kapitalismu v Čechách
Pavel DUFEK – Zdenko MARŠÁLEK – Michal NOVOTNÝ Železnice, cukr, noviny a odvaha. Osudy Beniesů v Čechách i jinde S. 610 (Milan Hlavačka)
Jana LOSOVÁ – Vojtěch KESSLER – Veronika KRŠKOVÁ (eds.) Babičky očima vnoučat S. 614 (Jana Malínská)
Marek ŠMÍD Vatikán a Československo ve 20. století S. 619 (Marián Sekerák)
Milan HLAVAČKA – Pavel BEK Ringhofferové. Rodina a podnikání S. 623 (Jana Geršlová)
Milan HLAVAČKA – Jiří KROPÁČEK (eds.) Lanna et Lanna. Rodina a podnikání S. 630 (Jana Geršlová)
Miloš HOŘEJŠ Nacistická germanizační a osidlovací politika v Protektorátu Čechy a Morava S. 635 (Václav Daněk)
Ota KONRÁD – Miroslav KUNŠTÁT – Michal DIMITROV – Jakub JOZA – Martin LANDA Ztráta starých jistot. Rakousko 1986–2000 S. 640 (Vojtěch Szajkó)
Zprávy o literatuře S. 409
Z VĚDECKÉHO ŽIVOTA / CHRONICLE
Interview
The ICHS/CISH: Aim, Mission and Future. Interview with Catherine Horel, President of the International Committee of Historical Sciences/Comité International des Sciences Historiques (Radmila Švaříčková Slabáková) S. 663
Nekrology
Karel Durman (13. července 1932 – 14. dubna 2023 Uppsala) (Jindřich Dejmek) S. 673