Late Middle Ages German historiographical texts from Bohemia - A philological analysis, electronic edition

The approaches and results of the proposed project
The text selected for the detailed analysis will be characterised with regard to the typical language features, dialect and also literary means, taking the original into account. Due to the specific ideological aim of some texts also the means and effectiveness of this aims could be discussed. The rather non-exclusive form with broader public in mind (in medieval context) also contributes to a more representative view of the language usage of the given period.
The linguistic and, more generally, philological analysis seems to be promising for more reasons. It’s primarily the existence of various parallel versions in different languages (Latin, Czech, German in ideal cases), which makes the comparative analysis possible. The suitability for this task is actually not lowered even by the not very highly estimated level of the literary or factographical qualities of the sources. On the other side this can be seen as an example of an official while not exclusive literary communication.
An important factor is also the context of these sources – many of them have been projected (and ordered) with the ideological impact in mind, which can make the adequate historical interpretation more complicated, on the other side, thanks to this there is a new level of evidence available. E.g. the strong ideological load guaranteed a long lasting popularity of the Czech Dalimil chronicle and inspired probably in a specific way the translations too; some texts obtained a kind of official acknowledgement (e.g. Autobiography Charles’ IV. and the Chronica Bohemorum from Pulkava, which were translated from Latin into Czech and German – the usual national languages in the Bohemian Lands – possibly in connection with the plans to officially promote this concept of the past). Although comparison with the presumed inspiration with the presumable inspiration, the Grandes Chroniques de France doesn’t hold in many respects, at least the Latin text seems to have been quite wide spread (judging from the preserved manuscripts), besides this the chronicle was supplemented several times based on the political development (e.g. gaining new territories).
Furthermore of a great value for the linguistic analysis is the prose character of the German versions (rather freely translated). These texts belong to the transition period Middle High German – Early New High German and according to their provenience they are mainly written in a language comprising both important dialect fields of German spoken in the Bohemian Lands at that time – the High-German (esp. Bavarian) as well as Middle German (esp. Silesian). Both of these aspects are of importance in context of the gradual establishing of New High German as a language comprising features from distinct dialects.
However, the extensive discussion about the origin or beginning of New High German are not to be renewed here, the concepts acknowledging German to have more centres and therefore multiple roots proved to be more flexible and more appropriate. However, it seems important to supplement the characteristic of the language based on the sources of various types, an advantage of the historiographical sources is their intermedial position, as these texts share some properties of the literature writings as well as factual texts, as they aim to provide information considered real, non-fictional. Another important topic is the mentioned ideological function of texts – the philological here would be to identify and characterise the strategies and means employed here.
The results of the proposed project consist of research papers published in scientific journals during the investigation and dealing with the topical questions on the subject (linguistic, literary and historical interpretation etc.). Furthermore the text base will be made available online (based on the older editions or manuscripts) as well as a selective bibliography.
The project will enrich our understanding of the social and cultural atmosphere of the Bohemian Lands in Late Middle Ages, especially during the reign of the Emperor Charles IV. based on the so far rather neglected sources; delimiting the language features of texts belonging to the important era of the beginning of the Early New High German enables a more differential view on the language system and communicative schemes in a dynamic development. As another topical aim the investigating of non-exclusive languages usage can be stressed – as a kind of complement to the picture obtained form the highly elaborated literature texts or other strongly formalised sources. Not least the analysis of the equivalent text in various language mutations will be contribution to the characteristics of the complex relationships in the multilingual social environment of the Bohemian Lands of that era. Besides this, making the primary texts as well as the bibliography available will facilitate the future research on the adjacent topics.