46
the purposes of poetry, and at the coronation of John, in 1311, the Abbé Peter von Königsaal says, in a passage quoted by Dobrowsky,[1]
Extollens cantum, movet a se concio planctum,
Turba Bohemorum canit hoc quod scivit eorum
Lingua, sed ipsorum pars maxima Tewtunicorum
Cantat Tewtunicum.
The establishment of the university of Prague in 1348, led to the cultivation and extension of the bohemian tongue, acquaintance with which was made necessary to the attainment of a public office. The coronation oath was yearly proclaimed in the language of the people, and several pieces of plate are yet preserved, belonging to queen Elizabeth (ob. 1393), on which bohemian inscriptions are engraved. In the reign of Wenzel, the public documents were kept in the popular tongue. Belonging to this epoch, there exists the Kronyka česka, a rhymed bohemian chronicle, whose author is believed to be Dalimil Mezeřicky
- ↑ Geschichte der Böh. Litt. 93. Ed. 1792.
