Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV and his Legend of St Wenceslas

Karoli IV Imperatoris Romanorum Vita Ab Eo Ipso Conscripta et Hystoria Nova de Sancto Wenceslao Martyre
Editor: 
ISBN: 
978-963-9116-32-0
cloth
$90.00 / €79.00 / £71.00
Translated by Paul W. Knoll, and Frank Schaer
Publication date: 
2001
300 pages

One of the few autobiographies to have survived from the Middle Ages, this life history of one of the most influential rulers of the fourteenth century, Charles IV of Bohemia, covers his life from birth until his election as King of Germany in 1346.

Charles IV describes his childhood, spent mainly in the court of French kings, his juvenile years, his marriage and his first steps into the international political scene during the early part of the fourteenth century.

A unique addition to this volume is the first ever English translation of the Legend of Saint Wenceslas, written by Charles IV of Luxemburg.

"...das Konzept der neuen Publikationsreihe besteht darin, in freier Auswahl mittelalterliche historiographische Texte des östlichen Mitteleuropa in der Quellensprache (in der Regel Latein) zusammen mit einer englischen Übersetzung zu publizieren, wobei der lateinische Text der Fassung der besten vorliegenden Edition folgt. Begleitet werden die Ausgaben von ausführlichen Einleitungen, die den Autor und die Quelle vorstellen, sowie erläuternden Anmerkungen."