EAST EUROPEN QUARTERLY
Summing up our conclusions: the Czech edition was neither a new work nor a mere translation of its German model. In our opinion, the truth stands somewhere between these two opposite poles. The Czech version is a new edition resulting from many exterior as well as interior factors which gave it philosophical, ideological, and artistic shape. Its text is a new version which fully reflects the author’s goal, displaying his extensive historical knowledge, the depth of his philosophical thought, and his masterly artistic style, all of which reached their peak during this period.
Palacký’s History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and in Moravia is a work which conquered space and time. Moreover, it completely fulfilled the desires of its creator, to give his beloved nation a work he considered to be the principal and last aim of all his endeavors.
NOTES
1. See František Palacký, Dějiny národu českého (Prague, 1850), Vol. III, p. vi.
2. See Palacký’s correspondence with the Executive Committee from the 1850’s in his Zur böhmischen Geschichtschreibung (Prague, 1871), pp. 121–30, 134–37.
3. Franz Palacký, Die Geschichte des Hussitentums und Prof. C. Höfler: Kritische Studien (Prague, 1868).
4. František Palacký, Dějiny národu českého, ed. Olga Svejkovská, Intr. by J. Charvát (6 vols. Prague, 1968–73).
5. Palacký, Dějiny, Vol. 1 (Prague, 1848), p. x.
6. Ibid., pp. v–vi.
7. See, e.g., the postscript of J. Charvát to the edition of F. Palacký, Stručný přehled dějin českých doby starší (Prague, 1976), pp. 123–124.
8. The comparison is of pp. 10–17 of the German edition with pp. 9–15 of the Czech edition.
9. E.g., on p. 202 of the Czech edition a statement that the Slavs had learned to give harsh treatment to prisoners from the Germans has been added. A quotation from Guizot’s History of French Civilization (p. 180/I) confirms the harshness and cruelty of the German order and therefore supports this statement.
10. See Josef Kalousek’s review of the second volume of Palacký’s History in Časopis Českého musea, XLVIII (1874), pp. 125–34.
