he was above the medium in height. The expression of his face was habitually grave almost stern. Literary friends complained that in his leanings and tastes he was decidedly an aristocrat. Certain it is that during the greater part of his life his associates had been men of the highest Czech nobility. In dress he affected a black frock-coat; all contemporaries noted the deep parchment-like pallor of his face which was smooth shaven, except for short side-whiskers. In his old age he wore a wig. Himself punctual in all things he insisted on punctuality in others. Another characteristic was his very small, legible and always neat, handwriting.
In the fall of 1825 he began to woo ardently Theresa, the younger daughter of John Měchura, a well-to-do law practitioner. After two years of courtship, he married her and established a permanent residence in Prague. This union with a rich girl put him above material cares, enabling him to devote himself wholly to the prosecution of his literary plans. Certain of his friends and intimates—from the literary set—envied him this excellent match. “Palacký made his fortune not as a Czech and a Slav but as a good German,” wrote bitingly Joseph Jungmann. Yet the circumstance—remarks the biographer—that a rich man whose family was intermarried with the nobility gave his daughter in marriage to a poor author, a Protestant in religion, was the best proof of the high personal qualities and social distinction of Palacký.
Two children were born of the union with Theresa Měchura; a son John (1830), who became professor in the University of Prague, and a daughter, Marie (1833), who, in 1853, was given in marriage to Dr. Francis L. Rieger, nicknamed “son-in-law of the nation.”
After the death of his wife in 1860, Palacký’s household, until then more German than Czech, was wholly Bohemianized. He lived in his town house in Prague, which his wife inherited from her father and which later became Rieger’s house. After his wife’s death, Palacký resided alternately in Prague and Rieger’s country estate at Maleč.
In 1868 his seventieth birthday was celebrated in a manner leaving no doubt as to the nation’s gratitude and affection for him. On the occasion of the completion of his history in April, 1876, friends arranged a farewell dinner in Prague in his honor. That was his last appearance in public; in less than a month after this memorable event he died. On the day of the funeral, May 31, 1876, the whole nation went into mourning. No king had ever been buried with greater pomp; no commoner more genuinely lamented by the people.
Palacký’s literary output is immense. The principal of all his writings is, of course, his great history, Dějiny Národu Českého v Čechách a v Moravě.. He wrote in Czech, German and Latin. The list of his published works, according to Professor Kalousek, who is an authority on the subject, is:
In Czech:
Vol. III, part 1. From 1403—1420. 1870. 428pp. Vol. III, part 2. From 1420—1431. 1871. 385pp. Vol. III, part 3. From 1431—1439. 1872. 312pp. Vol. IV, part 1. From 1439—1457. 1857. 476pp. Vol. IV, part 2. From 1457—1471. 1860. 614pp. Vol. V. part 1. From 1471—1500. 1865. 424pp. Vol. V. part 2. From 1500—1526. 1867. 521pp.
The Beginnings of Czech Poetry. 1818. 128pp. This is a joint effort of Palacký and P. J. Šafařík and was published anonymously.
Old Czech Chronicles from 1378 to 1527, being a continuation of the chronicles of Přibík of Pulkava and of Beneš of Hořovic, from ancient manuscripts. 1829. 524pp.
Contemporary Register of the highest state and court dignitaries and officials in the Bohemian Kingdom from the earliest times to the present day. Published by the Matice Česká. 1832.
Description of the Bohemian Kingdom, being a detailed enumeration of all the heretofore existing counties, lordly estates, manors, cities, towns and villages, former castles and strongholds, also the several isolated places, abandoned settlements, in the Czech land, with the census of their populations taken in the year MDCCCCXLIII. 1848. 608pp. In German and Czech.
Czech Archives, or old Czech and Moravian literary antiquities, compiled and edited from foreign and domestic Archives. 1840—1862. 3,033pp.
