Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and of Zelená Hora

File:Rukopis Zelenohorský.jpg

pages 4 and 5 of the Zelená Hora manuscript

The Manuscript of Dvůr Králové (Czech: Rukopis královédvorský, RK, German: Königinhofer Handschrift) and the Manuscript of Zelená Hora (Czech: Rukopis zelenohorský, RZ, German: Grünberger Handschrift, also called The Judgement of Lubussa, LS, Czech: Libušin soud), collectively abbreviated as RKZ, are literary hoaxes purporting to be epic Slavic manuscripts, claimed to have been discovered in Bohemia in 1817, by Václav Hanka in Dvůr Králové nad Labem and by Josef Kovář in 1819 at Grünberg Castle or Chateau Zelená Hora (Green Mountain) respectively – but also probably by Hanka.

The "Zelená Hora" manuscript in fact never went near Zelená Hora but was mailed anonymously to Francis Count Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, Lord High Castellan of the Prague Castle. Hanka's hoax was not exposed until 1886, in an article by Jan Gebauer in Masaryk's journal Athenaeum.

There was an ongoing struggle, because too many insisted that these are genuine, while they were later determined to be forgeries. The debate over the authenticity of these manuscripts has occupied Czech politics for more than a century, with Tomáš Masaryk taking an early position against the authenticity of the papers. Pan-Slavic nationalists on the other hand, saw in the manuscripts a symbol of national conscience and historians such as František Palacký based historical accounts of Bohemia and the Czechs exclusive claims on Bohemia on these proven forged Czech accounts.

Further reading

• Die ältesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache, Prag 1840, [1]
• Václav Hanka, Josef Linda: Manuscript of the Queen's Court: A Collection of Old Bohemian Lyrico-epic ..., 1852 [2]
• Albert Henry Wratislaw: The Queen's Court Manuscript, with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems., 1852, [3]

External links

• The Manuscript of Dvůr Králové and The Manuscript of Zelená Hora