Cosmas of Prague

Kosmas von Prag über das Liebesleben von Mathilde von Tuszien und Welf V. is a paper I have written for an university seminar before. It contains a small research about Mathilda of Canossa and her much younger second husband Welf V. The source used in this paper is from Cosmas of Prague.
It might not be perfect, but since there isn't much info gathered about medieval "love", I thought it should be published. :-) The bibliography is linked.

The author analyzes how Medieval culture and civilization in Europe was able to manage cultural, social and religious plurality and diversity without posing a threat to solidarity, openness, dynamism and the actual functioning of society using selected phenomena. The monograph explores questions connected with Medieval anthropology and the  concept of the relationship between the Church and society. Additional  chapters are dedicated to the Medieval Inquisition and the influence of Christianity on the social and economic arrangement of society and all of this from a transcultural perspective.

Processes of identification were mostly studied on “barbarians” of late antique and early medieval post-Roman Europe. This book focuses on the polity of medieval inhabitants of Czech lands and examines, if the methodology developed by a Viennese group of scholars is also usable on high medieval central Europe. It shortly introduces and contextualises the beginnings and functioning of the Přemyslid principality in the Czech lands. An important layer of identification is an external image. Therefore, the image of that area and of its rulers and inhabitants, Bohemi, in medieval narratives written within the borders of Holy Roman Empire is analysed with the focus on its dynamics and main trends. This imagination of Bohemi is contextualized in each written source and compared with the image of Bohemi in the chronicles written in the Přemyslid principality. Both levels of comparison make it possible to understand the communication between those groups of texts and their intended recipients. In the next chapter, the communication between the Přemyslid principality and the Holy Roman Empire is analysed based on the St.-Wenceslas cult. This Přemyslid prince († 935) and soon patron saint of Bohemi and their principality became hero of seven legends until 1150. As he was also venerated outside the borders of the Přemyslid principality, the analysis of concrete material evidence of his cult offers another insight into the communication channels between the Czech lands and the rest of Europe. It, too, enables to identify especially those regions which had stronger links to the Czech lands and which seemed to be a bridge between them and the Holy Roman Empire. Finally, because historiographical narratives may become a powerful catalyst of self-identification, the author scrutinizes the possible impact of written texts on Bohemian elites. Based on this analysis, three historiographical narratives are observed and their importance for the self-identification of these elites is evaluated.

This article represents a larger project that seeks to understand the function and implications of the use of etymologies in the writing of history in the Middle Ages. I examine the strategy of historians to etymologize within the framework of grammatical theories and historiographic methods of Latin scholarship. I conclude that, contrary to the traditional view that medieval etymologies are literary tropes and wordplay in all contexts, medieval historians used etymology as an epistemological instrument of discovery that helped them verify anecdotal information from oral tradition in order to adapt it to Christian historical discourse. This article focuses on the earliest annalistic narrative about the history of Bohemia, the Chronica Boemorum (c. 1125), and examines how its author, Cosmas of Prague, utilizes etymologies in the legendary sections of his masterpiece, and what role he ascribes to them in the mechanism of story-telling. Close reading and formal analysis of selected passages with etymological content show that etymologies are used as evidence to recover reality outside language (i.e. discover origins), and in that capacity they motivate the story itself and expand the narrative.

Die Historiker glauben allgemein im Gegensatz zu den Sprachwissenschaftlern, dass Thietmars Umgang mit den slavischen Namen in seiner Chronik korrekt war. Am Beispiel des Namens der ersten christlichen Gemahlin Mieszkos I. wird das Problem im historiographischen Überblick erörtert: Nur Thietmar führt sie als Dobrawa, d. h. Bona, an (MGH SS rer. Germ. N.S. 9, lib. IV c. 55, S. 194), während die Vertreter der ältesten Krakauer Annalistik, nämlich die „Annales vetusti“ und die „Annales capituli Cracoviensis“, dieselbe Namensform Dubrouka unabhängig voneinander aus den „Annales regni Polonorum deperditi“ schöpfen, und während Cosmas von Prag, der das Todesjahr (977) der böhmischen Prinzessin vermutlich aus den verlorenen polnischen Annalen überliefert (MGH SS rer. Germ. N. S. 2, lib. I c. 27, S. 49), andeuten, dass sie in Wirklichkeit eher Dąbrówka bzw. Dúbravka genannt wurde.

Not so much attention has been given to the crusaders’ attack on Prague Jewish community in 1096 and the issue of the forced baptisms and subsequent reversions (i.e. return of Jews to Judaism) that took place there. It is caused both by the informational reticence of Medieval Latin and Hebrew sources and by uncertainty how to interpret the most detailed text that describes the events in Premyslid Duchy, Chronica Boëmorum, written by Cosmas of Prague. The great problem encountered with interpretation of the crusaders’ raids on Bohemia as presented by Cosmas lies partly in the fact that only very few historians have studied Cosmas’s chronicle as a literary work which has its own special hermeneutic strategy. The episodes capturing the events of 1096 are connected not only according to theme but also to composition. In the paper we analyze the narrative structure of Book Three of the Chronicle of the Bohemians, pointing out possible points of contention between fiction and reality, taking note of elements contributing to the author’s skill as a narrator, to the purpose behind and function of specific texts about Jews, and therefore the function of Cosmas’s work as such. Scrutiny of Cosmas’s concept of conversion and reversion will help us to better understand the function of the entire text which goes beyond mere description and has higher, formative ambitions.

RAZIM, Jakub: Fidelity in the Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague.
This study focuses on the Chronica Boemorum by Cosmas of Prague, which is one of the most important narrative sources for Czech history in the era of the Přemyslid dynasty. An analysis of this literary work attempts to address the question of how the chronicler worked with the category of fidelity that is nowadays considered to be one of the fundamental ideas and widespread legal forms through which the medieval society expressed its hierarchical order. It is no coincidence that domestic rulers and noble persons closely related to the throne found themselves at the centre of attention, as most of the information that Prague dean Cosmas left behind is related to members of the political elite. Following the pioneering monograph of Dušan Třeštík, the concept of fidelity in the Chronica Boemorum is discussed and reinterpreted. The main reason is that Třeštík’s approach is based on traditional fief terminology and doctrine, which has been recently attacked by postmodern deconstructivists headed by prominent British historian Susan Reynolds. At first, legal rituals, such as promises and oaths, are presented as means to establish, strengthen, or terminate fidelity ties, binding together Přemyslids and provincial magnates. The major part of the study is then devoted to the content of fidelity commitments. Although it was based predominantly on the duty of loyalty and service, medieval fides or fidelitas was not at all uniform. On the contrary, it flexibly adapted to the socio-cultural and geographical context. Therefore, it seems appropriate to examine this topic with the help of an analytical probe that captures the (un)loyal rulers and their servants depicted in the Chronica Boemorum as heroes providing encouragement to be followed, or villains worthy of condemnation. While doing so, a methodological inspiration may be drawn from the classical work of František Graus and, under his influence, it is possible to distinguish one-sided uncompromising obedience (obedientia) from two-sided fidelity based on reciprocity (fides, fidelitas).

Much has been written about each of medieval chronicles by scientists from various fields of studies. If anything should be added, it seems that possibilities lie in comparative study of medieval texts. There are several reasons to justify such an approach to chronicles by Anonymus called Gallus and Cosmas of Prague. Both narratives were written in a similar time period, in neighboring countries, becoming evidence for the conscious forming of a dynastic vision of the past, as well as milestones of passing from the oral to the written form of collecting, selecting and passing on the tradition. Also similar is the scope of the authors’ interests, as well as the literary genre and courtly and chivalric character of their works. Firstly the founding myths will be deconstructed in search for three fundamental elements that determine the shape of the community: the main character, the place and the causing force. Secondly comparison of both bodies of lore will follow.

The study deals with the question of a possible interaction between the learned tradition, or more precisely Latin and Old Slavonic literature, and the environment of secular elites in the Czech lands in the 11 th and 12 th century. The essay considers the significance of the Přemyslid dy­ nasty in contemporary obituary records and of reflection of history in diplomatic sources. This is followed by an analysis of surviving manu­ scripts of the historiographic texts, which proves mutual inter­institu­ tional relations. An analysis of selected accounts of the written sources as well as reasoning about mental background of period works of fine arts is included.

Autoři zkoumali imaginaci valky ve vybraných středověkých kronikach a dalsich narativnich pramenech psaných mezi lety 1000 a 1300 v Cechach, Maďarsku, Polsku a na Rusi. Nejprve byla pozornost věnovana problemu, jak velka pozornost byla věnovana ozbrojeným konfliktům v těchto přibězich. Zadruhe, zkoumali podminky, za nichž nebyla valka odsouzena, ale byla oceněna jako řeseni konfliktu („spravedliva valka“). Zatřeti studovali retoricke prostředky (slovni zasobu, metaforiku, řec těla atd.) použivane středověkými kronikaři k popisu valky.

“Who established Germans judges over the nations?”, asked 1160 John of Salisbury in one of his letters and in following years criticizes “German tyrant”, emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190). Was his criticism on “Germans” unique? Moreover, who were those “Germans”, he criticized so severely? And what do different techniques of “othering” tell about identifications of those medieval historians, who used them? In this paper, in the first step, focus will be on the image of “Theutonici” in selected Bohemian high medieval historiographical sources. Second, these imaging of “Theutonici” will be contextualized within differing strategies of identifications of individual medieval historians. This will become an important stepping stone for understanding differing definitions of belonging to the ethnic group, which developed to an argument within the debates among the different social groups in medieval Czech lands.

This article reviews the representation of «ethnic» stereotypes in the Cosmas’ and Gallus’ chronicles. Also, there is considered the problem and peculiarities of the early medieval Czech and Polish identity. The article refers to the chronicles from the standpoint of «the internal criticism of sources».

Much has been written about each of medieval chronicles by academics from various fields of studies. If anything should be added, it seems that possibilities lie in comparative study of medieval texts. There are several reasons to justify such an approach to chronicles by Anonymus called Gallus and Cosmas of Prague. Both narratives were written in a similar time period, in neighbouring countries, becoming evidence for the conscious forming of a dynastic vision of the past, as well as milestones of passing from the oral to the written form of collecting, selecting and passing on of tradition. Also similar is the scope of the authors’ interests, as well as the literary genre and courtly and chivalric character of their works. Firstly the founding myths will be deconstructed in search for three fundamental elements that determine the shape of the community: the main character, the place and the causing force. Secondly comparison of both bodies of lore will follow.