Bohemian (Cech) Bibliography: A finding list of writings in English relating to Bohemia and the CechsCapek, Thomas
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Bohemian (Cech) Bibliography: A finding list of writings in English relating to Bohemia and the Cechs
Capek, Thomas
Bohemia (Czech Republic) -- Bibliography
Overnight the Great War has changed many a wrong notion. “Time changes
all, and by time is truth to victory guided; what in their errors the
years planned, in a day is o’erthrown,” prophetically sings John Kollár,
the great Slovak poet. Following the example of the French, several
English and American writers, Henry Wickham Steed, R. W. Seton-Watson and
Will S. Monroe among them, have in recent years paid visits to Bohemia,
and the result is both surprising and gratifying. It is certain that, once
aroused, Anglo-Saxon curiosity will not abate until it has learned all
about Bohemia, even though the knowledge obtained may disagree with the
Alice in Wonderland tales that have been related in Vienna to the old
time British and American travelers.
A new development in the study of Bohemia and her people by foreigners
may be said to date from the time the dual system of government was
introduced (1867). Until then the interest of scholars was confined wholly
to historic and sectarian questions; from that time on, political and
ethnological issues began to engage their serious attention.
The present bibliography lists, besides books and pamphlets, magazine
articles only; it does not pretend to register items appearing in the
weekly, much less in the daily press. To attempt the latter would be
beyond the scope and purpose of the catalogue. Exceptions to the rule have
been made in favor of articles bearing the signature of authors who are
known to be especially qualified to discuss the subjects selected by them.
Scarcely a book has been written on Austria or the Slavs which does not,
directly or indirectly, discuss Bohemia and the Čechs. The catalogue
cannot take cognizance of such publications, although, in this respect
also, the rule has been relaxed and books have been indexed, dealing
broadly with Austria and the Slavs. Colquhoun’s _The Whirlpool of Europe:
Austria-Hungary and the Hapsburgs_, Steed’s _The Hapsburg Monarchy_ and
Seton-Watson’s _German, Slav, and Magyar_ may be cited as typical examples
of these publications.
Quite correctly the spelling of proper names, though obsolescent, has
been left undisturbed. The Bohemians spell Hus, not Huss; Žižka, not
Zisca. Comenius is a Latinized form dating back to an age when it was the
custom to Latinize one’s surname; the real name is Komenský and Bohemian
history knows the educator by this name only.
The authors have availed themselves of the skilled services of Leonard
C. Wharton, who was asked to look into the rare Bohemica preserved in
the British Museum. Mr. Wharton performed this part of the work with
painstaking care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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