Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic (; German: Bohuslaus Lobkowitz von Hassenstein) (1461 – 11 November 1510) was a nobleman, writer and humanist of the old
Bohemian family (later the princes) of the
House of Lobkowicz. Regardless of his Bohemian roots, he explicitly referred to himself as German.
He was born at
Hasištejn Castle, near
Kadaň, Bohemia. He studied in
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
and
Ferrara
Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...
(doctor of law, 1482) and converted from
Utraquism to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
there. After 1483, he became
provost of
Vyšehrad in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
and between 1490–91 he travelled to the
Holy Land
The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
and
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, earning the nickname "the Czech Ulysses". He was elected the bishop of
Olomouc
Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region.
Located on the Morava (rive ...
, but he was refused by the
Pope
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
. After this, he lived with a few of his writer friends in his 'Tusculum', Hasištejn Castle in north-eastern Bohemia.
Lobkovic was an author of philosophical prose, letters, and verses, including satire on Bohemian national life: ''Ad sanctum Venceslaum satira'' (1489). He was a successful essayist and poet and became ''poeta laureatus''. Lobkovic wrote in German and Latin, but never in Czech, which was "barbaric" in his eyes. Moreover, he clearly considered himself a German ("Ego me Germanum esse et profiteor et glorior" ― "I openly confess to be a German and am proud of it").
His close friends were
Jan Šlechta z Všehrd, a philosopher,
Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd and
Racek Doubravský z Doubravy, both of whom were theorists of Bohemian common law. He was the younger brother of
Jan Hasištejnský z Lobkovic.
He died in Hasištejn Castle in 1510.
External links
James Naughton: Czech renaissance literature and humanism
Sources
* Kyzourová, Ivana. ''Básník a král: Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic v zrcadle jagellonské doby''. Praha: Správa pražského hradu, 2007, 127p.
* Martínek, Jan, Martínová, Dana. ed.''Epistulae Bohuslaus Hassinsteinius a Lobkowicz''. Leipzig: B.G.Teubner, 1980.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasistejnsky z Lobkovic, Bohuslav
1461 births
1510 deaths
People from Kadaň
Lobkowicz family
15th-century poets from Bohemia
Male poets
15th-century writers in Latin