Historical Scholarship, Politics, and Identity in Bohemia, c.1650-1690
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines the interplay between historical scholarship and politics in the Bohemian composite monarchy in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). During the turbulent events of the first half of the seventeenth century, Bohemia underwent major political, religious, and socio-economic changes. With the reestablishment of peace, the polity experienced a flourishing of historical scholarship which aimed to come to terms with the ruptures of the prolonged military conflict, to redefine a Bohemian identity and the Bohemian polity in its aftermath, and to legitimate a vision of Catholic Bohemia. Adopting the perspective of three leading scholars in the Bohemian historical essor, Bohuslav Balbín (1621-1688), Jiří Kruger (1608-1671), and Tomáš Pešina z Čechorodu (1629-1680), this thesis considers the political role of scholarship in the composite monarchy at this time. The first half of the thesis examines the ways in which they practiced historical scholarship, their scholarly methodologies, and their practices of knowledge. Assessing the ways in which Balbín, Kruger, and Pešina negotiated their places within the wider world of European scholarship and their choices to accept, adapt, or ignore various methodologies, I argue that they successfully created a reputation for scholarly probity and authority which gave political weight to their arguments about the history of the polity. Their efforts to create an updated and Catholic historical account of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia which improved upon their predecessors, coupled with their realistic assessments of the epistemic and political limitations of their works, rendered their historical scholarship credible. Bohemia’s post-Westphalian historians thus authoritatively contributed to the intellectual Recatholicisation of the polity, which was represented as traditionally Catholic. As Catholics and members of a recatholicising intellectual elite, Balbín, Kruger, and Pešina were invested in the estab…
abstract: This thesis examines the interplay between historical scholarship and politics in the Bohemian composite monarchy in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). During the turbulent events of the first half of the seventeenth century, Bohemia underwent major political, religious, and socio-economic changes. With the reestablishment of peace, the polity experienced a flourishing of historical scholarship which aimed to come to terms with the ruptures of the prolonged military conflict, to redefine a Bohemian identity and the Bohemian polity in its aftermath, and to legitimate a vision of Catholic Bohemia. Adopting the perspective of three leading scholars in the Bohemian historical essor, Bohuslav Balbín (1621-1688), Jiří Kruger (1608-1671), and Tomáš Pešina z Čechorodu (1629-1680), this thesis considers the political role of scholarship in the composite monarchy at this time. The first half of the thesis examines the ways in which they practiced historical scholarship, their scholarly methodologies, and their practices of knowledge. Assessing the ways in which Balbín, Kruger, and Pešina negotiated their places within the wider world of European scholarship and their choices to accept, adapt, or ignore various methodologies, I argue that they successfully created a reputation for scholarly probity and authority which gave political weight to their arguments about the history of the polity. Their efforts to create an updated and Catholic historical account of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia which improved upon their predecessors, coupled with their realistic assessments of the epistemic and political limitations of their works, rendered their historical scholarship credible. Bohemia’s post-Westphalian historians thus authoritatively contributed to the intellectual Recatholicisation of the polity, which was represented as traditionally Catholic. As Catholics and members of a recatholicising intellectual elite, Balbín, Kruger, and Pešina were invested in the estab…
author: Pípalová, Anna-Marie
language: eng
keywords: Bohemia, Early Modern Europe, Historiography, Jesuits, Recatholicisation, History of Scholarship
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/518e5502-335b-4682-a98d-03cfc0892615/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2024-08-08
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:32Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.116921