Jedno slunce na nebi, jeden vládce na zemi – Beránek Ondřej (2018)

Distances in the 14th century world were greater than those perceived by people in today's world. Some continents were still unaware of each other, and communication over long distances took weeks, months, or even years. Nevertheless, it is highly interesting to reflect on how selected phenomena functioned in different parts of the world at a certain moment. In the lavish monograph "One Sun in the Sky, One Ruler on Earth," the inquiry focuses on the creation and sources of royal authority as well as on theoretical concepts, practices, and the representation of the legitimacy of governmental power. More than thirty historians, orientalists, philologists, and cultural anthropologists, who have long been engaged in the study of the histories and cultures of areas that are spatially and intellectually distant, have managed to compile a more or less comprehensive view of how the legitimacy of power was formed and came into effect in various parallelly existing cultural and political systems across continents. Thus, a vivid picture of the 14th-century world emerges before the reader, not only in its geographical and sociocultural diversity but also in the multitude of historical, philosophical, and ideological traditions that co-created the cultural environment in the given regions. The authors and editors...