Zemské desky (; in old

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, always desky zemské, literal translation, "Land tables") is old

source of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. It is predecessor of land registry for real estates owned under

allodial title Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property (land, buildings, and fixtures) that is independent of any superior landlord. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held "in allodium", or land ownership by occupancy and defense ...

(hereditary estates). Also resolutions of Diets, rulings of the Land (supreme) Court and other general legal rules were recorded there. They enjoyed kind of special quasi-worship: they were called the "witness which cannot be prevailed upon". Only very few people could have access to them. During sessions of the Land Court, when called as evidence, they were not brought in the Court's main hall, but only read from a special balcony. Officer in charge of them was the Lord High Scribe of Bohemia, from the gentry. They were not led a book - a year, but record after record filling the whole book, not to waste paper. Also they were not numbered, but hand painted with different symbols, and then called as book of colour ... of that symbol, e.g. (Book - Quaternus - of) Color of Death, Color of Parrot etc. In Bohemia, they were kept from before 1278. But these all burnt during the great Fire of Prague on 2 June 1541, the only exception was Volume from years 1316-1324. Since year 1541 the Bohemian tables have been preserved.

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

n tables go uninterruptedly from their founding in 1348. During reign of Francis II (1795) they were numbered and the practice of colors and poetical names stopped. They ceased to be used for recording in the year 1948, as a source of law in rare cases serve up today.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zemske desky Czech manuscripts