Podrobný výpis o publikaci

The first issue of the third part of the fourth volume of Idea i państwo is devoted to the royal towns of Bohemia. It largely focuses on the material fabric of towns yet opens with a general chapter on certain issues of how the towns functioned. The issue points out the leading role in the Crown of two centres, Prague and Wrocław which at the same time competed with each other politically. One important characteristic of urban space and the self-awareness of the burghers is then presented – the realm of freedom, but at the same time the striving to respect the law within the boundaries of the walls, as well as outside them – on the trade routes that condition the development of urban commerce. This trade is a manifestation of the emergence of towns and the burgher stratum but not the only one. Another was the municipal community's corporate co-responsibility for its own fate, as demonstrated by its concern for the town's security in the face of real dangers as well as its responsibility towards God, expressed in the over-emphasis on being under the protection of a higher power for the entire area, in search for models in the past (and, to some extent, in the future) – above all in Jerusalem. The issue of the permanent or episodic unification of towns into unions and corporations and attempts to establish their hierarchy is also briefly presented. The following chapters resemble a catalogue of towns grouped primarily in terms of topography but also with consideration for other criteria – legal and ideological. Priority was therefore given to the Prague agglomeration – the capital and in many respects unrivalled urban centre in the bosom of the Bohemian Crown, but also to Kutná Hora, the mighty city of miners and mint masters. A separate group is formed by the predominantly East Bohemian (and Mĕlník) towns that have been the widow's estate of Bohemian queens since the 14th century. Other groups were created according to topographical criteria (the Prague area, the foothills of the Bohemian Ore Mountains, West Bohemia and South Bohemia, other East Bohemian centres, including those in the Kłodzko County). A certain pattern was used to describe the towns, presenting their overall picture, then the legal and political foundations of its functioning in the form of privileges, then the buildings bearing the signs of transformations happening between the mid-15th and 16th centuries or created during this period. These include town fortifications and public buildings with town halls at the forefront, town houses (not always burghers' houses) and churches, mainly parish churches. In many places, the work presents the results of the previous research but is often in polemical disagreement with them (e.g. the question of the altarpiece chiselled by Master IP in the Parish Church of Tyněšín in Prague, the Church of St Catherine in Chrudim), and sometimes proposes new interpretations (e.g. the Loun gates, the Parish Church of Žatec, the sacrotopography of Chrudim and Hradec Králové), or poses previously unanswered questions (e.g. regarding the ideological programme of the Stone House in Kutná Hora). To a hitherto unknown extent, the fabric of urban buildings has also been explored, although this is the most difficult subject to research due to the limitations of accessibility to the buildings which are usually privately owned. Among the constituent parts of the Crown, the Kingdom of Bohemia had the largest number of royal towns, although their status often changed – they were mortgaged (e.g. Kolín, Kadaň, Písek), sometimes returning to the administration of the royal chamber and sometimes disappearing from the 'royal' horizon forever (Loket, Sokolov, Tachov).