Identity, Cohesion, Inclusion: Premyslid regnum

1. Content of research project In this research project we are, in the first step, going to analyze the necrological records written down in Bohemian and Moravian monasteries and chapters until 1306, selected manuscripts of Cosmas chronicle and also its echo in later sources. This will be the base for the research of the sources for the social cohesion of Premyslid monarchy. In second step, we will focus on the group of specific manuscript manuscripts from East Central Europe that are evidence of the second life of Carolingian legal culture. Through their analysis we will also study the processes of the inclusion of that area in contemporary Christian Europe. 2. Hypotheses Necrological records are an important witness of actively created historical memory of that era that tells us, who were the main figures remembered by the church in Czech lands. As such they must have been key nodes in the network of the living and deaths from which the community of Bohemians consisted. Text of the Chronicle of the Bohemians written by Cosmas (1045-1125) is remarkably stable in the manuscripts and since twelfth century it was used as a referential text. Therefore we need to understand its manuscripts, esp. their content and provenance. As the Carolingian legal texts were copied and reused in the East Central European monarchies, we need to know how exactly these texts transformed. This will contribute to our better understanding of the integration of these monarchies into the Latin Christendom. 3. Methods Apart from the analysis of the manuscripts the main role will play the comparison whether used on the level of manuscripts, or on the necrological records and normative sources. Thanks to the comparative method, the differences and similarities will be made visible and will serve as an important source of information. 4. An explanation indicating what is new and/or special about the project In Czech historiography medieval necrological records are used only as useful evidence for genealogy. However, we are missing systematic analysis of these records based on an assumption they were also a specific form of historical memory. The answer on that question brings to our attention the problem of re-creation of the Premyslid dynasty in different environments. By doing this we connect classical social history and imagination of society together. There wasnt enough attention given to the manuscripts of Cosmas Chronicle either. Research focused in this way will tell us more about its role for historical consciousness in Czech lands. The influence of Carolingian legislation in East Central Europe in 11 th c. was recognized in the past, however, no one studied it systematically and from the comparative point of view.

How human communities were shaped, how people identified with them, and how these collectives were integrated into broader structures are the questions people have been discussing since the beginning of their history. The Viennese Institute for Medieval Research and its Identity Research Group is one of the leading centres in Europe dealing with these questions and studying these problems, especially using the example of late-antique or early-medieval (c. 300-1000) human groups. As part of this project, these methods and methodologies which were developed in Vienna were tested on Bohemia in the 10th13th centuries. It was shown that: 1. the medieval copies of an important Bohemian medieval chronicle authored by Cosmas of Prague around 1120 are considered to be 1.1. an account of the communication between the centre in Prague and local churches, which have carefully incorporated their stories into the "great" history of Bohemia; 1.2. can be understood as an example of the ever-changing message of the texts as the chronicle is almost unaltered, but in its fifteen medieval manuscripts it was copied with various other texts Cosmas and his chronicle of the Bohemians was placed alongside the chronicles of the Romans and the Saxons, and was also further commented on and developed. This shows that it was in widespread use and reflected upon in Bohemia and Moravia until the fifteenth century; 1.3. the analysis of the manuscripts of the Chronicle of Cosmas in Bohemia also visualizes a specific historiographical culture in the Bohemian lands, which was centre-oriented and based on a single main text later successful chronicles by Dalimil (c. 1310) and Pulkava (c. 1380) also built their stories around Cosmas. 2. The monasteries played a key role in the establishment of the Premyslid realm, as they also symbolically connected the centre and the local elites. 3. The legal texts and their collections which were issued by the Carolingian rulers in the eighth and ninth centuries were still in widespread use after the collapse of Carolingian rule in the tenth century. But their connection to the original Carolingian context also became less distinct the texts retained their authority, but they were only understood as Carolingian to a limited extent. It is also important that they were influential in areas outside the former Carolingian Empire.