Prof. František Šmahel will receive the National Award of the Government of the CR Česká hlava (Czech Intelligence)

 

Prof. František Šmahel in his research work has devoted himself to the general history of the Late Middle Ages, Humanism, the Renaissance and Reformation in Central Europe, the history of medieval universities, medieval iconology and iconography, as well as the study of late medieval doctrines and mentalities. The books and studies of Prof. Šmahel on the history of Hussitism, Charles University, the Luxembourg period, medieval philosophy and Humanism have been translated into many languages.

 

Prof. PhDr. František Šmahel, DrSc., Dr.h.c.

Brief CV

 

František Šmahel was born on 17 August 1934 in Trhová Kamenice, a town on the border between the Iron Mountains and the Czech-Moravian Highlands, where his parents has a convenience shop. During his studies at the General Secondary School in Chrudim, the history classes by Prof. Miroslav Hanuš, the famous author of psychological novels, acted upon him strongly. For political reasons, he did not receive a recommendation for university studies after his school-leaving examination, and therefore he set out on a one-year work team in the Ostrava mine of Jan Šverma. When he was later accepted in 1954 for the study of history at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, he knew how to value that and intensively studied both in the seminars of the Auxiliary Historical Sciences and in the seminars of Prof. Josef Polišenský. As a student of this professor, who was labelled as a revisionist, he could not remain at the faculty. He first joined the ZDŠ (9-year elementary school) in Litvínov, after two years of military service he was offered the position of director of the Municipal Museum there. His further research development was facilitated by Prof. František Kavka, who invited him to the authorial collective of the Brief History of Charles University. Thanks to his growing publication activity, he was accepted at the Institute of History of the CSAS in December 1964. Whereas he earlier had devoted himself to early Humanism and universal history, he was now assigned the Hussite period of Czech history. In the period of the so-called Prague Spring, he held the post of President of the company’s Revolutionary Union Movement (in Czech, ROH) at the workplaces, so his signatures were on most documents for which the Institute of History was closed after the beginning of Normalization. He was accepted at the newly established Institute of Czechoslovak and World History on a short-term contract. As soon as he finished writing the assigned chapters in the first volume of An Overview of Czech and Czechoslovak History, his contract was not renewed. Therefore at the beginning of 1975, he worked as a tram driver for the Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague. At that time, a number of significant domestic and foreign historians in solidarity helped him in his further professional activities, especially Ivan Hlaváček, others included Walter Brandmüller, Jean Delumeau, Robert Evans, Bronisław Geremek, Vilém Herold, Jerzy Korolec, Alexander Patschovsky and Josef Petráň. After the sudden death of his wife Nada in November 1979, his responsibilities for the upbringing of his daughter Yvette and son Robert increased, so he had to change his job. He was grateful to his colleagues M. Drda and R. Tecl for his acceptance at the Museum of the Hussite Revolutionary Movement in Tábor. In 1980 to 1989, he could work on extensive works on the history of Tábor and the Hussite revolution in seclusion there. Since 1984, he has been at the side of his wife Hana, today an Associate Professor of Czech Literature at FA CU. Immediately after the Velvet Revolution, he returned to the renewed Institute of History, where he was Director for two terms. In the meantime he underwent habilitation at FA CU, in 1995 he achieved a professorship and for a few years led a seminar of Czech medieval history. For the newly developing doctoral study, he was able to found in 1998 and gradually build the Centre of Medieval Studies as a joint workplace of CU and the ASCR. Currently, he is still working as its Deputy Director and leads the Grant excellence at the Czech Science Foundation.

 

Studies and Professional Preparation

1946–1953 General Secondary School in Chrudim

1954–1959 Faculty of Arts of Charles University (FA CU)

1963 PhDr. FA CU

1965 CSc. FA CU

1990 DrSc. Institute of History CSAS

1991 habilitation for the field of earlier Czech history at FA CU

1995 professor for Czech history at FA CU.

 

Employment:

1953–1954 miner at the mine of Jan Šverma in Ostrava

1959 teacher at the Elementary School in Litvínov

1959–1961 basic military service

1961–1964 Director of the Municipal Museum in Litvínov

1964–1974 scientific employees of the Institute of History of the CSAS

1975–1979 tram driver

1980–1989 historian of the Museum of the Hussite Revolutionary Movement in Tábor

1990–1998 Director of the Institute of History of the CSAS (ASCR)

1993–1998 Leader of the seminar of Czech medieval history at FA CU

1998–2004 Director of the Centre of Medieval Studies of the Academy of Science of the CR and Charles University (CMS)

2004–present – Deputy Director of the CMS

2012 Director of Grant excellence at the Czech Science Foundation

 

Membership in domestic specialised and scientific bodies (a selection)

1965–1970 member of the editorial board of the journal Dějiny a současnost (History and Present)

1969–1970 leading editor of the revue Mediaevalia Bohemica

1990–2000 leading editor of the Czech Historical Journal

1990–1991 Vice President of the Grant Agency of the ASCR

1990–1998 member of the National Committee of Historians

1992–1993 member of the Coordination Council of the Government of the CR for Science and Technology

1993–1994 Vice President of the Scientific Council of the ASCR, also its member, in 2001–2009 its President 1993–1999 member of the government Commission for Scientific Degrees

1994–2009 member of the Administration of the foundation Nadání Josefa, Zdeňky a Marie Hlávkových

1995–2009 member of the Scientific Council of Charles University

1998–2006 member of the Accreditation Commission of the Government of the CR

1999–2009 President of the Commission of the Institute of History in Rome

2003–2008 member of the Commission for Granting the Awards of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

 

Significant Recognition, Invitations to Lectures and Honours

1965 Commemorative Hus Medal of the CSAS

1967 Annual Award of the Publishing House Melantrich for the book Jeroným Pražský (Jerome of Prague)

1968 lecture at All Souls College, Oxford

1983 Collège de France (Paris) lecture cycle and bronze medal

1983 lectures at universities in Tours and Lille

1984 lecture at the university in Leipzig

1987 lectures ay universities in Marburg a/L, Bonn and Bochum

1990 Max Planck Research Award

1991 lectures at universities in Berlin (Freie Universität) and in Constance

1992 lectures at universities in Ostrava, Bamberg, in Fribourg (Switzerland) and in Eichstätt

1992 Commemorative Medal of J. A. Comenius

1992 Honorary Citizenship of the Town of Tábor

1993 Otto von Freising Gastprofessur, Katholische Universität Eichstätt

1993 lectures at the Max-Planck- Institut für Geschichte in Tübingen and at universities in Munich and in Budapest (Central European University)

1994 Forschungspreis der Stiftung Historisches Kolleg, München

1994 Mitglied des Collegium Carolinum, München

1994 lectures at universities in London and Constance

1994 Bronze Medal of Charles University

1995 Annual Award of the Academy of Science of the CR for the book Husitská revoluce I-IV (The Hussite Revolution, vol. 1-4)

1995 member of the Learned Society of the CR, in 1998-2004 its Vice President and President

1995 lectures at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, further at universities in Innsbruck and in Erlangen

1996 Hans-Sigrist-Preis University in Bern

1996 Honorary Member of The American Historical Association

1996 Lecture at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

1996 4th anniversary lecture in honour of J. L. Fischer at na Univerzitě Palackého v Olomouci

1997 Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

1997 Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy

1997 Lecture at University in Olomouc

1998 Medal of František Palacký of the ASCR

1998 lecture at the university in Postupy and Festrede at the university in Constance

2002 State Recognition for Service, Level I

2002 Lecture at the University of Pardubice

2002 Medal of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Level II

2003 Mitglied der Monumenta Germaniae Historica

2004 Silver Medal of Charles University

2004 Award of František Palacký UP in Olomouc

2004 Honorary member of the Association of Czech Historians – Historic Club 1872

2004 Medal of the Instytute Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN Warsaw

2005 Praemium Bohemiae in the field of history

2005 Festrede at the university in Constance

2006 Medal of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Level I

2006 Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

2006 Dr. h. c. University of Hradec Králové

2007 Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America

2007 Dr. h. c. University of Pardubice

2007 Dr. h. c. University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

2007 Commemorative Medal of the Faculty of Arts of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

2008 Gold Medal of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pardubice

2008 Medal of the Learned Society for Service in the Advancement of Science

2009 Honorary Medal De scientia et humanitate optime meritis ASCR

2011 Award of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (Prague Section)

2013 Award of the Literary Fund for the work on the Luxemburgs (along with Lenka Bobková)

2013 Award of the Academy of Sciences of the CR for a Scientific Result (along with Robert Novotný, Pavlína Mašková and Lenka Bobková)

 

Papers at International Conferences

1964 Symposium Pragense Cultus Pacis (1464–1964)

1965 Symposium Hussianum Pragense

1968 Anglo-Czechoslovak Conference of Historians, London-Oxford

1969 Polish-Czechoslovak Conference of Historians, Poznań

1970 Symposium Hussianum Pragense: Tábor et la révolution hussite

1975 La culture des élites et la culture de masse en Pologne au déclin du moyen age, Kazimierz (Poland)

1975 The Universities in the Late Middle Ages, Leuven

1976 The Brothers Minor in Medieval Poland, Lublin

1978 Congress of the International Commission for Comparative Church History (CIHEC), Warsaw

1979 5th European Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics, Kraków

1982 L' emergenza storica delle attività terziarie (sec. II-XVIII), XIV Settimana di Studio, Istituto Franceso Datini, Prato

1985 Humanismus in den böhmischen Ländern als neue Bildungsbewegung, Walberberg, Germany

1986 Friedensgedanke und Friedensbewahrung am Beginn der Neuzeit, Leipzig

1986 L'Église et le peuple chrétien dans les Pays de l'Europe du Centre-Est et du Nord (XIVe-XVe s.), Roma

1986 Jan Hus und die Hussiten in europäischen Aspekten, Trier

1987 Die Anfänge der Stände in Preußen und seinen Nachbarländern, Kolloquium des Historischen Kollegs, München

1987 Sigismundus rex et imperator, Internationale Tagung Budapest

1989 Das Publikum politischer Theorie im 14. Jahrhundert, Kolloquium des Historischen Kollegs München

1990 Anticlericalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Tucson, The University of Arizona

1990 Geschichte der böhmischen Länder ein Forschungsgebiet unter neuen Bedingungen, Tagung des Collegium Carolinum, Bad Wiessee

1991 Gesellschafts-und Kirchenkritik im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert, Kolloquium an der Humboldt Universität Berlin

1991 Le clergé rural dans l'Europe médiévale et moderne. 13es Journée Internationales d'Histoire, l'Abbaye de Flaran

1991 Geistliche und weltliche Gewalten in der Realität und der Ideologie des hohen und späten Mittelalters, Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Bernhard Töpfer, Humboldt-Universität Berlin

1992 Vocabulaire des colleges universitaires (XIIIe-XVI s.). Colloque CIVICIMA, Leuven

1992 Heresy and Literacy. Conference at Lady Margaret Hall Oxford

1992 Humanismus und Renaissance in Ostmitteleuropa vor der Reformation.

1992 30. Arbeitstagung des Instituts für Ostdeustche Kirchen- und Kulturgeschichte, Regensburg

1992 Der Name Tabor in der Weltgeschichte. Internationale Tagung Tábor

1992 Verlorenes oder kommendes Paradies auf Erde, 39. Deutscher Historikertag, Sektion 24/02, Hannover

1993 Gelehrte im Reich. Zur Sozial- und Wirkungsgeschichte akademischer Eliten des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. Internationale Tagung im Centro Stefano Francini, Monte Verità, Ascona

1993 Eschatologie und Hussitismus. Internationales Kollokvium, Prague

1993 Konstanz-Prager Historisches Kolloquium, Konstanz-Praha-Tábor

1993 Jan Hus zwischen Zeiten, Völkern, Konfessionen, Internationales Symposion im Evangelischen Bildungszentrum Bayreuth

1994 Deutsch-Tschechische Dobrovsky-Gesellschaft für Gelehrsamkeit und Künste, Dresden

1994 XXVI Settimana di Studi Il tempo libero, economia e società, secc. XIII-XVIII, Prato

1994 Metropolen-Symposium des Forschungsschwerpunktes Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas, Berlin

1994 Reichenau – Tagung: Toleranz im Mittelalter

1995 Symposium Prag - Heidelberg, Charles University, Prague

1995 Kolloquien des Historischen Kollegs München Häresie und vorzeitige Reformation im Spätmittelalter

1995 18th Congress of Historical Sciences, Montreal, Major themes 1 Nations, Peoples, and State Formes

1996 Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venezia Italia e Boemia nella cornice del Rinascimento europeo

1996 VI Convegno di Studi sulla civiltà del tardo Medioevo, San Miniato Vita religiosa e identità politiche universalità e particolarismi nell´Europea del tardo medioevo

1997 6. Deutsch-tschechische Schulbuchkonferenz, Braunschweig

1998 The Role of the University at the Threshold of the 21 ^st Century, Prague

1998 1. Colloquium mediaevale Pragense, Prague

1998 Le Vaudois. Colloque intgernational, Aix-en-Provence

1999 Jüdische Gemeinden und ihr christlicher Kontext, Trier

2000 UNI Konstanz Die Bildwelt der Diagramme Joachims von Fiore

2000 IV. Symposium The Bohemian Reformation, Prague

2002 Die Wladislaswsche Landesordnung und Die Anfänge der verfassungsmässigen Ordnung in den böhmischen Ländern (1500-1619), Prague

2001 36 ^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazzo, session 2 Contemporary Hussite Studies

2001 Fourth Utrecht Symposium on Medieval Literacy The Development of Literate Mentalities in East Central Europe

2001 30. Arbeitstagung des Instituts für ostdeutsche Kirchen- und Kulturgeschichte Kirchliche Reformimpulse des 14./15. Jahrhunderts in Ostmitteleuropa

2002 Das lateinische und volkssprachige Schriftum im Umkreis der Universitäten Prag, Wien und Heidelberg, Universität Heidelberg

2002 Deux pays dans l´histoire de l´Europe, Paris INALCO

2004 Konfese a národ v době reformací, Pardubice

2004 V. The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, Prague

2004 VI. mezinárodní husitologické symposium, Tábor

2005 La storiografie tra passato e futuro. Il X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Roma 1955) cinquant´anni dopo, Roma

2006 Representations of the Past. The Writing of National Histories III.The Middle Ages and Medievalism in the Writing of National History, Oxford

2006 Kunst als Herrschaftsinstrument unter den Luxemburgern, Prague

2007 La noblesse et la croisade à la fin du Moyen Age, Prague

2007 Rituály, ceremonie a festivity ve Střední Evropě 14. a 15. století (Rituals, Ceremonies and Festivities in Central Europe of the 14th and 15th Centuries), Prague

2008 Neue tschechische Interpretationen der Fragen des deutsch-tschechischen Zusammenlebens, 47. Deutscher Historikertag, Sektion 3. X., Dresden

2011 slavnostní přednáška v Musée international de la Réforme Genève

2011 Akademischer Festakt an der Universität Leipzig

 

Supervision of Dissertations at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University

2003 Mgr. Petr Hlaváček: „Františkánská observance v českých zemích na přelomu středověku a novověku“ [Franciscan Observance in the Czech lands at the end of the Middle Ages and Beginning of the Modern Period]

2003 Kateřina Kubínová: „Imitatio Romae. Karel IV. a Řím“ [Imitatio Romae, Charles IV and Rome]

2003 Mgr. Robert Šimůnek: „Správní systém a služebná klientela v pozdně středověkých Čechách: rožmberská doména 1418-1472“ [Administrative System and Service Clientele in Late Medieval Bohemia: Rosenberg Domain, 1418-1472]

2007 Mgr. Pavel Soukup: „Reformní kazatelství v pozdně středověkých Čechách. Studie o nejstarších kázáních Jakoubka ze Stříbra“. [Reform Preaching in Late Medieval Bohemia: A Study of the Earliest Preaching by Jacubellus of Mies]

2008 PhDr. Kateřina Jíšová: „Testamenty novoměstských měšťanů v pozdním středověku“ [Testaments of New Town Burghers in the Late Middle Ages]

2008 PhDr. Blanka Nořížová: „Synody v Čechách 1440-1540. Proměny synodální praxe v Čechách v kontextu vývoje synodality v Evropě“ [Synods in Bohemia, 1440-1540: Tranformations of Synod Practice in Bohemia in the Context of the Development of Synodality in Europe]

2009 Mgr. Pavlína Cermanová: „Apokalyptické vize husitského věku“. [Apocalyptic Visions of the Hussite Period]

 

Overviews of the Publication Results

Cf . Bibliography of the work by František Šmahel from 1956-1994, in Husitství - Reformace - Renesace. Sborník k 60. narozeninám Františka Šmahela [Hussitism - Reformation - Renaissance], vol. III, Praha 1994, pp. 1059–1129, further Bibliography of the work by František Šmahel from 1995–2 004, in Evropa a Čechy na konci středověku. Sborník příspěvků věnovaných Františku Šmahelovi [Europe and Bohemia at the End of the Middle Ages: A Selection of Articles Devoted to František Šmahel], Praha 2004, pp. 11–33 and Selected Bibliography of František Šmahel from 1956–2004, in Verba in imaginibus. To František Šmahel on His 70th Birthday, Praha 2004, pp. 309–314. The most detailed bibliography so far has come out in 2009: František Šmahel, Nalézání, setkávání a míjení v životě jednoho medievisty [Finding, Meeting and Missing in the Life of One Medievalist], pp. 466–5 29 (see also the foreign reviews and accounts).

 

Independent Book Publications (A Selection)

1. Humanismus v době poděbradské, Praha, CSAS Publishing House 1963 (Reports of the CSAS, ŘSV 73-6).

2. Jiří z Poděbrad 1464–1964, Poděbrady, Výstavnictví 1964 (also English, French, Germany and Russian versions).

3. Světové kulturní výročí - Mistr Jan Hus (exhibition catalogue), Praha 1965.

4. Jeroným Pražský. Život revolučního intelektuála, Praha, Melantrich 1966.

5. Pražské univerzitní studentstvo v předrevolučním období 1399–1419, Praha, CSAS Publishing House 1967 (Reports of the CSAS, ŘSV 77-3).

6. Podjebrad Gyorgy, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 1967.

7. Jan Žižka z Trocnova, Praha, Melantrich 1969.

8. Hranice pravdy, Praha, Naše vojsko 1969.

9. Idea národa v husitských Čechách, České Budějovice, Růže 1972, 2nd annotated edition. Praha, Argo 2000.

10. Verzeichnis der Quellen zum Prager Universalienstreit 1348–1500, Wrocław-Warszawa- Kraków-Gdańsk, Ossolineum 1980.

11. La révolution hussite, une anomalie historique, Paris, PUF 1985.

12. Mistr Jan Hus, Praha, Svoboda 1985 (also a German version).

13. Husův proces v Kostnici, Praha, Melantrich 1989 (Slovo k historii 18).

14. (with a collective of authors) Dějiny Tábora I-1, České Budějovice, Jihočeské nakladatelství 1989.

15. (with a collective of authors) Dějiny Tábora I-2, České Budějovice, Jihočeské nakladatelství 1990.

16. Husitská revoluce I-IV, Praha, Historický ústav 1993, 2. vyd. Praha, Karolinum 1995–1 996.

17. Zur politischen Präsentation und Allegorie im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert, München, Oldenbourg 1994.

18. Historia magistra: poučení z historie. 4. výroční přednáška k poctě J. L. Fischera, Olomouc 1998.

19. (ed.) Häresie und vorzeitige Reformation im Spätmittelalter (München, 1998).

20. Husitské Čechy. Struktury, procesy, ideje, Praha, Lidové noviny 2001.

21. Die Hussitische Revolution I-III. Aus dem Tschechischen übersetzt von Thomas Krzenck. Redaktion: Alexander Patschovsky, Hannover, Hansche Buchhandlung 2002 (MGH Schriften 43,1–3).

22. Mezi středověkem a renesancí, Praha, Argo 2002.

23. Cesta Karla IV. do Francie 1377–1378, Praha, Argo 2006, 2010.

24. Die Prager Universität im Mittelalter. Gesammelte Aufsätze / The Charles University in the Middle Ages. Selected Studies, (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance 28), Leiden-Boston, Brill 2007.

25. Konstanzer und Prager Begegnungen. Zwei Vorträge Alexander Patschovsky gewidmet (Konstanzet Universitätsreden 228, Konstanz 2007).

26. Nalézání, setkávání a míjení v životě jednoho medievisty, Praha, Argo 2009.

27. (ed. with Gabrielo Silagi) Magistri Hieronymi de Praga Quaestiones, polemica, epistulae. (Corpus christianorum, Continuatio mediaevalis 222) Turnhout, Brepols 2010.

28. Život a dílo mistra Jeronýma Pražského. Zpráva o výzkumu, Praha, Argo 2010.

29. Basilejská kompaktáta. Příběh deseti listin, (Knižnice Dějin a současnosti 45), Praha 2011.

30. Diví lidé v (imaginaci) pozdního středověku, Praha, Argo 2012.

31. (ed. along with Lenka Bobková) Lucemburkové. Česká koruna uprostřed Evropy, Praha, Lidové noviny 2012).

32. Jan Hus. Život a dílo, Praha, Argo 2013 (in press).

 

Citations and Responses to His Works

Citation of the scientific historical literature is not done by any agency. In the case of František Šmahel, the citations would reach an unusually high number. As an example, it is sufficient to mention that in two standard works of the character of university textbooks, Šmahel is cited roughly 200x (see Petr Čornej, Velké dějiny zemí koruny české V [Great History of the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia, V], Praha 2000 and Francis Rapp, Christentum IV. Zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit (1378–1552), Stuttgart 2006). The reviews and accounts have the decisive importance for his research. There are more of these for each of his works, sometimes dozens. Their list is in the mentioned publication by F. Šmahel, Nalézání, setkávání a míjení v životě jednoho medievisty [Finding, Meeting and Missing in the Life of One Medievalist], Praha 2008, pp. 466-520. It also to take into account that Šmahel’s works have been published in 14 countries (England, Belgium, Brazil, France Holland, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and the USA).

 

Contact:
Prof. František Šmahel, Centre of Medieval Studies of the Institute of Philosophy, ASCR, e-mail: fsmahel@iol.cz, mobile: +420 724 999 843

 

Photo: Stanislava Kyselová (Akademický bulletin)

Prepared by: Institute of Philosophy of the ASCR and Department of Media Communications of the Head Office of the ASCR