Lot 09

Václav Hájek z Libočan (???? - 1553) CZECH CHRONICLE

The Czech Chronicle. Kronyka Czeská Cum gratia et Priuilegio Regie Maiestatis. Prague, Jan Severin the Younger and Ondřej Kubeš from Žip, 1541. First edition. With a decorative woodcut of the imperial coat of arms on the title page, Gothic types of Czech text, antique Latin text, marginalia, headings, rubrics, signatures, initials, coats of arms. About 150 text woodcuts, partly colored for the period, follow natural scenery, historical events, and the lives of monarchs. The missing text was sometimes replaced by a calligraphic, legible description on expertly added, almost filled-in paper. The index from the letter K has been replaced by a careful description dated 1818. Period corrections mostly on the edges of the leaves, the book block is more trimmed at the top, partially affecting the pagination. We recommend a tour. Václav Hájek from Libočany (?-1553) completed the manuscript in 1539, after the Catholic censorship, the printing took place with financial difficulties, most of the sheets were eventually burned. Nevertheless, Hájek observes Czech history from a Catholic point of view, his narrator's freer handling of historical facts is considered by researchers to be a weak point of the work, which was, however, highly sought after by readers in the pre-Belahod period. That is why the first Prague German edition was published by Jan Sandel in 1596, and further German editions followed in 1697 and 1718. Contemporary leather binding on wooden boards with four real bindings, richly decorated with ornamental and floral blind-print borders. In the middle of both plates 2 oval heraldic supralibros with a crown. Back and corners of boards later replaced with leather, remains of brass clasps. Library 2867. One of the largest Czech book and general cultural monuments.