Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) was established in 1998 as a joint workplace of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University. Among the overriding objectives of the CMS as laid down by its statute is to provide highly-qualified support to doctoral studies in all disciplines of medieval studies. A major event within the post-graduate programme is the annual Summer School of Medieval Studies. A no less serious responsibility is the excellent research and publication projects of an interdisciplinary nature. The CMS issues a scholarly journal, the Studia mediaevalia Bohemica.

The CMS’s publication output consists of source editions, monographs, edited volumes, and articles. Editions of medieval sources are published within traditional series overseen by the CMS, such as the “Archiv český” (e.g. Nejstarší městská kniha táborská, eds. A. Černá and F. Šmahel, Filosofia 2017) or “M. Iohannis Hus Opera omnia” (Catalogi librorum vetustissimi Universitatis Pragensis, eds. Z. Silagiová and F. Šmahel, Brepols 2015). Recent book publications making the results of Czech medieval studies accessible to the international public include the German monograph of M. Nodl on the Kuttenberg Decree (Böhlau 2017), the scientific catalogue of Benedictine art (ed. P. Sommer et al., English edn. NLN 2015), and the Companion to Jan Hus (ed. F. Šmahel, Brill 2015).

Over the last years, the CMS has succeeded with several proposals submitted to the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). Recent projects dealt with topics such as the early Mendicant Orders (2016–2018, PI P. Sommer) and cultural codes of the Hussite period (Project of Excellence, 2012–2018, PI F. Šmahel). Currently running projects include the handling of conflict in the late Middle Ages (ExPro scheme, 2019–2023, PI P. Soukup) and the transmission of knowledge in the late medieval Czech lands (2017–2019, PI P. Cermanová).

Selected publications from 2015–2019

2019

Šmahel, František. Die Basler Kompaktaten mit den Hussiten (1436): Untersuchung und Edition. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2019. xxii, 226. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Studien und Texte, 65. ISBN 978-3-447-11179-9. ISSN 0938-6432

Cermanová, Pavlína, Soukup, Pavel (eds.). Husitské re-formace. Proměna kulturního kódu v 15. století. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny 2019. 379 s. Středověk, 4. ISBN 978-80-7422-730-1

Nodl, Martin (ed.). Středověké město: politické proměny a sociální inovace. Praha: Filosofia, 2019. 237 s. Colloquia mediaevalia Pragensia, 20. ISBN 978-80-7007-598-2

2018

Statuta et Acta rectorum Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis 1360–1614. Ediderunt František Šmahel – Gabriel Silagi. Praha: Karolinum, 2018 (Documenta Historica Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis I.), CLXVII + 415 s.

Petrášek, Jiří. „Meide die Häretiker“. Die antihussitische Reaktion des Heidelberger Professors Nikolaus von Jauer (1355–1435) auf das taboritische Manifest aus dem Jahr 1430. Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2018. 335 s.

Žůrek, Václav. Karel IV. Portrét středověkého vládce. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2018. 265 s.

Musílek, Martin (ed.). Sedm věží: Karel IV. pohledem akademiků (1316–2016). Praha: Academia, 2018, 264 s.

2017

Černá, Alena M. – Šmahel, František. Nejstarší městská kniha táborská z let 1432–1452. Praha: Filosofia, 2017. 376 s. Archiv český 42.

Nodl, Martin. Das Kuttenberger Dekret von 1409. Von der Eintracht zum Konflikt der Prager Universitätsnationen. Köln – Weimar – Wien: Böhlau 2017. 404 s.

Šmahel, František. Nahlédnutí do středověku. Mluva písma a četba obrazů. Praha: Karolinum, 2017. 390 s.

Bauch, Martin – Burkhardt, Julia – Gaudek, Tomáš – Žůrek, Václav (eds.). Heilige, Helden, Wüteriche. Herrschaftsstile der Luxemburger (1308–1437). Köln – Weimar – Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2017. 449 s.

Soukup, Pavel. Crusading against Christians in the Fifteenth Century. Doubts and Debates. In House ‑ ly, N. (ed.). Reconfiguring the Fifteenth-Century Crusade. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, s. 85–122.

Libichová Cermanová, Pavlína. Constructing the Apocalypse. Connections between English and Bohemian Apocalyptic Thinking. In Hornbeck, J. – Van Du ‑ ssen, M. (eds.). Europe after Wyclif. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017, s. 66–88.

2016

Šmahel, František: Alma mater Pragensis. Studie k počátkům Univerzity Karlovy. Praha: Nakladatelství Karolinum 2016, 614 s.

Open the Gates of Paradise. The Benedictins in the Heart of Europe 800–1300. Eds. D. Foltýn, J. Klípa, P. Mašková, P. Sommer, V. Vlnas. Praha: Národní galerie v Praze, Filosofický ústav AV ČR v Praze, 2015, 491 s.

Soukup, Pavel. Religion and Violence in the Hussite Wars. In The European Wars of Religion. An Interdisciplinary Reassessment of Sources, Interpretations, and Myths, Wolfgang Palaver, Harriet Rudolph, Dietmar Regensburger (eds.). Farnham – Burlington: Ashgate, 2016, s. 19–44.

Cermanová, Pavlína. Gog and Magog: Using concepts of Apocalyptic Enemies in the Hussite era. In Brandes, W., Schmieder, F., Voß, R. (eds.). Peoples of the Apocalypse: Eschatological Beliefs and Political Scenarios. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016, s. 239-256. Millennium-Studien, 63.

2015

Nodl, M., Středověk v nás. Praha: Argo, 2015. 311 s. (Každodenní život, 66). ISBN 978-80-257-1576-5.

Silagiová, Z. – Šmahel, F. (eds.), Catalogi librorum vetustissimi Universitatis Pragensis. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. 290 s. (Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 271). ISBN 978-2-503-55485-3.

Šmahel, F. – Pavlíček, O. (eds.), A Companion to Jan Hus. Leiden: Brill, 2015. 447 s. (Brill’s companions to the Christian tradition, 54). ISBN 978-90-04-28055-7. ISSN 1871-6377.