Lucie Storchová (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy)
“Patria cui nondum similem dedit atque secundum” or How Bohemian Humanists Created a Canonical Author around 1550
In my lecture, I am going to present a case study of how Bohuslaus of Hassenstein was shaped as a canonical writer in the Bohemian lands after the mid-16th century, approximately 50 years after his death. I am going to begin with a brief introduction to his life and work, but the main focus will be on how a group of humanist editors who had studied in Wittenberg and subsequently settled in Prague undertook a joint project to publish Hassenstein’s opera omnia from 1562 to 1577. My main aim is to show how they attempted to shape Hassenstein into a founding figure of the Bohemian literary canon and a direct ancestor of their own cultural identity within the paratexts of these editions.
