Kralodworsky rukopis. Zbjrka staročeskych zpiewo- prawnych basnj, s niekolika ginymi staročeskymi zpiewy. Nalezen a wydan od Waclawa Hanky, khnihownjka k. narodnjho musea; s diegopisnym uwodem od Waclawa Aloysia Swobody [...]

Full title: Kralodworsky rukopis. Zbjrka staročeskych zpiewo- prawnych basnj, s niekolika ginymi staročeskymi zpiewy. Nalezen a wydan od Waclawa Hanky, khnihownjka k. narodnjho musea; s diegopisnym uwodem od Waclawa Aloysia Swobody, c. k. professora třjd humanitetnjch.

8vo. pp. xxviii, 244. There are two copies in this collection. The present copy is in modern leather, with typed notes on Václav Hanka, Václav Alois Svoboda, and Josef Linda tipped in. Includes facsimile. Prefatory material in German and Czech; poetry in Czech and German on facing pages. Added title page, ‘Königinhofer Handschrift. Sammlung altböhmischer lyrisch-epischer Gesänge, nebst andern altböhmischen Gedichten.’

The first printing of fragmentary forgeries in the Ossianic mold, created in 1816-1818 by Václav Hanka himself (possibly in collaboration with Svoboda and Linda), which backdated the beginnings of Czech literature to the thirteenth, and latterly the ninth centuries. Hanka claimed to have found the poetical manuscripts in the church tower of Königinhof on the Elbe, and later at Castle Grünberg, near Nepomuk and published them, perhaps in knowing collaboration with V. A. Svoboda and Josef Linda. Initially welcomed as genuine by Goethe, Chateaubriand, and Jacob Grimm, the fabrications were later exposed by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (subsequently first president of Czechoslovakia), among others. The ensuing controversy nonetheless remained open to philological and nationalistic debate for more than a hundred years.

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