ČLÁNKY / ARTICLES / STUDIEN
Lenka ŘEZNÍKOVÁ, Theatrum Historiae: The Metaphors of J. A. Comenius’ Historical Theory and Narration and Their Empirical Context
This study focuses on several metaphors used by Comenius when discussing history. Its aim is not only to analyse what these metaphors reveal about history but also what they reveal about their source domains. The first part discusses Comenius’ theory of metaphor. Unlike many noted critics who have dismissed metaphor for its susceptibility to inaccuracies, Comenius advises caution when using this linguistic tool but does not reject it ultimately as a means of literary communication. As a theologian, he values highly the metaphorical language of the Bible and its explicatory power. In his rhetorical and philological texts, he adheres to the classical substitution theory of metaphor. However, several (and particularly) Pansophic texts bring up its cognitive potential. The second part moves from Comenius’ theory to his practice in his historical and metahistorical writings. While in his historical writings he includes common narrative metaphors, in his metahistorical texts he applies conceptual metaphors that help him to grasp his ideas about the nature and properties of history and historical processes. Coming from the domain of theatre, astrology, theory of vision, optics, and the physics of light, these metaphors present history as something that could be seen and physically experienced. The source domains from which Comenius derives his metaphors refer to key empirical principles dominating seventeenth-century epistemology. Creating these metaphors, history came into lexical proximity with natural philosophy and the discourse of the natural sciences.
Keywords
Johannes Amos Comenius; Metaphors; History of historiography 17th century; Intelectually history; Early modern cultures of knowledge; Theatre; Light
Jan MALURA, How to Tell the Story of a Crisis? Three Historiographic Accounts of the Estates Revolt and the Bohemian War
This study investigates the narrative techniques and poetics of historiographic texts from the 16th and 17th centuries. It analyzes how historiographic narratives represent crises and calamities, focusing specifically on the Estates Revolt and the Bohemian (or Bohemian and Palatinate) War (1617–1624). It explores narrative perspective, textual coherence and intertextuality, showing how the narrative selects elements from historical happenings, uses live-action descriptions, inserts narrative commentaries, and draws on the authority of eyewitness accounts. The analysis focuses on three works: Paměti (Memoirs) by Mikuláš Dačický z Heslova, Historie církevní (History of the Church) by Pavel Skála ze Zhoře, and the German-language autobiography Raiszbuch und Leben by Jindřich Hýzrle z Chodů. The study shows that historical narratives about the Bohemian crisis use various narrative techniques which are primarily influenced by the differing generic character of the historical works. Among the features shared by all the investigated texts is the fact that the individual stories are presented in the form of empirically rich narratives focusing mainly on specific events. The analyzed works neither make substantial use of universal narratives nor combine stories to create integrated narrative configurations, and only occasionally do they engage in theological and/or political speculations regarding the changing world and crisis situations. For historians of that time, the authority of eyewitnesses was a key principle in narrative practice; this was reflected not only in the authors’ attempts to present their own personal experience, having been direct observers of the narrated events, but also in their tendency to excerpt and reword narratives from other sources, especially news leaflets, whose representations of events contained a wealth of specific information and descriptive details.
Keywords
Early Modern historiography; Narrative techniques; Poetics of historiographic texts; the Bohemian War; Mikuláš Dačický z Heslova; Pavel Skála ze Zhoře; Jindřich Hýzrle z Chodů
Réka ÚJLAKI-NAGY, Passover and Identity Formation among the Early Transylvanian Sabbatarians, 1580–16211
The Transylvanian Sabbatarians were a Hungarian-speaking religious community formed in the 1580s who were part of the Antitrinitarian tendencies of the Reformation in Transylvania. Taking the reforming and purifying efforts of the Christian Church as their point of departure, they returned to Judaism and its religious practices. They sought to find a way to be both a true Christian and a clear-sighted Jew. The attempt to reconcile the two world religions was most visibly demonstrated in their religious practices, most notably in the most confrontational area of their religious practice, the Passover celebration. It is no coincidence that in the Transylvanian Sabbatarian liturgical texts written for Passover in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the issue of identity was heavily thematised, since this feast was central to the identity of both Christianity and Judaism. This paper analyses the Sabbatarians’ confrontation with the question of affinity in the matter of Passover and considers its implications, in particular for the expression of their identity. The Sabbatarian Passover emerges from this analysis as a unique fusion of Christian and Jewish practices in eschatology and ritual and also of Seder and the Lord’s Supper. There were significant endeavours to re-Judaize the holiday and to discover and reinterpret its original historical context while retaining certain Christian elements, such as the eligibility to participate. The most problematic link in the chain between the holidays celebrated by the two religions was Jesus as the Messiah. The alleged discovery of Messianism in the ritual and symbolism of the Jewish holiday helped the Sabbatarians find their place, despite being Gentiles, in the narrative of the Jewish celebration and remembrance and to find reassurance for the future resolution of their problem of identity. In its extreme historicism, Sabbatarianism is a good example of the “radical” Reformation, but it went well beyond other radical groups in its intention to return to Jewish practices.
Keywords
Sabbatarianism; Passover; Lord’s Supper; Afikoman; Re-Judaization; Messianism
Zdeněk ŽALUD – Magda KRÁLOVÁ, ´Lutheran Lourdes´: The Healing Springs of Hornhausen in Two Bohemian Sources from 1646. Supplemented by a Critical Edition of a Letter by Jan Marek Marci
The appearance of new healing springs in Hornhausen, Saxony, in the spring of 1646 became an event of European significance. Within a few weeks, the insignificant village was attracting crowds of pilgrims of various nationalities and social strata. This article introduces this phenomenon in the context of different modes of interpretation of healing springs. The fact that “Lutheran Lourdes” captured the attention of not only Protestants but also of Catholic aristocrats is documented by references to Hornhausen in a diary written by cardinal Ernst Adalbert of Harrach in Prague. Even the most famous Bohemian naturalist and physician of the 17th century, Jan Marek Marci of Kronland, turned his attention to Saxon springs and described the experience and impressions of his stay in Hornhausen in a letter to an unknown addressee. In addition to a paraphrase of the key passages of these two sources and their comparison with other contemporary textual and visual material, this study includes a critical edition of Marci’s letter and a few notes on its textual history.
Keywords
Healing springs; Hornhausen; Jan Marek Marci of Kronland; Correspondence; Ernst Adalbert of Harrach; Friedrich Salchmann
Nicolette MOUT, Honouring Comenius in the Netherlands: The Scholarly Commemorations of 1892, 1970, and 1992
In the Netherlands, modern scholarly commemorations of Comenius’ life and work have occurred three times, in 1892, 1970, and 1992. In all three cases politics played a role. The first was for the greater part organized by Protestant, mainly Mennonite, professors and ministers of the church in Amsterdam and Naarden. Comparisons between the Dutch Revolt in the sixteenth century, leading to freedom, and Habsburg oppression in Bohemia played a role, as well as the fate of Comenius as an exile. Furthermore, the symposium of 1970, again taking place both in Amsterdam and Naarden, saw freedom and tolerance as important topics. The fact that a number of Czech and Slovak invitees were barred from attending in an atmosphere of “normalization” after the Warsaw Pact aggression in Czechoslovakia in August 1968 overshadowed the symposium and its aftermath. The colloquium of 1992, in Naarden and Amsterdam, hailed the newly acquired democracy in Czechoslovakia. It celebrated Comenius’ ecumenical and democratic ideas whilst stressing his place in European culture and the importance of his work as an educationalist. The commemoration of 1992 differed from the two earlier ones by starting with a grand public ceremony in Naarden, with many high-ranking personalities from the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia present. In all three commemorations, Comenius was honoured for his work as an educationalist, a religious leader, and a theologian.
Keywords
Dutch scholarly commemorations; Protestantism; Freedom; Democracy; Comenius scholars; Comenius and European culture
REVIEW ARTICLE
Petr PAVLAS, ´Eruditio semper reformanda´: Discussing and Ref lecting on Howard Hotson’s New Book
Like a tripod, this review article is “three-legged”, having three partial objectives. First, it provides a concise companion to the book under review. Second, it presents a critical reflection upon those elements of Hotson’s story which the reviewer finds particularly thought-provoking or controversial. Third, at the very end (Conclusion: Towards a History of Hope), the reviewer dares to add somewhat more personal ruminations and speculative contemplations regarding a historiography of and for the future.
Keywords
Howard Hotson; Philosophical pedagogy; Early modern history; Central Europe; Reformation; post-Ramism; Encyclopaedism; Hope
RECENZE / REVIEWS / REZENSIONEN
Lucie Storchová, Řád přírody, řád společnosti. Adaptace melanchthonismu v českých zemích v polovině 16. století (Jan MALURA)
Jiří Just – Markéta Růčková (eds.), Bratrská šlechta v Čechách a na Moravě a formování konfesní identity v raném novověku (Martin NODL)
Pavel Floss, Aktéři humanismu a rané renesance (Dominik WHITTAKER)
Michaela Valente, Johann Wier: Debating the Devil and Witches in Early Modern Europe (Jiří MICHALÍK)
Michael John Gorman, The Scientific Counter-Revolution: The Jesuits and the Invention of Modern Science (Iva LELKOVÁ)
Suzanna Ivanič, Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague (Veronika ČAPSKÁ)
