Rhymed German translation of the Old Czech chronicle of so called Dalimil in the context of the Czech, Latin and German textual tradition – linguistic, literary and historical analysis; edition and commentary

The approaches and results of the proposed project
The approach and the main result of the project is the comprehensive analysis and the edition of the rhymed German translation of the Old Czech Dalimil Chronicle in the context of the respective versions, taking into account the relevant fields of language, literature and history research. Among the edition the dissertation thesis of the proposer in German philology (2004) will be published dealing with some specific linguistic items while reflecting also the secondary literature regarding other respective themes. E.g. the phoneme and grapheme system and its dialectal peculiarities are discussed, furthermore the form and translation strategy, semantic aspect of the vocabulary as well as some textological and generally historical questions concerning the origin of the work and the hypothetical person of the anonymous translator.
The edition of the translation should respect the only known source manuscript to the maximum possible extent, in special cases requiring emendations there are some proposals to be reflected. Compared to the last edition by J. Jireček for FRB III (1878) many singular items are to be treated more accurately, the various levels of the texts should be described consequently and finally the later research must be taken into account (regarding the German text, but also the Czech original; e.g. the more contemporary concepts of the text development presented in the new edition of complete Czech source materials – Staročeská kronika tak řečeného Dalimila I., II., 1988). Last but not least the very latest great fund is to be reflected properly, namely the fragment of the Latin Translation bought in March 2005 for the Czech National Library; it seems according to the preliminary explorations, that it could be of an immense importance for the rhymed German version. The fact, both translations originating in nearly the same time (30th-40th 14th century) and displaying considerable parallels could be interpreted in several ways, for clearer evidence the far more detailed comparison will be necessary.
The presentation of the text as well as the apparatus and comments should respect the specific needs of the particular disciplines involved. The exact documentation of the source manuscript will make the reliable linguistic and paleographic analysis possible, the literature and the historical sciences will take advantage of the collateral presentation of the Czech and German texts in the up-to-date form and quoting standards (the incompatible chapter structure and verse numbering are currently causing substantial problems).
Among with the printed form also the electronic version will be made available, offering more comfortable capabilities of analyzing the large material, such as full-text searches, statistics, synchronization with the digitized facsimiles etc.
The foreign scholars may appreciate the parallel translation of the Old Czech text into German enabling easier comprehension of the differences between the two versions. The other direction will be covered by the differential translation of specific passages into Czech. The full translation doesn't seem to make much sense here, as the old German text doesn't differ from the original in the far most cases (omitting the peculiarities determined by the form); those themes and places being regularly distinct could be pointed out in the appropriate commentary.
It's also necessary to consider the manuscript varieties beyond the reconstructed archetype or the leading manuscript, as the German text sometimes coincides with these variants as well as with the Latin fragment showing sometimes parallels absent in the whole Czech tradition.
The critical apparatus will also deal with the potential use by the foreign scholarship being formalized according to the common international terminology.
The commentary will be parallel in Czech and German (the common languages of the interested disciplines) with the English abstract provided. In some aspects it can be based on the results presented in the dissertation thesis, but due to its nature and its limited extent this will be done in much more synthetical and concise a way. On the other hand it's necessary to comprehend yet other fields, which were rather omitted in the linguistic oriented dissertation. It would be e.g. the literary aspects, the paleographical description and naturally the historical interpretation of the chronicle, namely those of its facets displaying the most significant specificities. Also the wider social and cultural background, the hypothetical circumstances of the origin and the intended functions are to be discussed. Also in this sphere the Latin text could provide important information.
Besides these main results the partial publications will be presented in the academic journals during the work.