Miquel Beltrán

God’s Essence and Attributes according to Some Jewish Thinkers in Renaissance Mantua

The aim of this paper is to give an account of some arguments used by Judah Moscato and other Mantuan Jewish thinkers of the Renaissance to equate God’s essence with the Supernal Torah, and to argue that nature can be considered as a realm in which God’s signs are ubiquitously stamped. According to Moscato’s Sermons, God transmits His spiritual energy to nature in such a way that He is in some manner all of the existents. Given so, man is required to search for the evidence of God in nature by means of his intellect, to decode the signs through which God unveils the eternal intelligible truths contained in the Supernal Torah. The Neoplatonic bias perceptible in the Kabbalistic works of Yohanan Alemanno and Abraham Yagel is also examined.

Jana Černá

(Non) plus ultra per Britannia: The Influence of Spanish Scholarship on Bacon’s Idea of the Restoration and Classification of the Sciences

This paper analyses the impact of Spanish Renaissance science (particularly natural history and cosmography) – or rather, its methodology – on the scientific thought of Francis Bacon. The aim of this study is to identify the features of Baconian thought that are similar to some of the concepts and practices of Spanish scholars (Francisco Hernandez, Juan Huarte de San Juan and cosmographers of the House of Trade in Seville). Specifically, the text tries to demonstrate the hypothetic influence of Spanish thought on Bacon's concepts of the institutionalisation of knowledge, empirical and experimental methods of scientific research, the idea that "power is knowledge" and the ways of classification of sciences. Some simplifications and misinterpretations of the Spanish roots of Baconian science (Cañizares-Esguerra, A. Barrera-Osorio, T. J. Reiss, D. Goodman and J. Pimentel) are also reappraised or refuted in this paper.

Petr Dvořák

Self-evident Propositions in Late Scholasticism: The Case of "God exists"

The paper explores the status of the proposition "God exists" in late scholastic debates of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in some key authors of the era. A proposition is said to be self-evident if its truth is known solely from the meaning of the terms and is not inferred from other propositions. It does not appear to be immediately evident from the terms that God exists, for the concept expressed by "God" is based on the relation to creatures and negation of imperfection and does not reach to the divine essence. Thomas Aquinas maintains that there are two types of self-evident propositions: those self-evident in themselves (secundum se) but not to us (non quoad nos) and those self-evident in themselves as well as to us. "God exists" is of the first type.
For Scotus a self-evident proposition is such that if its terms are conceived by any intellect, the truth of the proposition becomes known from the terms, non-inferentially. In his view there is no distinction between a self-evident proposition in itself and that in relation to us, because any proposition self-evident in itself is known to be such to any intellect, even though it might not be actually known; it would be known, provided that the terms are conceived. So for Scotus the sentence "God exists" expresses different propositions for the blessed in heaven, the angels and God on the one hand and humans on the other. The former is self-evident, the latter is not.
While later scholastics accept either the solution of Thomas or that of Scotus, according to which "God exists" is not self-evident for humans, Thomas de Argentina (also known as Thomas of Strasbourg, 1275-1357) differs in that for him "God exists" is self-evident for humans too. The position of Thomas Aquinas was defended by Domingo Bañez (1528–1604), Francisco Zumel (1540–1607) and Gregorio de Valentia (1549–1603). In contrast, Johannes Poncius (John Punch or Ponce, 1603–1661, also 1599–1672) was a famous adherent of Scotus. There is a fair number of scholastics harmonizing the doctrine of Thomas and Scotus: Bernard Sannig (1638–1704), Luis de Molina (1536–1600), Gabriel Vázquez (c. 1549–1604), Rodrigo de Arriaga (1592–1667) and Jean Lalemandet (1595–1647). According to these authors, when Thomas says that "God exists" is self-evident in itself, he speaks about the extensional proposition, i.e. the state of affairs being conceptualized, which does not contradict Scotus's teaching.

Jan Malura

The Reception of German Contemplative Literature in Protestant Circles of Late Humanist Bohemia

The study deals with early modern literary works whose purpose was to improve the private devotion of the laity. In German-speaking lands, the term used for this genre is Erbauungsliteratur; in Czech-speaking lands it is called nábožensky vzdělavatelná literature (religious educational literature). There was a real boom of this type of literature in the German-speaking Protestant countries from the 1580s. This paper analyses how printed production in the Czech language coped with this phenomenon. It focuses primarily on books in which the genre of mediation dominates, and explores the prompt reaction to two authors active between approximately 1580–1620 who found intensive response in the Bohemian Lands. One was the non-conformist writer Martin Moller (1547–1606), whose activity was connected primarily with Lower Silesia. His two books written in German were published in Czech as early as 1593. One was the První díl Meditationes (First Part of Meditationes), compiled predominantly from the meditations of medieval mystics (translated by Tobiáš Mouřenín of Litomyšl); the other a volume of Passiontide meditations, Soliloqvia de Passione Iesu Christi (translated by Daniel Adam of Veleslavín). Our second author is the influential theologian of Lutheran orthodoxy Johann Gerhard (1582–1637), who worked mainly at the university in Jena and wrote in Latin. Gerhard's contemplative work was issued in a Czech version for the first time in 1616, under the title Padesátero přemyšlování duchovní (Fifty spiritual meditations). It was translated by the otherwise unknown burgher Pavel Lykaon Kostelecký from the Old Town of Prague. Gerhard uses impact of affects and elaborate rhetoric, and understands meditation as the comfort and healing of the sick soul. The dominant aim of the books analysed was not denominational influence, but the deepening of the burgher's private spiritual life and his self-improvement. The translations at the same time raise Czech religious prose to a new stylistic level, founded on linguistic expressiveness. The impulses of German contemplative literature later bore fruit in the work of Comenius, especially in his so called consolation writings of the 1620s and 1630s. From the 1710s, further interest in the more sophisticated writings on meditation can be traced in the Czech and Slovak environment, that is, among the Protestant exiles and Lutherans in Upper Hungary.

Markéta Klosová

School Theatre after Comenius: Šebestián Macer and the Leszno Plays (1641–1652)

The article is devoted to dramas performed at the school in Leszno in the 17th century, especially in the 1640s and 1650s – that is, during the rectorate of Šebestián Macer of Letošice. According to surviving sources, the number of plays produced then, in comparison with the preceding era when Comenius was rector, definitely did not decrease. The tendencies established by Comenius's play Diogenes of 1640 continued in the next period. In the Macer era, first, a number of secular elements (e.g. in the play Hercules monstrorum domitor) were introduced in plays performed on the Leszno stage; secondly, at that time too, factual teaching material was adapted into a play (Macer's dramatisation of Comenius's Janua). That was in harmony with the practice of a number of Polish and Silesian schools at the time, which presented actus oratorii, in principal composed rhetorical productions that in some cases adapted the teaching material.

Josef Kadeřábek

Esteemed Friends, Heretics, Traitors:
Changes in the Perception of Post-White Mountain Émigrés from Slaný

This study addresses a previously unexamined aspect of post-White Mountain exile: the way the image of those who had left the Bohemian lands gradually changed in their original social environment. The author carries out an analytical probe into the particular social environment of the Royal Town of Slaný, from which one of the largest waves of refugees from the Kingdom of Bohemia left for Saxony in the 1620s. Drawing on provincial, municipal and church sources, he endeavours to show how the picture of the local exiles gradually changed from a thoroughly tolerant attitude to one of unequivocally negative rejection. Several factors lay behind this change. Heavy pressure from above, at provincial and patrimonial level, was put to bear on the Slaný burghers, spreading a negative image of the exiles. After 1635, in connection with the alliance concluded between the Emperor and the Saxon Elector, this pressure differentiated. From below, it first took the form of an attempt by individual townspeople to acquire – by circulating a negative image of the exiles – social and financial benefits in the newly forming post-White Mountain society. This shift was later supported by a wave of popular religiosity evoked by the events of the Thirty Years War, by generational change, and by a complete transformation of local denominational identification and collective identity. The author would like in his further work to compare this local probe into the urban environment with research into urban communities with a different social dynamic and geography, and later to undertake similar research in the context of the lower and upper nobility.

Eva Hajdinová

Bohemian Non- Catholics and Languedoc nouveaux convertis: Prophetic and Sectarian Movements in a Comparative Perspective

The culminating confessional rivalries in the early 17^th century provided fertile ground in much of Europe, especially Central Europe, for visions of the imminent End of the World and Christ's Second Coming. This paper offers a new perspective for the well-known topic and compares the eschatological visions in the 17^th and 18^th centuries of the Bohemian non-Catholics and emigrants on the one hand and the secret Huguenots on the other. While the belligerent apocalyptic visions in the Bohemian environment saw a turning point and an opportunity to overthrow the Antichrist in the imminent coming of an allied Protestant ruler destined by God and this continued until the end of the 18^th century, the French Protestant prophecies appealed almost exclusively to the glory of Christ and his rule on Earth. Despite significant differences in the religious practice and historical contexts of the two cases, we observe not only very similar physical manifestations in the prophets' behaviour but also, thanks to these ideas, a renewal of the declining piety of the believers and the reactivation of the underground religious movement. In both environments the apocalyptic visions have been heavily criticized by legal ecclesiastical authorities in exile. Disciplinary interventions against these heterodox ideas had however a completely different result, playing a significant role in the process of legalization of Protestant worship at the end of the period in question.

Nicolette Mout

Consolation at Night: Jan Patočka and his Correspondence with Comeniologists

Jan Patočka (1907–1977) approached Johannes Amos Comenius as a fellow-philosopher, while admiring him also for his intellectual and moral steadfastness. He studied Comenius as a philosopher from the thirties onwards, stressing the latter's unique position in the history of Czech and European thought. Patočka's many Comeniological publications were analysed and highly appreciated by fellow-Comeniologists.
In the first volume, containing correspondence with Czech friends and colleagues, letters start in the early thirties, but Comeniology, including the vicissitudes surrounding the edition of Comenius's complete works, come to the fore from the late fifties onwards. Correspondents include friends and colleagues such as Josef Brambora and Antonín Škarka and a few older colleagues. A large number of letters was exchanged with Comenius's biographer Milada Blekastad and with the young philosopher Stanislav Sousedík.
The second volume comprises letters exchanged with only a few foreign correspondents: next to the Ukrainian scholar Dmytro Čyževskyj and the French colleague Marcelle Denis, a personal friend of Patočka's, the greater part of the volume is filled with letters to and from the German scholar and personal friend Klaus Schaller.
These two volumes add much to our understanding of Patočka's nearly lifelong and profound interest in Comenius's thought. The intellectual acumen and constant engagement reflected in these letters must have meant much to Patočka and his Comeniological correspondents in and outside Czechoslovakia. Maybe these exchanges of letters brought some light and consolation even in the darkest of times.

Jiří Beneš

Humanist Scholars on Authority of their Latin Bible Translations

The study deals with the motives, approaches, and apologies of the leading humanist scholars in the field of translating and interpreting the Bible. Special attention is paid to the crucial figure of the Humanist Biblical tradition, Erasmus of Rotterdam. His edition of the Greek text of the New Testament and his new Latin translation of it represent the first flowering of New Testament exegesis, based on criticism and philology. No matter how conscientious his approach to the Biblical text might have been, he and his followers had to cope with the basic problem of authenticity of the text merely derived from the Holy Writ. The present paper deals with the arguments of Erasmus and his contemporaries or successors, namely Immanuel Tremellius, Santes Pagninus, Theodor Beza, Sebastian Castellio and the editors of the Zurich Bible (especially Petrus Cholinus), defending not only possibility, but also utility and benefit of new Bible translations for the renewal of spirituality and of religious thought itself. After having explored the representative achievements of their endeavors, the author comes to conclusion that the principal question for them was not "whether", but "why" and "how". They were aware of dealing with delicate matter, but in principle they did not consider it an essential obstacle. Common feature of their argumentation has been explicitly grasped by Erasmus (see motto): the Holy Spirit invites us to cooperation, he never operates alone. Given this, there was no reason to ruminate the question of authority. The "verbal inspiration of the biblical text", an important principle held later by many Protestant, was not order of the day at that times. Moreover, the theory of divine inspiration not only of the Hebrew text, but also of that of its Greek translation, was sustained as early as in the eve of Christianity by Philo of Alexandria to corroborate the authority of the Septuagint. In a certain simplification we may assume that this was the first attempt to justify translating of the Holy Scripture.

Martin Žemla

Valentin Weigel and His Interpretation of the Book of Genesis

An important part of the work of the Lutheran pastor, mystic, theosophist, and Paracelsian Valentin Weigel (1533–1588) consists of interpretations of the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. The writings, which treat the theme systematically and in extenso, had already caught the interest of modern scholars primarily from the historical and philological perspective, oriented towards determining their disputed authorship. Even now, however, after the publication of the critical edition of Weigel's four major commentaries on Genesis in 2007, these treatises have been little examined from the point of view of their intellectual content, sources, and role in his thought. These questions are addressed in this study. It deals with not only the four systematic commentaries but also with reflections on the same topic in other texts of the author. Weigel, whose discussions in many points foreshadow the theosophy of Jacob Böhme, turns critically against Luther and Melanchthon, and he tacitly draws on earlier interpretations (Origenes, Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus). It is on the basis of the commentaries on Genesis, which Weigel himself considered as fundamentally important from the very beginnings – and, indeed, they have a crucial position within his work – that one can assess not only his natural philosophical concepts but above all the relationship of the "natural" knowledge to the mystical and religious knowledge that are inseparably conjoined in his work. Their convergence does not include empirical examination of the world but rather the correct understanding of the introductory passages of Genesis, which according to Weigel sum up the whole Bible. For Weigel, the knowledge of nature is something essentially different from how it is presented by Paracelsus – to whom Weigel otherwise refers so much. It is man who stands at the centre of Weigel's interests – more exactly man as capax Dei – and he subjects all his theosophical reflections on creation to this mystical perspective.

Jan Čížek

The Pansophia of Jan Amos Comenius with Regard to His Concept of Nature

This study deals with the concept of natura as it is presented in Comenius's Pansophia. Since Comenius's concept of nature is inseparable from his anthropological views, the paper discusses also his anthropology. Man is considered here an integral part of the material world which, however, through his immortal mind and its three infinite components surpasses the material world and rises above it. Man, especially in his limitlessness and freedom of human will, resembles God. The human individual thus becomes not only the creation of God, but the partner and collaborator of God, insofar as the process of completing the work of Creation is concerned. The outcomes of human activity are called the world of human creation, the world of morality and the world of the spirit, in which nature is brought to perfection. The final part of the study focuses on the concept of natura humana which is important in the whole Consultatio catholica, not only in the Pansophia. Despite all difficulties in interpretation, Comenius's concept of human nature can be reconstructed. According to Comenius the basis of human nature is the openness of human existence founded on the free and unrestricted will.

Andrew L. Thomas

Francis Daniel Pastorius and the Northern Protestant Transatlantic World

In 1683 Francis Daniel Pastorius became the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first German settlement in colonial North America. He and several prominent German Pietists in Frankfurt originally wanted to follow in William Penn's wake by setting up a "godly community" in America. Although it is generally recognized that the works of Jan Amos Comenius, Jacob Böhme and Johann Valentin Andreae influenced the Frankfurt Pietists, very little has been done on addressing how much impact Rosicrucianism and Behmenism had on Pastorius's late Renaissance hopes of utopian renewal and eschatological fears. Through an examination of Pastorius's commonplace book the Beehive, this paper contends that the Rosicrucian and Behmenist influences on Pastorius were critical in motivating his colonizing efforts and elucidate his perspectives dealing with alchemy, astrology, and his relationship with Swedish settlers that he encountered.

Iva Lelková

The Ebb and Flow of Blood: A Case Study on the Early Modern Analogy of Movement
of Seawaters and the Circulation of Blood in the Human Body

The study concerns a seventeenth-century analogy between the movement of seawaters and the movement of fluids in human body. The ideas of Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) on the geocosmos, expressed in his Mundus subterraneus (1664–1665) and Iter extaticum II (1657) are compared with the work of his correspondent, the physician from Wroclaw and editor of the first medicine journal, Philipp Jacob Sachs von Lewenheimb (1627–1672), who wrote Oceanus macro-microcosmicus (1664). In this analogy Sachs took into account the latest discoveries of the Danish physician Thomas Bartholin (1616–1680) on the lymphatic system in addition to William Harvey's (1578–1657) experiments on the circulation of blood. These elements make Sachs' treatise an interesting mixture of a fundamentally analogical approach with the latest findings of natural philosophy. Both authors use the analogy between the seawaters' movement and the movement of fluids in the human body in different ways, which leads to an analysis of the Aristotelian and Platonic approaches to analogy in their works and the question of the shift from the Renaissance episteme to the modern one.

Miroslav Hanke

Peter Crockaert on Self-Reference

The Dominican philosopher and theologian Peter Crockaert, also known as Peter of Brussels (c. 1460–1514), was a former member of the nominalist circle of John Mair. Having received nominalist training from one of the prominent post-medieval scholastic logicians, he entered the Dominican order and adopted a Thomist identity. As a result, his sentential semantics combines thirteenth-century Thomist framework with late medieval logical analysis, including the complexe significabile debate and analysis of self-reference. Crockaert's analysis of self-reference displays three notable features: Crockaert 1) defi nes truth in contextualist terms; 2) lists alternative approaches to self-reference as part of analysis of contradiction; 3) attempts to relate analysis of self-reference to Aquinas's works.

Martin Rothkegel

On the Career of the Anti-Trinitarian Jacobus Palaeologus up to 1561, Part 1: Frate Jacobo da Scio and His Followers in the Levante

This essay on Jacobus Palaeologus, born c. 1520 on the Island of Chios and executed as a heretic in Rome in 1585, explores the biographical experience of the Greek-Italian theologian in the Levant as a possible context for his journey towards a radical form of Unitarianism which went as far as rejecting the dogmatic boundaries between Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Based on documents from the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede (Città del Vaticano) and the Archivio di Stato di Genova, section II of the article delineates the "itinerary", or the whereabouts and activities, of Palaeologus in Constantinople and Chios between 1554 and 1561. Reports sent to Rome by the inquisitors of Constantinople and Chios mention at least three circles of adherents of Palaeologus in the Levant which are studied in the following sections of the essay. Section III deals with Palaeologus's followers among the Dominican friars and the aristocracy of the island capital of Chios. Section IV explores another such circle in Pera (the traditional Latin Christian quarter of Constantinople) that was in close contact with the embassy of Ferdinand I in the Ottoman capital. Section V examines some references in the inquisitors' reports about supporters of Palaeologus among the Marrano (or converso) immigrants of Portuguese-Jewish descent in Salonica and Constantinople. The essay argues that Palaeologus's experience with the precarious situation of the Levantine Latin Christians in the realm of Islam and with the ambivalent religious situation of part of the Marrano migrants between Judaism and Christianity, contributed to the development of the radically Unitarian, inclusivist redraft of the Christian religion that he elaborated on in his later writings. Since no relevant theological writings of Palaeologus written prior to 1571 are preserved, however, this cannot be more than a hypothesis. In the second part of the essay, which will follow in one of the next issues of Acta Comeniana, the puzzling problem of Paleologus's theological development prior to 1561 will be re-examined in greater detail.

Jan Čížek

Johann Heinrich Alsted: A Mediator between Francesco Patrizi and J. A. Comenius?

This study follows the author's previous research that pointed out to signifi cant similarities between the philosophical conceptions of Francesco Patrizi and those of Jan Amos Comenius. If we admit that the contents of Patrizi's greatest work Nova de universis philosophia did infl uence Comenius's thought in some respect, it raises the question of when Jan Amos encountered Patrizi's views. The question is the more topical when we consider that an indirect reference to Patrizi's work can be found in Comenius's treatise Conatuum pansophicorum dilucidatio, written several years before he travelled to London where, according to the present opinion of historians of philosophy, he became familiar with the contents of Nova de universis philosophia. The most probable mediator of Patrizi's work is Comenius's Herborn teacher Johann Heinrich Alsted. On the basis of an analysis of Alsted's works we come to the conclusion that even though he knew Patrizi's philosophical views, he took over and presented in his writings completely diff erent ideas from those which later infl uenced Jan Amos Comenius.

Márton Szentpéteri

The Mystery of Piety Revealed and Defended: A Sequelto Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld´s De uno Deo?

It has always been a truly tantalizing question for the scholars of Herborn intelligentsia in Transylvania: as to why Bisterfeld did not complete his publication project that began with the famous De uno Deo which was designed to refute Johann Crellʼs ideas and was destined to be a companion to Johann Heinrich Alstedʼs Prodromus religionis triumphantis, which was in turn written against Johann Völkel. Although the essay cannot answer this question entirely, it draws attention to some fundamental facts which could shed more light on the issue stating that Bisterfeld did fi nish the sequel, but apparently never published it. In order to achieve this, the essay discusses briefl y a letter by Jean Mellet sent to Adrian Heereboord later published as dedication to Bisterfeldʼs very rare Isagoge encyclopaedica, and Melletʼs Theosophia naturalis which seems to be a treatise originally written by Bisterfeld. Having a look at these sources, the author formulates a hypothesis claiming that the continuation of the De uno Deo, that is the separate publication of the Mysterium pietatis ostensum, became rather obsolete in the eyes of Bisterfeld at a certain point, and consequently he incorporated it into his Sciagraphia symbioticae, one of the most ingenious works of the late Bisterfeld in Transylvania, posthumously published in 1661. In addition, it is highly presumable that a further posthumous version of the Mysterium pietatis ostensum saw the light in 1662, this time, under the name of Jean Mellet and entitled as Theosophia naturalis, sive mysterium pietatis ostensum.

Jakub Žytek

Daniel Vetter's Islandia: The Curious Encompassed within the Divine

This study examines the travelogue Islandia (1638) of Daniel Vetter. It argues that the references to God and his divine assistance throughout the narrative part of the travelogue create a subtle semantic net upon which the message of the text, that is to portray the magnifi cence of God's deeds, is based. A recurrent topic of danger, permeating the narration, serves as a medium for such a portrayal. The descriptive part of the travelogue is interpreted as another Vetter's way of portraying the magnifi cence of God's deeds. While depicting Iceland, which is seen as a curious Kunstkammer, every aspect of Icelandic reality is portrayed as being in some way curious and peculiar, contributing to the image of the land included within God's plan. At the closing of the travelogue, these two ways of portraying are linked together. The curious is not only connected with, but fi nally also encompassed within, the divine.

Iva Lelková

Philipp Jacob Sachs von Lewenheimb (1627–1672) and his Role within Intellectual Networks of the Czech Lands

The paper documents the situation of Early Modern scholarship in the Czech Lands through a study of the relatively unknown correspondence of the Breslau physician, member of the Academia naturae curiosorum and chief editor of its journal Miscellanea curiosa Philipp Jakob Sachs von Lewenheimb and the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher with correspondents in the Czech Lands.
The intersections of the predominantly Catholic correspondence network of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher with the mainly Protestant specialist correspondence network of the physician Philipp Jakob Sachs von Lewenheimb appear exceptionally interesting and provide information about often less well-known personalities and practices which facilitated the fl ow of information between individual parts of Europe, denominations and social groups around the middle of the seventeenth century.
The article also illustrates how the genre of "observationes" and the emergence of scientific journals generally propelled scholarly correspondence not only in the Central European area, and what role was played by professional groups, whether of physicians, printers or others, in mediating information between the Catholic and Protestant parts of Europe.

Jan Palkoska

Proto-Humean Strains in Leibniz's Analysis of Causal Relation

My aim in the present paper is to challenge an established doctrine according to which Leibniz conceives of causation – in sharp contrast to Hume – in terms of a sort of the so-called hypothetical necessity, to the eff ect that causation involves a hypothetical necessitation a parte rei explicable in terms of purely conceptual connections. I argue that as far as one can tell from the direct textual evidence, Leibniz's concept of causation can be interpreted as coming surprisingly close to an essentially Humean view according to which far from implying any necessities a parte rei, conceptual connections impose necessity only on our thought while in reality causation involves only regularities in the conjunction of contiguous objects. Then I try to reconcile this claim with the well-documented fact that within the larger framework of Leibniz's theory of truth and his principle of suffi cient reason, Leibniz was indeed committed to a 'necessitarian' position – in the sense that every item in the actual world is, after all, a matter of hypothetical necessity in rebus (or nearly so) – and that he was prepared to integrate causes into this larger picture. My point will be that the apparent confl ict between these two views is due to our failure to distinguish the analytic task concerning causation from various explanatory tasks in which causation is involved.

Lenka Řezníková

The Spatial Frontiers of Stagings of Exile and the Metaphorical Figurations of Jan Amos Comenius in Czech Literature of the Nineteenth Century

In the nineteenth century, as a result of number of sociocultural changes, the exile as a historically variable phenomenon experienced a signifi cant reconceptualization, while at the same time its literary representations also went through changes. In this period, models trying to implement the exile in the narrative of national history show symptomatic diff erences and specific limits in comparison with earlier models or with models formed in the course of the twentieth century. The spatial contexts of the national narrative, which coincided with the physical absences of émigrés from the national area, were in themselves limiting. (Literary) concepts of exile therefore concentrated primarily on the outlook of those who remained behind. As far as the representation of an émigré himself was concerned, literature created a number of main model situations which "returned" him to his nationally spatial context. A refl ection of the prominent post-White Mountain exile Jan Amos Comenius presented a specifi c possibility that overcame the limits of the spatially limited national narratives by reference to Comenius's writings which (unlike their author) were physically accessible in the Bohemian Lands – albeit to a limited degree. Distinctive cognitive metaphors (light in darkness, the labyrinth, depth of security, etc.) were also gathered from these writings, and around these an image of Comenius stabilised, in close conjunction with the topic of exile.

Jan Herůfek

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Intellectuals

The article deals with the religious and philosophical concept of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and focuses primarily on the Jewish-Arabian sources of Mirandola's thinking. Since Pico did not have a very good knowledge of Hebrew or even Arabic, it was often almost impossible for him to deal on his own with the language of extremely challenging original medieval texts, whether on themes of Jewish and Arabian philosophy or on themes of Jewish mysticism, known as Kabbalah. Pico therefore made use of his colleagues, and to some extent was reliant on them. In this connection attention has to be drawn fi rst to Elia del Medigo, adherent of Averroist Aristotelianism, and to Jochanan Alemanno, representative of the Jewish concept of ancient theology (prisca theologia) connected with elements of Neo-Platonism. In the fi nal place the article discusses Pico's principal translator Flavius Mithridates. Through his vision of the Christian Kabbalah Flavius Mithridates inspired not only the "prince of concord" himself, but also many followers in the 16th and 17th centuries (Johannes Reuchlin, Francesco Zorzi, Gilliaume Postel, Caspar Knittel, and others).

Pál Ács

Pro Turcis and contra Turcos: Curiosity, Scholarship and Spiritualism in Turkish Histories by Johannes Löwenklau (1541–1594)

It is still partially unexplained why, in 16th–17th-century Hungary – as opposed to Western countries – Ottoman history was not processed in an authentic and scholarly way. Why is it that intelligent Western reports of the Ottoman Empire and its history had no echo in Hungary, even though these reports wrote about, and were written to, Hungarians? This paper aims to answer the above questions when discussing Johannes Löwenklau, one of the most excellent 16th-century experts in the Ottomans. First we examine the three main sources used for his Ottoman Histories, all of them related to Hungary. Then we describe the intellectual background of Löwenklau's Chronicles. The two parts of the study off er two diff erent answers to the above question. (1) In the 16th century, Hungary fell apart, so it was impossible to conduct deep studies, although they would have served the country's interests. It is thus not surprising that the learned synthesis of sources of Hungarian origin was made by a German Humanist. (2) Löwenklau was a tolerant, gentle, intellectual member of the Bohemian Brethren. His books paint an alternative image of the Turks, one that does not match the commonplaces on the ancient enemy of Christianity, and one that is also distinct from the "the scourge of God" destined to revenge crimes according to the Wittenberg Reformation. A desire for universal peace clearly appeared in his works, in addition to the confrontation with the Turks and the idea of the Crusade. The ordinary Hungarian audience was averse to this combination of scholarly research and apocalypticism, so it is notsurprising that Hungarian historiography has been largely silent about this great historian of his age.

Howard Hotson

Arbor sanguinis, arbor disciplinarum: The Intellectual Genealogy of Johann Heinrich Alsted
Part I. Alsted's Intellectual Inheritance

Although by no means a genius, Comenius's teacher, Johann Heinrich Alsted (1558–1638), was in one sense a prodigy. His great Encyclopaedia of 1630 was fi rst sketched out in his Panacea 91 philosophica of 1610, when the young Herborner was only 22 years old; and in the larger Artium liberalium ac facultatum omnium systema mnemonicum, completed the previous year, its origins are traced back further still, to the outset of his studies in the Herborn academy in 1602, at the tender age of fourteen. More specifi cally, Alsted reveals that his encyclopaedic project began as a commonplace book collected in no small part from his father's table talk, his mother's precepts and practice, his grandfather's library, and the extraordinarily rich collection of pedagogical theorists in his immediate family circle. This paper traces Alsted's genealogy as a bibliographical as well as a biographical exercise: that is, as a means not merely of revealing his bloodlines, but of tracing the intellectual genealogy of an individual at once deeply rooted in the Reformed academic and clerical community of Hesse and the Wetterau and impatient to break free of established orthodoxies in pursuit of a fresh intellectual synthesis. Tracing the tangled roots of this genealogy back several generations reveals that Alsted's yearning for further reformation fed upon lengthy familial engagement with various strands of Renaissance humanism, Reformed theology, Ramist pedagogy, Paracelsian medicine, and perhaps even millenarianism.

Pierre-Olivier Léchot

Between Ramism, Socinianism and Enthusiasm: The Intellectual Context of John Dury's Analysis Demonstrativa Sacrae Scripturae

This article explores the issue around the confessional and intellectual implications of the hermeneutics of John Dury (c. 1600–1680). It is mainly devoted to recovering the elements of Dury's "methodus analytica" and to examining its intellectual context (namely the infl uence of Ramism on the exegetical commentary of Scripture). This contribution tries also to describe the paradoxical endeavour to off er an exegetical method capable of uniting diverse confessions which could be accepted by the Socinians and by enthusiasts alike.

Jiří Just

New reports about Jan Amos Comenius in the Archive of Matouš Konečný

Not many reports have survived which capture the pre-exile activity of Jan Amos Comenius, and his personal life in particular. A signifi cant number of them consist of brief retrospective communications preserved in some of Comenius's literary works and in his correspondence. The actual sources from the pre-White Mountain period make possible only a rough reconstruction of the basic milestones in his life, often only hypothetical (the question of his birthplace can be mentioned as an example). Somewhat more light is shed on this period by material from the Archive of Matouš Konečný, discovered in Mladá Boleslav in the summer of 2006. Included in it are letters from Jan Lanecký († 1626) to the Bishop of Mladá Boleslav, who was, between 1609–1620/1622, Matouš Konečný. As Bishop of the Přerov diocese, Lanecký was Comenius's immediate superior and at the same time his closest guide on the path to his priestly profession. An indivisible part of this process was the, at least partial, absolving of the theological study for which the novices of the Brethren's priesthood were sent to educational institutions abroad. Lanecký's letters supplement in interesting details the background to Comenius's stay in Herborn and Heidelberg, starting with the late departure of the Brethren students from Moravia and Bohemia because of the invasion of the Passau soldiers (1611). The letters capture in a very rounded way the chronic problems the students had with the fi nancial demands of the study, culminating in the indebtedness of several individuals, which became a heavy burden to them after their return to their native land. The letters also document the tension arising from the diff ering ideas of the students and the bishops about the content of the study itself, and its form. They provide valuable evidence for the motives of Comenius's journeys and his pleasure in the travel the students enjoyed in their free time. A number of new pieces of information relate to Comenius's activity in Moravia after 1614. Especially valuable are reports about Comenius's ordination as a deacon, which took place on 2 February 1616 in Prague, as well as Lanecký's communications about Comenius's literary beginnings: for example, clarifi cation about the authorship of the work Retuňk proti Antikristu [Warnings Against the Antichrist], and the reaction of the Brethren bishops to the origin of the work Theatrum universitatis rerum. Among the interesting matters which the new information about Comenius opportunely supplements are reports of two letters from the Ivančice Bishop Jiří Erast (from 1616 and 1618). They are evidence of a Brethren priest called Komenský, who was working in the Ivančice diocese in the time before the Uprising of the Bohemian Estates broke out. However, we know nothing more about his life or possible relationship to Jan Amos Comenius.

Mirjam de Baar

The Construction of a Spiritual Network: The Correspondence of Antoinette Bourignon (1616–1680)

This article focuses on the epistolary practice and strategies of Antoinette Bourignon (1616– 1680), a seventeenth-century Flemish mystic and prophetess, who was born in Lille and who moved to Amsterdam in 1667. From her base in Amsterdam (where she purchased her own press in 1669), Bourignon used a variety of textual media to disseminate the message that she was a spiritual leader chosen by God to restore true Christianity on earth, and to consolidate a following around this ecumenical identity. The author argues that Bourignon's letters were central to this programme; over 600 manuscript versions survive, eleven diff erent printed editions appeared during her lifetime, while nine further volumes were subsequently published posthumously. Her correspondents included scholars such as Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), Robert Boyle (1627–1691), Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680), and Pierre Poiret (1646–1719), as well as a wide range of socially diverse disciples who wrote to her seeking advice on a variety of spiritual and personal issues, and whose preoccupations and voices are anonymously reproduced in published responses. In consequence, her letters have a dialogic, polyphonous quality, while the same followers who wrote to her seeking guidance in turn represented an important market for the letters in their printed manifestations. Despite her failure to establish a long-term community on the island of Nordstrand, and the fact that in the later years of her life the suspicions of Lutheran clergy forced her into exile in Ostfriesland, Bourignon maintained a prolifi c output of letters, and continued to combine the roles of spiritual leader and publisher until her death in 1680.

Marie Ryantová

The Convert and Exile Jiří Holík and His Anti-Catholic Writings

The paper deals with the life and activities of Jiří František Holík, who came from a non-Roman Catholic Bohemian family. His education was nevertheless entrusted to the Jesuits and he eventually became a member of the Dominican Order, where he worked as a censor. In 1666 he escaped to Zittau, after which he tried to work as a Lutheran preacher, studied in Wittenberg and was granted the favour of Protestant theologians and nobility. His activity as a preacher and his eff orts to acquire a position was however unsuccessful, coming up against mistrust regarding his past. He therefore left for Prussian Königsberg and eventually settled in Riga, where he became known mainly as the author of books on fruit growing which were reprinted a number of times over the next fi fty years. However, while working in Saxony he also published several strongly anti-Catholic oriented works in German about the persecution of non-Catholics in Bohemia, and one in Swedish published in Uppsala. The last of these polemical works came out in 1679 in Amsterdam. The paper summarises all previously known information about these writings, which today survive only in single copies, and serves as an introduction to further detailed examination. It is clear that all the works are similar and moreover derive from Comenius' Historie o těžkých protivenstvích (The History of the Bohemian Persecution), in some cases appropriating not only information but even entire passages. In spite of the fact that Jiří Holík's anti-Catholic writings defi nitely do not qualify as impartial documentation of the situation after the Battle of the White Mountain and developments in Bohemia, they present unusually interesting evidence concerning the intellectual world of an exile and convert trying to fi nd a role and some support for himself in his new situation.

Martina Lisá

Homo migrans in the Early Modern Period: Exiles from the Bohemian Lands and the Recent German Research into Migrations and Exile

The aim of this article is to present the results of the most recent German, i.e. German-language, research on the theme of Early Modern Period exile and migration, in which emphasis is placed on the Bohemian post-White Mountain exile. Specialist literature on the theme of the Bohemian post-White Mountain exile is discussed at the beginning of the study, with a short excursus on the concept itself of "exile", in which a concise overview of the state of research is submitted with the aim of drawing attention chiefl y to various instrumentalisations of this concept, as well as to the "success" of the whole research paradigm. Three dissertations have appeared very recently, devoting themselves in particular to the issue of Early Modern exile. A number of papers have also been published in specialist journals and conference proceedings. The study presents in addition the results and tendencies of research which deal on a more general level with themes of Early Modern Period denominational migration and religiously motivated exile. In recent years, research into the Early Modern Period has brought not only new approaches, concepts and methods, but also thematic expansion and several discussions devoted to terminology.

Radmila Pavlíčková

Confessional Polemics in Funeral Homilies: Five Funeral Sermons by the Controversial Preacher Georg Scherer from 1583–1603

Of the extensive literary work of the Jesuit and the controversial preacher Georg Scherer (1540–1605), a collection of five funeral sermons delivered and printed in 1583–1603 has up to now escaped attention. The first thing that marks the set as exceptional is the “earliness” of its origin, for it dates from the early period of Roman Catholic funeral homilies of which only a few examples are known. A second point is that they represent one of the most extensive sets from the pen of one author known from this period. Thirdly, like Scherer’s polemical works, the funeral sermons reached a wide public and were repeatedly published, often in translation, sometimes as independent publications, sometimes as part of larger compendiums and collections. Fourthly, two of the funeral sermons, by the standards of Catholic funeral homilies, contain abundant graphic detail. Finally, two of the sermons were delivered over members of the Habsburg line (Archduke Ernest in 1585 and the Emperor’s widow Maria in 1603) and are closely connected with Scherer’s career as a Viennese court preacher.
This study first assesses the set of five funeral sermons in their connection with Scherer’s other literary work, and puts them in the context of the development of Catholic funeral homilies. It then analyses each sermon from the point of view of its themes, of key importance for the celebration of the deceased individual, and devotes especial attention to the varied and variously intense confessional argumentation (references to the confessional identity of the deceased, to passages of the catechism, to theological polemics – for example, about purgatory – and to celebrations of conversion to Roman Catholicism). The presence of explicit statements and arguments of a confessional colouring is certainly connected with the general nature of Scherer’s religious polemical literature; it is at the same time, however, connected with the confessionally distinctive expression of funera homiletics in the last decades of the sixteenth and first decades of the seventeenth century.

Martin Holý

The Schools of the Unitas Fratrum in Bohemia and Moravia as the Subject of Interest for the Studies of the Nobility in the Period before the Battle of the White Mountain

This paper is an attempt, on the basis of an analysis of different kinds of sources (diplomatic, personal, literary and so on), to comprehend the role of the Bohemian Brethren schools in the upbringing and education of the upper classes of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Margravate of Moravia and, to a lesser extent, of the foreign nobility. After a general introduction, in which the author establishes the growing interest of domestic aristocracy about this denominationally specific type of school in Bohemia and Moravia in the context of the inner development of the Brethren schools, he tracks specific educational institutes of the Unitas Fratrum for which there are records of students from the aristocracy during the sixteenth and first decade of the seventeenth century. Other issues are also dealt with: the content of the study in the schools, the reasons for the choice of a specific school, the composition in terms of the nationality, language, society and confession of the noble pupils, and so on. Last but not least, the study aims to answer the question of how the education of the domestic nobility in the schools of the Unitas Fratrum contributed towards their denominational orientation. In the conclusion of the contribution the author points out some possibilities for further research into this issue.
 

Markéta Růčková

Textbooks at the Academy of Bremen at the Beginning of the 17th Century: New Evidence from the Bohemian Brethren Archives in Mladá Boleslav

Even though after 1555 there was religious freedom within the Holy Roman Empire, such liberties could not be enjoyed by the Reformed higher aristocracy in instances when they wanted to found a university. This could only be done once an ‘Emperor’s Prerogative’ was granted. The question for the Reformed higher aristocracy was how to ensure that the academic level of education in their own institutions was similar to universities. The solution was found in the creation of a system of regional academies (so called gymnasium illustre). The model for such academies is considered to be the Strasbourg Academy, which was further refined in the Herborn Academy. The Herborn Academy inspired the rise of other educational centres, one of which was the gymnasium illustre in Bremen, which was reorganized in 1610 by Matthias Martinius, the school’s most significant rector. The Bremen Academy had two parts, the pedagogeum and the gymnasium illustre. The teaching at the pedagogeum followed established teaching syllabuses, which, unfortunately, are not available to us from Rector Martinius’s period. However, there are certain references to the content of the teaching materials and textbooks used at that time, which can be found in correspondence and the accounting records of the academy’s students, the priests-to-be of the Unity of Brethren, who due to the lack of suitable educational centres in the Czech lands, studied at foreign schools. From the accounting records of Daniel Němčanský, who studied at the Bremen Academy at this time, we know of several books that were used. The listing of these books is located at the end of this work.
 

Mariola Jarczykowa

Christian Ambrosius Cochlevius – a Polish Disciple of Jan Amos Comenius

The paper presents Christian Ambroży Kochlewski (1627–1647), a student of the educationalist Jan Amos Comenius, to whom the teacher dedicated his work Regulae vitae, in 1645. Christian and his cousin were sent to a school in Elbląg to study under the tutelage of the well-known teacher. This was prevented by some regulations of the school and town council, but after the intervention of Ambroży’s father – who had met Comenius and admired his work – the boys were allowed to become his students. The crowning achievement of the teaching and learning process was a work in which Comenius presents his views on life and gives some important advice and rules for a young man to follow. These concerned studying, travelling and leading an honest and noble life. Sadly, the young student died at the age of twenty. After his death a funeral sermon and a paper full of praise were written to commemorate the young and very promising nobleman. They were printed, and the text has been preserved and kept in the Wrocław University Library. The author of the sermon, Michał Matysewicz, who was the rector of the school in Kiejdany, described Christian as an intelligent, pious young man with great interest in studying. The text includes not only the tomb inscription and the epitaph for Christian, but also the epitaph for his father Piotr Kochlewski.
 

Leigh T. I. Penman

Prophecy, Alchemy and Strategies of Dissident Communication: A 1630 Letter from the Bohemian Chiliast Paul Felgenhauer (1593–c. 1677) to the Leipzig Physician Arnold Kerner

This article concerns a short but significant letter of April 1630 from the Bohemian prophet, alchemist and theosopher Paul Felgenhauer (1593–c. 1677) to the Leipzig alchemist and physician Arnold Kerner. The letter is presented in transcription, with an annotated English translation. It is prefaced by an introduction incorporating a new biographical account of Felgenhauer, which draws on overlooked or unknown manuscript material preserved in Germany and England. The letter itself shines a rare light on a variety of different areas of interest concerning Felgenhauer’s life and activities in the years prior to 1630. These areas include his immediate contacts and associates (such as with the Silesian prophet Christoph Kotter), interest and undertakings in alchemical experimentation, publishing and bibliographical activities, methods of communication, his circle of wider contacts and the nature and extent of broader interpersonal and epistolary networks in which he participated. However, it also illuminates tangential issues, such as the scale of social and informational economy in a heterodox correspondence network, the intricacies of dissident book production in the United Provinces, the history of trade in Leipzig, the role of commercial agents in facilitating contact between dissident personalities throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and the postal history of Bremen.
 

Petr Glombíček

Cartesian Common Sense?

The paper considers the question of what role the notion of common sense plays in Descartes’ philosophy. What I’d like to draw attention to is not the Aristotelian concept of koiné aisthésis or the sceptical method applied in Meditations, but Descartes’ usage of the concept of good sense (le bon sens or bona mens) as we can find it e.g. at the beginning of Descartes’ first published work, Discourse on the method. The paper presents an overview of occurences of the term in Descartes’ works since the remains of his youthful writing, known under the title Studium bonae mentis to the preface to the French edition of the Principles. The paper states some reasons for interpreting Cartesian mind in the vein of this le bon sens. Distinguishing between mens and anima, we can come to an interpretation of Descartes’ writings on first philosophy more as writings in logical semantics. And in the end possible source of the concept is located in Seneca’s writings.

Martin Žemla

Theologia Deutsch: Disquieting Conceptions between 'German Mysticism' and the Reformation

This study aims to provide a detailed intellectual analysis of Theologia Deutsch, an anonymous work of 'German mysticism' dating to the turn of the 15th century which had a fundamental impacted on the development of theological and philosophical thought in the German lands during the 16th century. The author lays particular emphasis on the work's neo-Platonic roots, outlines its most important philosophical underpinnings, situates the work in its contemporary intellectual context and fi nally establishes links to certain strands of 16th- and 17th-century thought evident particularly in the works of Valentin Weigel (1533–1588), Sebastian Franck (1499–1542) and Jacob Böhme (1575–1624).
The intention the author of Theologia Deutsch had of coming to terms with the teachings of 'free spirits', which he understood as representing a sort of non-religious intellectualism, is considered to be decisive for the overall conception of the work and for the formulation of its component answers. Theologia Deutsch attempts to define this intellectual trend more precisely, as against the views and dealings of true 'Friends of God'. This is especially important because the neo-Platonic bases of Theologia Deutsch come quite close at times to the ideas of the 'free spirits'. The study pays particular attention to emphasising the role of affectivity in Theologia Deutsch and its thorough consideration of the relationship between intellect (knowledge) and will (love). Here Theologia Deutsch tries to establish a connection between Thomistic and voluntaristic motifs and, at the same time, draw from the views of Tauler and Eckhart. The study then devotes itself to significant considerations of the concepts of freedom and order: the measure of their proper proportions in Theologia Deutsch became the 'life of Christ' (Christus-Leben) as an insuperable model which was at the very least potentially imitable, though it most probably remained somehow singular in actuality; its fulfilment was the 'Godly or Godlike man'. In answer to the question as to why the term 'Godlike man' (or Godly man) does not entail the overcoming and relinquishment of the virtues, the commandments and all order in the name of freedom, we find in Theologia Deutsch a far-ranging metaphysical reflection on the relationship between an inert 'Godliness' and a voluntaristically understood 'God'. A condition for the actualisation of the 'eternal will', which is in God in potentia, is His creation, man. The 'Godly or Godlike man' is the medium through which the self-cognition of God is achieved. From man's perspective, however, this cognition is an act which is not purely theoretical, but rather theoretical-practical, for it is based on the conformity of the will of the created being with the will of God. At the same time, it is – in a certain sense – only by means of this cognition that God is constituted as God as opposed to Godliness. The closing section of the article briefly outlines the reception of the new God-man relationship discussed in Theologia Deutsch among certain thinkers of the Reformed period.

Antonín Kostlán

'Kto Bogu wiernie służy, temu wiek szczęśnie płuży': Czech-Polish Relations in Light of the Album Amicorum of the Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes

This study is based on an analysis of Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes's book of friends (cca. 1568–after 1620), housed today at the British Library in London at the shelf mark Eg. 1220. The album contains roughly 590 entries spanning the years 1598–1620 and represents a valuable source for the study of the contacts between the Czech Lands and intellectual and political Calvinism across Europe. At the core of the study is an analysis of the album's entries authored by individuals originating from Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, Livonia and other lands falling within the Polish king's sphere of influence. The author was able to find a total of 21 such individuals. They encountered Opsimathes at Swiss, Dutch and German academies and universities, during his travels in France and, exceptionally, in Prague and Moravia. Although most of them were of noble origins, they differed considerably with regard to aristocratic descent, economic status, ranks attained and political sway. At one end was a group of lesser nobles and intellectuals; in the middle a group of relatively wealthy regional aristocrats; and at the other end a group of Polish, Lithuanian and Livonian notables (Andrzej and Rafał Leszczyński, Jan Radzimiński, Mikołaj Abramowicz and Magnus Ernest Denhoff ). Their common unifying trait was their close adhesion to the Calvinist confession and, in certain instances, the Polish branch of the Unity of the Brethren. The study also offers new information on the life of Jan Opsimathes based on freshly unearthed sources.

Jiří Hrbek

'That Feckless Bohemomastix': The Life and Work of Melchior Goldast of Haiminsfeld

For a long time after White Mountain, Baroque scholars, including Bohuslav Balbín, levelled arguments in their writings against the theories of the German humanist Melchior Goldast of Haiminsfeld, who lived at the turn of the 17th century. In 1619, the emperor ordered him – probably through the intermediary of the president of the Aulic Council, Johann Georg of Hohenzollern – to carry out a legal analysis of the heredity nature of the Bohemian and Hungarian kingdom. The request was repeated following the Battle of White Mountain and the thesis of the hereditary nance of the Bohemians to the Empire, he became increasingly more vexing to the Habsburgs themselves, who, following the Peace of Westphalia, had gone down a path toward building the Habsburg monarchy which did not include the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. This fact manifested itself vividly in 1711 during a dispute concerning the imperial vicarage over the Czech Lands; attempts to revise the Renewed Constitution brought on another wave of disfavour against Goldast. Goldast's theories were reinterpreted by German nationalists in the 19th century, when they served as ammunition in a struggle quite different from that in which they arose. succession in both the male and female lines of the Habsburg dynasty was subsequently included in the extensive frescos of Bohemian history titled De Bohemiae Regni ... juribus ac privilegiis, which first saw print the year the Renewed Constitution was published; it may thus be taken to be its theoretical counterpart or perhaps its legitimation as well. Although Goldast was to become quite a controversial figure, he was then a leading expert on imperial legal documents (he had worked on editions of such documents all his life); he developed a model of Bohemian history in which the relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the neighbouring, vassal state of the Bohemians was fraught with incessant revolts on the part of the weaker partner against the empire. At the same time, he elaborated the idea that the first peoples of Central Europe were Marobuduus' Marcomanni, which underscored even further the appurtenance of Bohemian kingdom to the Holy Roman Empire. For there was a long tradition of Germanic law in both lands: Goldast was thus concerned with the Bohemians' legal appurtenance, not their ethnic or linguistic appurtenance. He also defined the Empire itself in a similar manner; law was a binding element which could even overcome religious differences. Goldast – a Swiss Calvinist working for both the Lutheran Saxons and the Catholic emperor – was fully persuaded of this view, even though it led him into numerous conflicts. Nonetheless, thanks to his theory of the appurtenance of the Bohemians to the Empire, he became increasingly more vexing to the Habsburgs themselves, who, following the Peace of Westphalia, had gone down a path toward building the Habsburg monarchy which did not include the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. This fact manifested itself vividly in 1711 during a dispute concerning the imperial vicarage over the Czech Lands; attempts to revise the Renewed Constitution brought on another wave of disfavour against Goldast. Goldast's theories were reinterpreted by German nationalists in the 19th century, when they served as ammunition in a struggle quite different from that in which they arose.

Klaus Schaller

Panharmonia and Panchresia: J. A. Comenius' Answer to the Age-Old Question of Whether Virtue Can Be Taught

The question of whether virtue can be taught had already been posed in antiquity and remains of interest to this day. Comenius' pansophia, with its component elements of panharmonia and panchresia, answers the question in a way which combines antiquity and modernity. This essay breaks down Comenius' solution, which has not yet received sufficient attention, into four steps: I. a comparison of Comenius and Francis Bacon; II. an analysis of Comenius' Via lucis, Pampaedia, Pansophia Christiana and Pansophiae diatyposis; III. an interpretation of the revived classical Greek ideal of kalokagathia in the works of Comenius and later of Kant and J. F. Herbart; and IV. a reflection on the present-day significance of Comenius' universalistic educational principle of omnes omnia omnino.

Lucie Storchová

A Late Humanist Treatise on the Origin of the Bohemians, the Academic Polemics and Their Potential to Perform the Other: De origine Bohemorum et Slavorum by Johannes Matthias à Sudetis

Beside an editorial note and the edition itself, the article includes a study focusing on three analytical levels. The first of them presents the Latin humanist tract textually, i.e. how it was determined by a formalized narrative mode (so-called 'writing in excerpts' derived from ancient authorities which were shared in the community of scholars). The second level investigates the argumentation developed in the text – in this concrete instance, a historical account of the origins of the Slavs and the Bohemian tribe from Transcarpathian region, along with its ideological background that is treated according to the recent concept of humanist 'fight for honour' by C. Hirschi. Finally, the author concentrates on the level of further texts which appeared thanks to interpretations of Matthias treatise and provoked – in close connection with the abovementioned formal and content-based levels – an outstanding and unique humanist polemic. It draws attention not only to performative techniques of invective, but also to period discourses of nation as well as strategies for institutionally defining the very possibility of writing that were linked to the categories of 'order' and symbolic capital (here with a discussion of academic titles).

Sylva Dobalová

An Unknown Text About a Prague Theatre Performance Phasma Dionysiacum Pragense (1617)

The article deals with a newly discovered document describing the festivity Phasma Dionysiacum Pragense, which was found in the holdings of the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel. Phasma was played at Prague Castle in February 1617, opening a three days long carnival. The first evening performance with singing, music and ballet was organized on an elaborated architectonical stage. The recently found text brings several new pieces of information; of special interest is the identification of the so-called "lautenspielerin" who was singing in the role of Gloria, celebrating the Habsburgs. Included are also two further days of the carnival with knightly games, the detailed description of costumes and the names of "knights". The interpretation of the text from Wolfenbüttel shows undoubtedly that Phasma was staged in the Old Land Diet's Hall (Alter Landtagssaal), which is a smaller hall next to the Wladislaw Hall at the Prague Castle. The visual appearance of the event is documented by engravings which are analyzed in the context of contemporary European theatre. At the end of the article, hypothesis is formulated about the possible author of the theatre stage – the court architect Giovanni Maria Filippi. The appendix contains a complete transcription of the German text from Wolfenbüttel omitting just the parts containing the Italian arias that had been already published (Seifert 1998).

Jiří Just

New Sources for Early Seventeenth-Century History of the Unity of Brethren: A Discovery of Matouš Konečný's Archives in Mladá Boleslav

The archive of Matouš Konečný, discovered in August 2006 during construction work done in Mladá Boleslav, is one of the most significant discoveries in modern history of source materials relating to the history of the Bohemian Reformation. At its core is a set of 523 letters addressed in large part to Matouš Konečný († 1622), the last pre-White-Mountain bishop of the Unity of the Brethren in Mladá Boleslav. Among those who sent the letters – each, as a rule, with its own seal – were the senior of Prague's Utraquist consistory, the bishops of the Unity of the Brethren in Moravia and Poland, regular priests of the Brethren, students, teachers and members of the Brethren from among the burghers and both aristocratic estates. Whereas the dominant theme in the correspondence is the administration of church aff airs, in the case of the letters from students and teachers, it is the progress of the studies of the future clergymen of the Brethren sent to academies abroad. Another, substantial portion of the materials discovered comprises lists of members of Bohemian Brethren groups and inventories of their possessions. To a considerable extent, they expand the range of sources dealing with the material furnishings of the buildings serving towards devotional ends or towards the accommodation of Brethren priests and other associated individuals. Among the most important items discovered is an agenda, kept for several years, providing an overview of church services held within the district of the Mladá Boleslav group; two library catalogues belonging to the Brethren priests B. Jafet and Š. Věrník; information regarding the distribution of titles published by the Unity of the Brethren in the early 17th century; a record of the convocation of Lutheran clergymen at Holešov which documents the organizational structure of Moravian Lutheran groups; and other documents relating to the administration of the properties of the Unity of the Brethren in the Mladá Boleslav district. The documents published in the adjoining publication illustrate the character of each individual portion of the abovementioned archive. The material in the archive considerably extends the scope of our knowledge concerning the complicated religious state of aff airs in Bohemia and Moravia during the period between the issuing of Rudolf's Letter of Majesty (1609) and the start of the Estates Revolt (1618).

Martin Steiner

The Testimony of Czech Students of Divinity by the Professors of Herborn Academy in 1611

The edition presents the evaluation of Czech students Johannes Salmon, Matthaeus Titus, Johannes Litomilus, Johanes Amosus (= Comenius) and Johannes Stadius that was requested by Matouš Konečný, the senior priest of the Unity of Brethern, from the head of Herbon Academy J. Piscator and its other professors. The brief evaluations have been written by seven professors: J. Matthaeus, H. Gutberlet, H. Ravensperger, J. H. Alsted, H. Dauber, G. Pasor, J. J. Hermann, who all have expressed a predominantly positive opinion about the study and conduct of Czech students. The document has been discovered in 2006 in the town of Mladá Boleslav in the course of reconstruction work in the former monastery called Karmel that served as the residence of the seniors of the Unity in the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.

Tomáš Nejeschleba

Johannes Jessenius's Conception of Method

The problem of method, which became one of the most oft-examined themes in Renaissance
philosophy, is likewise the subject of Jan Jessenius' Et Philosophiae et Medicinae Solidae Studiosis (Wittenberg 1601). In the context of contemporary discussions which ended up distinguishing between methods of cognition and methods of presentation, it is shown that Jessenius does not avail himself of this distinction – despite the fact that he is considered a student of the Paduan school. On one hand, Jessenius does distance himself from a rhetoricised form of logic which blurred the difference between method and the order of knowledge; on the other, he presents the method of attaining knowledge as a component part of the method of education. He understands logic, referring to Aristotle, mainly as an analytic art – not as dialectics. Analytics begin with induction, continues through the probabilistic syllogism, and is followed by a demonstration of the causes of things, thus drawing in essence from the progression of the demonstratio quia to the demonstratio propter quid, which the Paduan Aristotelians referred to as a regressus. According to Jessenius, however, the last phase of the whole process is definition, though its meaning is never precisely delimited. It appears that, rather than Paduan methodology, Jessenius took up the Aristotelian tradition which distinguishes four questions (num sit, quid sit, quod sit et propter quid) and associates different faculties of the human soul to each. He leaves aside the problems which were connected with the interpretation of Aristotle's texts during the Renaissance. In Jessenius' address, the question regarding whether scientific cognition is derived from first principles or first concepts (or perhaps installed in the human soul by God) remains unresolved. Johannes Jessenius thus appropriated the ideas of his Paduan teachers in a rather inconsistent manner and passed them on to his students in the same spirit, which bears witness to the level at which the methodology of science had been developed outside of its great centres at the turn of the 17th century.

Edita Štěříková

The Czech Reformation Tradition and the Church Orientation of Bohemian and Moravian Émigrés in German Lands in the 18th Century

In the eighteenth century émigrés came from Bohemia and Moravia to the German lands with the idea of becoming members of the Lutheran church. From reading Pietist literature they had gained the impression that this teaching corresponded to their religious convictions. They soon however realised that some ritual customs ran counter to their understanding and the superficial life of most Lutherans stopped them in their tracks. Their difference was predetermined by Bohemian Reformation tradition, by Pietist literature and by holding to the direct and unconditional authority of the biblical text as they understood it. When, because of their difference, they began to be looked on with suspicion, they had somehow to account for it and to identify it. Their only knowledge of Reformation tradition was of the Bohemian Reformation church, and that was the Unitas fratrum. Some were direct descendants of former Brethren families, others had at least met with the descendants of the old Czech brethren still in the Czech Lands and sought support from them. They did not call themselves the Czech Brethren while they were still in the Czech Lands, but once in exile (when they had by some means to express their independence) they had no doubts about the justness of their identification with this Bohemian Reformation church, wellknown to them by repute. They called themselves the Czech Brethren. Of the inheritance of the Unitas fratrum, closest to them was church order and discipline. However, when they spoke of the "Czech confession", they really meant by that their own religious tradition.

Eva Kowalská

Günther, Klesch, Láni and Others: A Typology of Hungarian Émigrés in the 17th Century

Thanks to the fact that ius emigrandi was accepted in early modern Europe, hundreds of thousands of people experienced exile, hoping to find better living conditions in their new country. However, the confrontation of expectation and reality frequently became a source of conflict in the context of émigré communities. Even simple coexistence in another society complicated and exarcebated the integration of the émigrés. Collective experience with suffering undoubtedly contributed to the maintenance of their identity even when living in an environment related to their confession and favourably inclined. A vivid example of this kind of exile was the emigration of the Hungarian Lutheran and frequently even Calvinist (reformed) intellectual elite in the course of the 1670s which in some respects differed from other waves of confessional exile of the early modern age. From the beginning of the seventeenth century Hungary had considerable experience with persons who declared themselves victims of religious persecution. Hungary became a refuge for Protestants thrown out of the Austrian and Czech lands of the Habsburg monarchy. However, that situation did not last very long. Hungary did not turn into a country whose political system would permanently secure the problem-free existence not only of émigrés, but even of Protestants in general. In spite of laws which modified the free practice of the protestant confessions (1608, expanded 1647), at the beginning of the 1660s intensive re-catholicisation began to be implemented, peaking with an attempt to eliminate Protestants from society and with a ban on
the public pursuance of the protestant confessions. In the course of court cases from 1673–1674 hundreds of preachers and teachers had to submit to internal emigration or leave for foreign exile. They included Daniel Klesch, Andreas Günther and Georg Láni, who could serve as examples of exile diversely perceived and experienced. All three found refuge in Germany, wrote about and analysed the situation of the preceding period of persecution in Hungary, and tried to acquire a public in Germany for the issue of the Hungarian émigrés. However, their mutual conflicts regarding the guilt of individual leading personalities of Hungarian Lutheranism for unfavourable developments showed up the deep divisions in opinion and made their acceptance in their host country difficult.

Markéta Křížová

Christian Churches and Slavery in the New World: A Comparative Perspective

The text focuses on one of the crucial phenomena of the history of American colonization – the restitution of slavery in the New World. It places this phenomenon within the frame of the intellectual history of Europe, and especially within the frame of the social-reformist, 'utopian' thinking of the Early Modern era. While the enslaving of Native Americans and black Africans revealed the aggressive nature of European expansion, it also coincided intimately with the missionary activities of Roman Catholic as well as the Protestant churches. The aim was to analyze the seemingly ambiguous efforts of missionizing slavers as a response to the intellectually challenging period of overseas discoveries. Besides being an economic institution, slavery constituted part of the effort for reform that took place within the framework of the colonizing process.
Of the three groups under consideration, two of them, the Jesuits and the 'Moravians' (members of the Protestant Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of Brethren), in spite of numerous theological differences and demonstrative mutual opposition, coincided significantly in their attitude towards slavery. The slave-operated plantation offered them a prospect of combining the vision of a traditional patriarchal order with 'modern' ideals of efficiency and engineered incentive. Both the Jesuits and the Moravians adhered to the Aristotelian ideal of an intelligent and virtuous authority ruling the irrational forces of the world, and considered themselves to be those chosen to rule and to be an example to others in secular and spiritual life, even against their will. In contrast, the critique of slavery on the part of two Capuchin missionaries contained the traditional, 'Medieval' view of Christian duty, renouncing secular activity in favour of prayer and contemplation and advocating the equalitarian strain, latently present in Christian teaching.

Simona Binková

Spanish in the Czech Lands at the Time of J. A. Comenius

The significance and propagation of Spanish in the Czech Lands grew in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thanks to the political state of affairs and the dynasticties in place, it was spoken in the court sphere as well as among family members of certain aristocratic families and it was disseminated in communication among the Catholic elites. Its use is on record in official and personal correspondence as well as in journal entries. There is an abundance of books in Spanish in Bohemian and Moravian libraries – both secular and ecclesiastic. Most of them were printed abroad (in Spain, but also in Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands), though some were printed in Prague. Closer investigation has shown that Bohemian-Spanish contacts were more plentiful in concrete cases than was generally adjudged. For this reason, more research is necessary, particularly in the noble families' archives and in the collections of printed books.
Jan Amos Comenius was born into and lived in this environment and although he himself was determined by his non-Catholic religious orientation and his subsequent exile, he also manifested a marked interest in the Spanish and Spanish-American world and its languages. This may be seen in his Janua linguarum, a creative adaptation of a linguistic work by Irish Jesuits, which was published in Salamanca, Spain, in 1611.

Joan Lluís Llinàs Begon

From Montaigne to Comenius: Philosophical and Pedagogical Issues at the Dawn of Modern Thought

The aim of this article is to establish a relationship between the philosophical and pedagogical ideas of Montaigne and Comenius in the context of the origins of modern thought. The article is divided into six parts. The first part is about Montaigne, who criticises the pedantry and schools of his time. Schools cannot educate men such as the great men of the past because they have lost the understanding that the most important aim of education is to inform judgment and understanding, To form sages and not only savants, Montaigne proposes an education based on three main axes. First, the comprehensive education of both the body and the mind; second, the rationalisation of the educational process; third, experience and history as resources to achieve this. The purpose is to form a man with a developed sense of judgment who knows how well to live and well to die. For this reason, we must pay attention to men and things, and not only to books and words.
The second part is about Comenius. The final objective of education is to partake of divine beatitude to the extent that in knowing the world, we will find reflected in it the image of God. Comenius also criticizes the schools of his time. His purpose is to create schools based in nature, that is, in the work of God.
The third part is about the differences between Montaigne and Comenius. For Montaigne education should be individual and private; for Comenius, all should be educated together in a school. For Montaigne, the result of education is the happiness of man in his terrestrial life; for Comenius, it is eternal life. In the former the misery of man stands out; in the latter, his dignity. To sum up, they are separated by their different concepts of religion.
The fourth part aims to fill the gap between Montaigne and Comenius and focuses on the role of education in works by Pierre Charron, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon, Johann Heinrich Alsted and Wolfgang Ratke. Comenius follows the similar route as these authors. He defends experience and scientific knowledge; the focus on things; the use of reason to guide our life; the need to reform the educational system and the language learning; the integration of manual arts into the system of knowledge; and, finally, the unity of knowledge.
The fifth part is again a comparison between Montaigne and Comenius. They coincide in two aspects. The first is the vindication of things over words. They propose an open attitude towards the world, in opposition to a sad, fruitless and painful education. Experience plays a fundamental role, since things can only be learned by doing them. For both authors, nature is a guide. The other common aspect is self-reformation. For Comenius, education implies three degrees: self-knowledge, self-control, and an inclination towards God. Montaigne coincides at least with self-knowledge and self-control. Comenian wisdom is based on piety, on the fact that God is a model of perfection. For Montaigne, instead, man with his own abilities has to establish a criterion of goodness. Both authors, beyond their coincidences and differences, belong to one of the currents of modern thought that hopes to integrate man into the cosmos, that does not see the world as estranged from the self, that does not split body and soul. In a way, both authors are separated from the Cartesian current, which disassociates the human being in the interest of the mathematising nature.
The last part continues with a comparison, but in the area of language teaching. For both authors, language is a tool for reason. Montaigne does not work on a method of teaching, but shares with Comenius the necessity for words to be linked with comprehension and judgement. Both authors represent two moments in the early era of modern thinking and share one of the basic ways of criticizing the excess of verbalization, and defending the idea that man is a being in the world. According to Montaigne, the defence of reason and human experience is to open one's attitude towards the world and to have an education focusing on the formation and freedom of judgement. This implies a systematization of education starting from the natural order. Comenius comes closer to the scientific spirit of modernity; Montaigne to the independence of human action.

Anna Mištinová

Vives and Comenius – Reformers of European Education: Background and Parallels

Vives and Comenius had a significant influence on European thought and education. They set off from very similar starting points and arrived at kindred teachings. Both tried to reform society and both saw the best way to do so in upbringing and education conceived so as to benefit and bring harmony to individuals as well as to humankind as a whole. Their writings – on philosophy, pedagogy, ethics and the 'universal reform of human affairs' – appeared in numerous editions and were translated into many languages. The fact that Comenius was familiar with the work of the Spanish Humanist philosopher is evident in the references and citations he makes – particularly in Physicae synopsis, Didactica magna and Methodus lingvarum novissima – to J. L. Vives' De tradendis disciplinis and Introductio ad sapientiam.
A lifelong endeavour to bring about reform is apparent in the work of both learned men. They shared an interest in fostering peace and analysing the causes that bring about violence and war so as to prevent them – all in close relation to ethical and religious questions. Ethical issues and moral education are omnipresent in their work. As regards pedagogical reform, Vives opened new horizons thanks to the psychological foundations of his educational methods and Comenius produced an integrated, highly detailed framework for upbringing and education. He worked out a unified and exhaustive system comprising the subject matter to be taught, the organisation of instruction, schools and teaching methods and procedures. Both reformers emphasised the comprehensive and complex nature of education, which was to be adapted to the age of the student and his or her level of competence.
The thought and teachings of both scholars rely on an empirical-rational approach. Vives – a prominent anti-scholastic humanist – stresses the strength of reason and rationality in education, criticising scholastic instruction with its mindless memorising. Comenius does the same, ascribing great significance to joining the sensory experience of things and events with a knowledge of their underpinnings. Both agreed on the need for a direct knowledge of real things on the basis of a student's own experience in which reason relies on its perceptions of those things – thus, they both took a stand against verbalism and scholasticism. Truth and certainty in knowledge depend upon the testimony of the senses. Instruction should take the form of illustration and demonstration, not verbal transmission. Educating young people should not entail teaching them words, phrases or assertions, but opening up their comprehensive faculties toward understanding things. The principle of illustration is the basis of knowledge for Vives as it is for Comenius; it is a teaching method, an approach which ensures the comprehensibility and permanence of education. For both reformers, languages – including the mother tongue – are tools for learning about the world, in the service of the real (reales) disciplines which deal with things (res).
Vives and Comenius shared foundations, principles and stances with regard to epistemological and educational considerations as well as how they conceive of the world, basic human values, ideas on upbringing and education and principally as regards their efforts to bring about reform.

Jiří Beneš

Juan Luis Vives and Jan Amos Comenius: Inspiration in Pedagogy, Affinity in Peace Efforts

The Spanish humanist J. L. Vives (1492–1540) is the author of more than fifty writings of philosophical, historical, juridical, educational and theological orientation. Comenius (1592–1670) a century later demonstrated consciously and in a creative way a connection with many concepts in Vives' work.
We find the following points of contact concerning the reform of education and language learning:
•    Education is the task not only of the parents but also of society; at the very least, society should take care of schools and ensure the high-quality preparation of teachers;
•    Both devote an unusual attention to pre-school education;
•    The requirement of equality of opportunity for both sexes derives from the need to cultivate society as a whole, and thus is a political requirement;
•    The principle of auto-practice in teaching;
•    The linking of language and practical education, the parallelism of words and things;
•    Reflections on a universal language;
•    An identical theologically justified definition of human nature.
The attempt to improve the state of society and the maintainence of peace was common to both. Their opinions of the value of peace, of the origins and consequences of its violation are very close; however, the direct influence of Vives on Comenius is in this case difficult to assume. The relationship can rather be explained by common biblical starting points and similar personal experiences of war.
Comenius' negative position vis-à-vis violence of every kind reached its strongest expression in the incomplete working text of Clamores Eliae (Elijah's Outcries). Identically with Vives and Christian tradition, he sees the cause of wars in the fact that man has distanced himself and betrayed his nature and his mission, and tries to place himself on a level with God. Both regard pride and arrogance as a source of much evil. Vives and Comenius, each in his own way, gather many arguments to show that war is unfitting, not only in its material aspect but primarily from the moral and Christian point of view. For them, peace does not mean the mere laying aside of weapons; the condition of inner peace is the reconciliation of man with himself and with God.
Through their emphasis on ethics both thinkers go beyond the vague pacifism of the humanists. They know that only the wise man can be a peaceful person. They agree in the definition of education as care for the soul, whose functioning rids man of roughness and wildness and lets him become truly human. In this way the circle is closed that links the need for education with the striving for the establishment of peaceful relations, pedagogy with politics.

Martin Steiner

Janua lingvarum: Changes and Development of a Textbook

Isaac Habrecht's publication of the Hybernian Janua differs only slightly from the original text published in Salamanca. Comenius's transformation of Habrecht's text is on the other hand radical, both in the composition of the chosen vocabulary, and especially in concept and composition. It is a completely new text which uses its model only as an inspiration. Comenius himself is the author of another great transformation. He reorganised its 100 chapters and 1,000 sentences according to a reconsidered structure of the material discussed. In doing so he largely expanded the text, so the second version is over twice the original extension. Even stylistically, it is more complicated; simple sentences no longer predominate, being replaced by complex sentences in longer paragraphs. We also know several adaptations of Comenius's Janua by other authors. Their common feature is again an increase in the vocabulary, for the most part in conflict with Comenius's original requirements for the simplicity and accessibility of a text book intended for beginners. In his system of textbooks, Comenius later included Janua as the second level, preceding it with the Vestibulum.

Nieves Rupérez Almajano – Ana Castro Santamaría

The Real Colegio de San Patricio de Nobles Irlandeses of Salamanca

Ianua Linguarum, which was to have great infl uence on Comenius and other authors, was published in Salamanca at the beginning of the 17th century. The attribution of this work to the Jesuit William Bathe has led us to undertake the study of the Colegio de los Irlandeses, where it could have been written. The point of view taken focuses on the material nature of the building and dispenses with the more specific institutional aspects, but this does not prevent us from offering a quite broad perspective – especially as regards its economy – on what the life of this College was like from its foundation in 1592 until its move to the Jesuits' building around 1770.

Jolanta Dworzackowa

News from Poland in Correspondence between J. A. Comenius and J. N. Lilienström

The author reacts to correspondence discovered and published by Gábor Kármán in Acta Comeniana 18 (XLII). Most of the letters date from the critical period before the outbreak of the war between Sweden and Poland in 1655, two more from 1656. Comenius, under the pseudonym Ulrich Neufeld, addresses his letters to the commander of the Swedish garrison in Sczecin, Lilienström, who then informs King Charles Gustav of news gained from Comenius and Václav Sadovský. The article sets the texts in their period context and draws attention to the role played by the administrator of Leszno J. G. Schlichting, who dispatched Comenius to the Swedish camp and influenced the writing of Comenius's Panegyricus Carlo Gustavo. The author agrees with the editor of the letters that the information given by the Czech émigrés about the situation in Greater Poland and Royal Prussia to the Swedes corresponded essentially to the facts, but it was not unknown nor even very important.

Jaroslava Kašparová

Lire pour vivre: French Cultural History of Reading and Its Reception in Recent Czech Historiography

This article deals with the origin and development of the academic discipline of history of reading and reading practices, originating in connection with new historical thinking in French historiography from the mid-twentieth century, with the so called Annales School or the nouvelle histoire. The history of book culture ceased to be understood as the traditional concept of merely history of the book and book printing; book studies were enriched by a sociological dimension and encompassed the history of reading, of reading materials, and of readers' practices. The article sums up the results of French research and surveys the most substantial works, institutions and personalities which contributed to the origin of the new discipline, especially with the ideas of Roger Chartier. In his works, Chartier rejects both the view which does not take into account the period's social, political and cultural practices in which the work originated and which explains the text only on the basis of the impersonal and automatic operation of the language (the history of the book without authors and readers), and also the psychologising approaches, which on the other hand attempt to interpret the origin of the text as the act of an author's creative genius. An analysis of the form and the content of the oral, manuscript and printed texts (the method of noting or ordering of the text in the space given by the origin of the book – that is, in the context of a page, its layout, etc.) is inseparable from the study of history of the reader's appropriations.
Chartier borrowed the term appropriation from sociologists, but its application in the field of book studies makes it easier to recognise and explain phenomena such as the concept of 'popular culture' (in the sense of a certain method of using texts, transforming them and adapting them to the needs of the subsequent communities), which has led him to study texts which were in some way exceptional and those which were widely received. An important accomplishment by Chartier is the differentiation between two basic types of readers' practices – intensive, oral reading; and extensive, visual reading. The transition from one form to the other was gradual and fluent and made possible the coexistence of both types. He then interprets the history of the book as the history of readers' practices, and divides it into three basic stages – trois revolutions – in the development of writing and reading (the emergence of the codex; the expansion of silent reading as a consequence of the discovery of book printing and the associated rise of mass book production in the second half of the eighteenth century; and the rise of computer technology and internet reading and writing).
Chartier concentrated his research primarily on the behaviour and activity of the reader, but this does not mean he understands readership practices only as the mere 'anthropological' history of reading methods, attitudes and gestures, and of reading spaces. A number of human factors took part in the production of the text, its circulation and interpretation (from the author in the widest sense of the word, through the editor, patron, printer, publisher and bookseller or colporteur as far as the reader), which are set into the specific historical situation and determined politically, socially and culturally.
This article indicates in what ways the research of French and world historiography in the fi eld of the history of book culture can inspire Czech book studies, which still undervalues new trends aimed at the study of reading materials and readership practices and, unlike the general historiography, it does not take into account the new approaches in the spirit of the Annales School, is not even very much aware of such study (there is no institutional background in the Czech Republic able to develop such research consistently). Nevertheless, certain fundamentals of a newly and more widely concept of book studies have been posed. Chartier's key works have still not been translated into Czech, but in 2007 the internationally famous and popular publication by the renowned specialist Albert Manguel, The History of Reading, at least came out in Czech translation.
The author is convinced that research into the history of Czech book culture should continue both in classical book studies research aimed at the up to now partly unmapped history of book printing and history of book production (in spite of the recently published monumental Encyklopedie knihy by Petr Voit), and in research concerning the history of reading and reading materials, readership reception and readership practices.

Daniel Špelda

[The Power of the Word and the Mastery of Nature: Renaissance Magic and Francis Bacon]
Die Macht der Wörter und die Beherrschung der Natur: die Renaissance-Magie und Francis Bacon

In seiner Schrift Valerius Terminus schreibt Francis Bacon, dass Adam die Dinge mittelst ihrer wahrhaften Namen habe beherrschen können. Dieser Gedanke wird oft als magisches Motiv bezeichnet und die vorliegende Studie befasst sich damit, ob die Idee der Beherrschung der Dinge durch die Namen in der Renaissance-Magie vorkam und ob Bacons philosophisches Projekt der grossen Erneuerung der Wissenschaften von dieser Magie beeinflusst wurde. Der erste Teil der Studie befasst sich mit der natürlichen Magie (Porta, Ficino, Campanella), der zweite behandelt die kabbalistische und neoplatonische Magie (Mirandola, Agrippa von Nettesheim). Im dritten Teil werden Bacons Ansichten über Magie wiedergegeben. Die Analyse dieser Ansichten belegt, dass sich Bacons philosophisches Projekt von der Renaissance-Magie in mehreren Hinsichten deutlich unterscheidet. Im letzen Teil versucht der Verfasser nachzuweisen, dass die Erwähnung der Macht der Wörter nicht als Folge eines Einflusses der Magie auf Bacon interpretiert werden darf. Vielmehr handelt es sich um den Ausdruck einer idealen Form der menschlichen Macht über die Natur, die der Mensch nach seinem Sündenfall jedoch nie vollkommen erreichen kann. Bacon stimmt mit der damaligen protestantischen Auffassung überein, dass die Folgen des Sündenfalls wettgemacht werden könnten und dass der Mensch zu seiner paradiesischen Souverenität und Macht durch „unreine" Mittel wie Arbeit, Technik, und forchungswissenschaftliche institutionelle Verwaltung zurückfinden könne.

Juan Antonio Sánchez

Parallel Motifs in the Works of Jan Amos Comenius and Baltasar Gracián

The field of comparative literature has yet to consider in depth the connections between early modern Spain and Bohemia. This article discusses one of the most interesting aspects of this broader comparative theme: parallel motifs and themes in the works of J. A. Comenius and of Baltasar Gracian. The specialist literature has tackled this subject, but many of the questions regarding similarities between the two authors remained unanswered. The focus in this contribution is in particular on the similarities and differences between Comenius' Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart and Gracian's El Criticon. The style and structure of both works are described, and some of the typical problems of the Baroque mind - such as the critique of Humanism, the search for a practical philosophy and the tension between visions of the world as harmony and as chaos - are considered. These themes are, of course, more or less common to other writers of the period, and it is therefore suggested that sources which might have been used by both Comenius and Gracian are studied. An effort is made to trace the common textual influence of the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata on both authors; this, however, remains a hypothesis, which might serve to provoke a more thorough investigation of the influence of Lucian on Renaissance and Baroque writers, and of his contribution to the origin of the modern novel.

Daniel Heider

Suárezʼ Conception of the Principle of Individuation of Accidents in the Light of the Thomistic Solution

Suarez's conception of the principle of individuation of accidents and its relationship to the Thomistic solution is the main theme of the paper. In the first part, the author briefly recapitulates Suarez solution to the individuality and individuation of substances. In the second part he presents two main conceptions of the principle of individuation of accidents: substance and entitative theory of individuation. He presents four reasons for the entitative theory which are given by Suarez. In the third, the most ample part, he shows that Suarez argues that the Thesis of simultaneous co-existence of two mere numerically different accidents in the same subject can be valid, at least, in the case of respective accidents (relations). If it is not valid in the case of absolute accidents, then it is, according to Suarez, not because of the incompatible principle of individuation of accidents, but because of the fact that 'nature abhors futility'. Besides, he shows that God's absolute potence towards numerical multiplication of qualities cannot be restricted by certain natural principles of intensification and remission of qualities. In the last part, the author shows that if it is not contradictory that two mere numerically different accidents can co-exist in the same subject, it is a fortiori valid about the Thesis of successive existence of the two mere numerically different accidents in the same subject.

James Hill

[What Does „to think" (cogitare) Mean in Descartes' Second Meditation?]
Was heißt „denken" (cogitare) in Descartes' Zweiter Meditation?

Der Artikel setzt sich mit der Frage auseinander, was die Bedeutung des Terminus cogitare in Descartes' Zweiter Meditation ist. Der Autor hält die orthodoxe Interpretation, es heiße „bewusst sein", nicht für wahr. Aufgrund einer Textanalyse kommt er zu der Ansicht, dass dieser Terminus eine primär intellektuelle Bedeutung hat. Descartes spricht von Wahrnehmung und Vorstellung als von Arten der cogitatio, da er meint, dass auch diese Leistungen des Gemüts im Kern Tätigkeiten intellektueller Natur sind.

Petr Dvořák

[The Logic and Semantics of Modal Propositions in Juan Caramuel]
Logik und Semantik der Modalpropositionen bei Juan Caramuel

Der Artikel stellt die logische Modalitätenlehre von Juan Caramuel von Lobkowitz vor. Zu den Standartmodalbegriffen Notwendigkeit, Möglichkeit, Unmöglichkeit und Kontingenz fügt Caramuel noch den Modus Freiheit hinzu. Die Kontingenz fasst er in einer Polemik mit einigen Zeitgenossen als „möglich, vielleicht aber auch nicht" auf. Der Autor des Artikels untersucht außerdem die Frage nach der Berechtigung, den Modus der Freiheit zu den logischen Grundmodalitäten zu zählen, und gelangt hierbei zu einer negativen Antwort. Caramuels Auff assung der Modalitäten ist auch dadurch interessant, dass er außer den logischen Modalitäten auch einige Beziehungen zwischen ausgewählten epistemischen und deontologischen Modalitäten untersucht.

Jan Palkoska

[Leibniz on Abstracts]
Leibniz über Abstrakta

Das Thema des Artikels betrifft die Grundlagen von Leibniz' sog. „nominalistischem" Standpunkt, dem zufolge in der geschaffenen Welt keine abstrakten Dinge (res) existieren. Im Aufsatz werden allmählich Leibniz' Begriffe des Konkreten und Abstrakten rekonstruiert (Abteilung I), die Argumente für seine „nominalistische" Position diskutiert (Abteilung II) und die erzielten Ergebnisse im weiteren Rahmen seines Denkens untergeordnet (Abteilung III).
In der I. Abteilung zeigt der Verfasser, dass Leibniz Abstrakta auf der Grundlage der Inhärenz-Relation zu definieren versucht. Daraufhin werden seine Versuche diskutiert, den genauen Funktionsrahmen dieser Relation zu bestimmen. Schließlich folgert der Autor, dass seine Konzeption abstrakter und konkreter Dinge wesentlich an die Problematik des Grundes a parte rei für wahrheitsgemäße Prädikationen gebunden ist.
In der II. Abteilung werden zwei Typen von Leibniz' Argumentation für seine „nominalistische" Position analysiert. Der erste Typ gründet sich auf den Nachweis der Fatalität eines bestimmten unendlichen Regresses, den die Voraussetzung einer aktualen Existenz abstrakter Dinge impliziert. Das Argument des zweiten Typs wird in der Art einer reductio ad absurdum der in Frage gestellten Voraussetzung geführt. Nichtsdestotrotz zeigt der Verfasser, dass letzteres doch von der Argumentation des ersten Typs abhängig ist, die von daher als fundierend bezeichnet werden muss.
In der III. Abteilung macht der Autor auf den provisorischen Charakter von Leibniz' „Nominalismus" aufmerksam und dann bringt er diesen „Nominalismus" in eine wesentliche Beziehung zu Leibniz' Ablehnung der aktualen Existenz allgemeiner Gegenstände.

Lucie Storchová

The Eschatological Tone of the Veleslavín Forewords: On the Position of Eschatology as a Source of Ethics in Humanist Discourse

This article analyses the position of eschatology as a source of ethics in historiography and the production of editions by the Veleslavin circle. The main issues include the appearance of eschatological and religious arguments in the Veleslavin texts, their marked entry into period discourse and the possible consequences for the Veleslavin ethics of the self. In comparison with earlier historiographic works of the 16th century, this central position of religious topics in the Veleslavin concept of history is a new phenomenon, at the root of which lies a strong eschatological unease, clear in particular in the forewords to the two Ecclesiastical histories (Historia církevní, 1594), the Jewish History of Josephus Flavius (Historia židovská, 1592) and the Two Chronicles of the Foundation of the Czech Land (Kroniky dvě o založení země české, 1585). In the first part of the article the authoress delineates the position of religion in the broader Veleslavin reflection of history, and devotes attention to the question of how the religious level enters the argumentation of the Veleslavin forewords, setting out the historicity of the basic ethical categories (e.g. the rule of life). She further assesses the inspirational source of the Veleslavin argumentation, which is Philippist conception of history and its specific themes (e.g. the anni fatales), and its eschatologically oriented reformulation in the Veleslavin production. In a later part of the text the authoress presents the constitution of ethics based on eschatology and religious arguments in connection with the proclaimed abandonment of the Neo-Latin Humanist model of formal and linguistic normatives. In conclusion, the authoress casts doubt on the sense of the question of to what to ascribe this radical shift towards eschatological themes and religious argumentation in models of ethics (e.g. in association with the paradigm of confessionalisation), and offers as an opportunity for interpretation a concentration on the Veleslavin ethics of the self, which she understands as the internal context of the eschatological tone in the corpus of texts linked to the printworks. The rule of life and its anchoring in historiography can in this connection be understood as a collection of techniques forming and leading the self, which makes the self the subject of ethical experience and negotiation; in consequence, this enables incorporation into a functional social whole. The process of Foucauldian subjectivation offers a new interpretational framework for the explanation of other texts from the Veleslavin output as well.

Ivo Purš

Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt, pansophy and alchemy

This article attempts to determine the place of the late Humanist physician and natural scientist Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550–1632) in the context of Rudolfine knowledge. Above all, it analyses his encyclopaedic work Gemmarum et lapidum historia (Hanau 1609), which he wrote during his stay at the Rudolfine court. De Boodt's systematic mineralogical classification is characteristic by its critical work with earlier authors, by the emphasis on empiricism and by logical assessment which stems from the Scholastic interpretation of Aristotle's concept of nature. In the context of early 17^th-century pansophy and natural science, de Boodt tended towards an analytical and exact course. His empiricism, which rests on experimental and verifiable experience, his resistance to magic and his original cosmology based on deep religious convictions regarding the forming divine spirit are very different from two important expressions of Rudolfine natural science: Croll's medicine, based on the Paracelsian system of correspondences, and Kepler's Platonising cosmology. In spite of their proclaimed rationality, however, de Boodt's experiments were still influenced by period magical thought. The study further considers the more specialised theme of de Boodt's relationship to alchemy - his interpretation of the relationship between light and precious stones, his rejection of the Paracelsian doctrine of signatures, and his position to the various directions taken by contemporary alchemy. His position with regard to transmutational alchemy was pragmatic and theoretically not clear cut, oscillating between admitting the possibility of transforming silver into gold, to the rejection of the idea that metals could be reduced to their primal matter. According to the report of the French alchemist Nicolas Barnaud (1538 – pre-1607), de Boodt supposedly successfully experimented with the transformation of mercury into gold. At the same time, it is characteristic of de Boodt that he interprets nature and human experience and their principles on the basis of the principle of 'identity' rather than on that of 'analogy', which was the basis of alchemical thought. The lack of clarity in de Boodt's relationship to alchemy is also expressed in the symbolism of his personal device.

Levente Nagy

[Intellectual and Political Ideology in the Middle of the 17th Century: Comenius and the Propaganda of Zrínyi in England]
Intellektuelle und politische Ideologie in der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts

Die Umstände des Aufenthalts von Comenius in Ungarn sind in der internationalen Fachliteratur ziemlich bekannt; alle wichtigeren Comenius-Monographien (z. B. J. Kvačala, M. Blekastad, J. Kumpera, F. Karšai, G. Geréb usw.) widmen ihm ein selbständiges Kapitel. Nichtsdestoweniger hat Katalin S. Németh im Jahre 1997 behauptet, dass di ausländischen Forscher so gut wie keine Aufmerksamkeit den politischen Ideen des sich in Ungarn aufhaltenden Comenius und des ihn mehrmals besuchenden Mikuláš Drabík geschenkt hätten. Laut Katalin S. Németh ist dessen Grund in erster Linie darin zu suchen, dass die ausländischen Forscher die Ergebnisse der ungarischen Fachliteratur wegen der Sprachberriere nicht nutzbar machen könnten. Ein typisches Beispiel ist das 1992 in Wien gehaltene tschechisch-österreichische Comenius-Kolloquium (Jan Amos Comenius und die Politik seiner Zeit, Hrsg. Karlheinz Mack, Wien – München): keine von den im Sammelband beinhalteten Studien nimmt auf ungarische Verfasser Bezug, obwohl sich die Beiträge auch spezifisch mit Ungarn befassten. An dieser eigentümlichen Situation sind natürlich auch die ungarischen Forcher schuldig, da sie – abgesehen von einem Sammelband von 1973 (Comenius and Hungary, ed. by Éva Földes – István Mészáros, Budapest) – die Ergebnisse ihrer Forschungen fast ausschließlich auf Ungarisch veröffentlich haben.
Unter Berücksichtigung der neuesten Forschungsergebnisse erweist der Autor, dass Ungarn und Siebenbürgen in den politischen Ideen von Comenius gar keine marginale Rolle spielten. Gleichzeitig unterstreicht er auch, dass die Konzeptionen der unmittelbaren politischen Teilnehmer und die von Comenius nicht immer übereinstimmten. Comenius und sein ganz Europa umspannender Kreis entwickelten eine eigenartige intellektuelle Ideologie, die des Autors Meinung nach von den professionellen Politikern nicht so ernst genommen wurde, wie es manche früheren Forschungen andeuten. Comenius wollte z. B. den Fürsten von Siebenbürgen, Georg II. Rákoczi dazu bereden, mit Hilfe der Türken und des westungarischen Hochadels (zunächst des kroatischen Bans Miklós Zrínyi) die ungarische Krone zu erlangen, aber weder der Fürst noch Zrínyi waren mit diesem Plan einverstanden. Comenius hat Ungarn auch nach seinem Aufbruch von Sárospatak nicht vergessen: in Amsterdam wurde er von zahlreichen ungarischen fahrenden Schülern aufgesucht (Péter Körmendi, János Nadányi, Mihály Tofeus usw.). Außerdem weist der Autor nach, dass Comenius auch in der Veröffentlichung der Biographie von Miklós Zrínyi im Jahre 1663 in London eine Rolle spielte.
Daneben hat der Autor auch hervorgehoben, dass diese intellektuelle Ideologie – eine eigenartige Konzeption von Mitteleuropa, Habsburgerfeindlichkeit, Puritanismus und Türkenfreundlichkeit – kein dominierendes Element der zeitgenössischen politischen Strömungen war, sondern die zusammenhaltende Kraft einer Gruppe, die sich eben dadurch von anderen Komponenten der Gesellschaft abgrenzte. Diese Ideologie, die von einem politischen Gesichtspunkt aus betrachtet unter den damaligen Machtverhältnissen praktisch irreal war, hat versacht, dass – trotz der gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Unterschiede – solche Mitglieder zur gleichen Zeit zur Gruppe gehörten, wie Comenius und Drabík, der nicht einmal Latein konnte (um nur diese zwei extremen Beispiele zu nennen). Die Ideologie hat also die Gruppe homogenisiert, die aus diesem ideologischen Kapital natürlicherweise auch politisches Kapital schlagen wollte, um dadurch wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Vorteile zu gewinnen. In diesem Übergangsprozesess benötigten sie die Persönlichkeit und Tätigkeit von Zrínyi, der die Möglichkeit hatte, sich einer – zwar sehr indirekt wirkenden – holländisch-englischen Propagandabewegung anzuschließen, und dadurch sein Wort hören zu lassen.

Petr Glombíček

[Descartes on the Nature of Language]
Descartes über das Wesen der Sprache

Descartes wird traditionell als Vater der modernen Philosophie im Sinne der Hegelschen Philosophie des Bewusstseins wahrgenommen. Von dieser Philosophieauffassung grenzt sich seit ihrer Entstehung die analytische Philosophie ab, in deren Rahmen folglich Descartes als Modellangriffsziel angesehen wird. Der Autor versucht, durch die Interpretation von Descartes´ Sprachauffassung zur Berichtigung dieses Bildes beizutragen. Zuerst macht er auf die Risiken der Interpretation der Descartesschen Philosophie der Sprache durch das Lockesche Prisma, das sich als erstes anbietet, aufmerksam. Er baut dabei vor allem auf die unterschliedliche Auffassung des inneren Sinnes bei beiden Denkern. Dann schreitet er zur Interpretation der überlieferten Auslegungen Descartesʼ zum Thema der Sprache in seiner Korrespondenz, in der er vor allem die Formulierung der sprachlichen Handlung als Kriteriums der Rationalität findet. Dann beschäftigt er sich mit der Interpretation von Descartesʼ Kritik an dem anonymen Projekt der universellen Sprache. Descartes zeigt sich hierbei als prinzipieller Gegner derjenigen Projekte, die das menschliche Denken durch die Kontruktion eines künstlichen Sprachkalküls korrigieren wollen, und verweist im Gegenteil auf die geringe Bedeutung eines solches Projektes für die Verbesserung der Urteilsfähigkeit als solcher, selbst wenn diese gleichzeitig an die Fähigkeit, Sprache zu verwenden, gebunden ist. Die Interpretation gründet in diesem Teil auf der Auslegung des Endes des in der Studie zitierten Briefes als eines implizit die Ansichten des Adressaten Marin Mersenne kritisierenden ironischen Argumentes gegen die Möglichkeiten des diskutierten Projektes.

Erwin Schadel

Comenius and the Comeniologists. Some ontotriadic comments on the individual positions taken by recent Comeniological studies

The main aim of this article is not to present a (externally) complete overview of research into Comenius' life and work, but rather to explore some significant trends in Comeniology, particularly those which - in the field of purely historical doxography - attempt to comment on the completeness of Comenius' thinking and its possible universal application. In this context, the first question to be considered is that of whether modern Comeniologists have taken on board the 'core' of Comenius' pansophy - the integrity of his onto-triadic (or onto-trinitarian) conception of reality.
The article is divided into ten sections which consider this problem in detail. Initially (in sections I/II), the thesis that Comenius is a „modern", and for that reason „ambiguous", thinker is discussed. It becomes clear that it is not Comenius, but his modern interpreters who (by introducing their own presuppositions into the Comenian texts) are in fact „ambiguous". From the methodological perspective, as is subsequently elucidated (V/VI), the phenomenological philosophy (which markedly predominates in contemporary Comeniology) brings with it specific problem whenever it gives rise to a search for a matching approach to the integral horizon of Comenius' pansophy. It does not, for example, offer any satisfactory possibility of describing the transition from theory to practice as a complete, internally differentiated process. Similar difficulties are encountered in the various attempts to reconstruct the basic triadism of Comenius' thought (VII).
It would seem that a solution to this problem could be attained if originally ontological reflections are considered (VIII). Thanks to this metaphysical method it is possible to explain the sought-after completeness as onto-logo-ethical, as the completeness that dawns in the in-ec-con-sistent rhythm. As Comenius explains in his early work, the Dilucidatio, as well as in the framework of his lifelong investigation into the verus Catholicismus (III/IV), the aforementioned method contains within itself a development of the analogical conception of reality, i.e. that which empowers us to discover the same basic structure in different fields of experience. From this, both detailed analysis and the resolute realisation of Comenius' posthumous Triertium catholicum (IX/X) project follow as tasks for a 'post-modern' Comeniology that has overcome the many ambiguities of „modern" thinking.