Testamenty dvanácti patriarchů : české tisky 16. století
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Czech prints of the 16th century

Summary/Abstract: The study deals with several early printed books in Czech dating back to the 16th century. It briefly refers to the frequently published work Kniha bohomyslná ... (The pious book on mourning wailing of the Holy Fathers in the darkness, first printed in 1572) and draws attention to Josef Jungmann’s assumption, uncritically repeated by latest scholarly literature, that the translator of the work was Jan Stráněnský. Josef Truhlář already pointed out in 1906 that this printed book is a revival of a work which we know from a manuscript dated 1551. The study further examines in detail the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and its Czech printed editions from the second half of the 16th century. The editions transmit the same text, which is based on the textual tradition represented by two manuscripts from the second half of the 15th century. This manuscript tradition had already brought together four originally separate works: the chapters of Genesis, the Testaments (Old Czech translation of the Latin work Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum), Joseph and Aseneth (Old Czech translation of the Latin Historia Ioseph et Aseneth), and the Life of Joseph (Old Czech translation of the Historia Ioseph). Finally, the study describes the composition of the Czech printed Testaments and points out some textual differences between the printed editions and the manuscripts.

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