1^st lesson: Introduction: Historical overview (Czech lands in the Middle Ages) and literary overview (literary genres in the Middle Ages).

2^nd lesson: Historiography: How Czech authors as Cosmas of Prague, Dalimil and Laurence of Březová describe the history of their own nation?

3^rd lesson: Hagiography: Are the legends about Czech saints (Ludmila, Wenceslas, Adalbert and Procop) a true picture of their lives?

4^th lesson: Sermons and exempla: Preaching (John Milíč of Kroměříž, John Želivský) as the basis of medieval literature in Bohemia?

5^th lesson: Charles IV and protohumanism: Scholar on the throne – new trend in literature (Bartholomew of Chlumec, John of Teplá)?

6^th lesson: Poetry: Is medieval poetry – containing both spiritual (hymns, tropes, sequences) and secular (drinking songs, love songs, moralistic songs, parodies, epics) poems – the most fluid genre ever?

7^th lesson: Drama: Is there any reflection of real life in medieval theatre (both spiritual as Three Maries and secular as The Ointment Seller)?

8^th lesson: Rhetoric, diplomatics, epistolography: The art of words (charters, formularies, dictamina, collections of letters) as the basis of education?

9^th lesson: Scientific literature: Was there any real science (medicine, mathematics, astronomy, law) in the Middle Ages?

10^th lesson: John Hus, his predecessors and followers: What was the real influence of the teaching of Hus and his followers (Jerome of Prague, Jakoubek of Stříbro, Petr Chelčický)?

11^th lesson: Conclusion remarks: Discussion: What is the importance of medieval literature in Bohemia in the European context? How to approach medieval literature from a contemporary perspective?

Primary sources

János M. Bak – Pavlína Rychterová (eds.), Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Bohemorum = Cosmas of Prague: The Chronicle of the Czechs. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2020 (Central European Medieval Texts 10).

Thomas A. Fudge (ed.), Origins of the Hussite uprising: the chronicle of Laurence of Březová (1414–1421). London: Routledge, 2020 (Routledge medieval translations).

Gábor Klaniczay (ed.), Vitae sanctorum aetatis conversionis Europae centralis (saec. X–XI) = Saints of the Christianization Age of Central Europe (Tenth–Eleventh Centuries). Budapest: Central European University Press, 2013 (Central European Medieval Texts 6), pp. 97–181.

Balázs Nagy – Frank Schaer (eds.), Karoli IV imperatoris Romanorum vita ab eo ipso conscripta et Hystoria nova de sancto Wenceslao martyre = Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV and his Legend of St. Wenceslas. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001 (Central European Medieval Texts).

Jarmila F. Veltrusky, A Sacred Farce from Medieval Bohemia. Mastičkář. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985 (Michigan Studies in the Humanities 6).

Thomas A. Fudge (ed.), The Crusade against Heretics in Bohemia, 1418–1437. Sources and documents for the Hussite Crusades. Burlington: Ashgate, 2002 (Crusade Texts in Translation 9).

David S. Schaff (ed.), The Church by John Huss. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915.

Enrico Molnár, A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part One of His Net of Faith. Berkeley (California): AudioEnlightenmentPress, 2017.

Walter Schamschula (ed.), An Anthology of Czech Literature: 1st Period: From the beginnings until 1410. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1991 (West Slavic Contributions 2).

Secondary sources

Jana Nechutová, Study of Latin Medieval Literature in Bohemia, in: Listy filologické / Folia philologica 115, 1 (1992), pp. 148–156.

Marie Bláhová, Vernacular Historiography in Medieval Czech Lands, in: Medievalia 19, 1 (2016), pp. 33–65.

Peter C. A. Morée, Preaching in fourteenth-century Bohemia: the life and ideas of Milicius de Chremsir (+1374) and his significance in the historiography of Bohemia. Heršpice: EMAN, 1999.

Thomas A. Fudge, Jerome of Prague and the Foundations of the Hussite Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Pavel Soukup, Jan Hus: The Life and Death of a Preacher. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press 2020.

Mathew Spinka (ed.), Advocates of Reform. From Wyclif to Erasmus. Louisville (Kentucky): Westminster John Knox Press, 2006 (The Library of Christian Classics).

Ota Pavlicek (ed.), Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia: Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021 (Studia Artistarum 48).

Ernst Robert Curtius, European literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.

David Wallace (ed.), Europe: a literary history: 1348–1418. Volume I and II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Ralph Hexter – David Townsend (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.