Classical Tradition in Czech Renaissance and Baroque Literature1 Lubor Kysučan 1. The classical scholarship and its role in the course of Czech medieval and early modern history The first contacts of Czech people with classical culture were established through Irish, Italian and German missionaries, who came to the Czech lands from 8th century AD to spread Christianity among the pagan population, wor- shipping traditional Slavic gods. In the Early Middle Ages, Central Europe, includ- ing the Czech lands, was a crossroads of Western and Eastern culture, influenced both by the Latin West and the Greek, i.e. Byzantine East. Therefore, both Latin and Old Slavonic scholarship (initiated and still supported in Great Moravia, the first medieval state in Central European territory, by the mission ofSt. Con- stantine and St. Methodius from Byzantium) flourished in Bohemia and Moravia. But after the schism in Christianity in the 11th century and hand in hand with the subsequent isolation of Byzantium, it was Latin culture that became predominant. Almost all literature, including chronicles, Christian legends, 1 The author would like to express his thanks to Mr. Martin Váňa for translating this text into English. The author would also like to thank his Italian colleagues for supporting his par- ticipation in conference Towards an Atlas of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary Civilization and Its Spread in the Slavic World (15th-17th century), which was held in Verona on October 13th-14th, 2016. This study is based on his paper delivered at the conference. Lubor Kysučan, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic,
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