"Martin Bakalarz's journey from Bohemia to Jerusalem" ("Cesta z Czech do Geruzalema knieze Martina Bakalarze" (1573)): A philological analysis.

Abstract

The dissertation presents a linguistic analysis of the language of the sixteenth century Czech manuscript Cesta z Czech do Geruzalema knieze Martina Bakalarze (Martin Bakalarz's journey from Bohemia to Jerusalem), comparing it with two other sixteenth century Czech texts similar in content and genre: Martina Kabatnika Cesta z Czech do Geruzalema a Kaira (Martin Kabatnik's journey from Bohemia to Cairo), and Jana Hasistejnskeho z Lobkovic Putovani k svatemu hrobu (Jan Hasistejnsky's pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher). The author analyzes individual features of the sixteenth century Czech text Cesta z Cech do Jeruzalema kneze Martina Bakalare as an example of the scribal tradition of the period and tests the hypothesis of the normative influence of the sixteenth century printing press usage in Bohemia on the stabilization and standardization of the Modern Czech literary language. The text of Cesta z Czech do Geruzalema knieze Martina Bakalarze is introduced within the framework of the sixteenth century Czech language and travel literature. The history and content of the Czech manuscript are then described. An analysis of the orthography, phonology, morphology, vocabulary, and syntax of the Czech text is provided, and the results are compared with features of two texts (mentioned above) of the same period. The study confirms the importance of the sixteenth century in the development of the Czech language as well as in the process of standardization of the Modern Czech literary language.