Kronika Čechů – Kosmas (2025)

For nine centuries, Kosmas has been telling us the 'great story' of the Czech lands — now newly translated by Ondřej Koupil.

Every person wants to know who they are and where they belong. To understand the present and not fear the future, one needs to know the past. Not just their personal story, but also the story of their ancestors. The oldest narratives about the mythical beginnings of the Czech nation, the lives of Czech saints, and the reign of the first Přemyslids can be found in Kosmas's Chronicle of the Czechs (Chronicon Bohemorum, 1125), which has long been regarded as a fundamental factual source and opened all subsequent discussions about early medieval history. Today, however, we appreciate it primarily as a literary monument: Kosmas's language is highly artistically stylized, full of learned allusions and rhetorical figures, but also wit and irony. Therefore, philologist Ondřej Koupil, a Czechist and translator from Latin, prepared a new translation for the 900th anniversary of the chronicle's creation, emphasizing the artistic qualities of the text. Together with historian David Kalhous, they also added commentary and an extensive explanatory apparatus.