Revising the National Narrative: History of the Town of Prague of Václav Vladivoj Tomek

Abstract

The article is devoted to V. V. Tomek’s opus vitae: his twelve-volume “History of the town of Prague”, which was published between 1855 and 1901. In this rather unfinished work, V. V. Tomek tried to revise—at least, partially—the narrative of Czech medieval history as created by František Palacký in his monumental work “History of the Czech nation”. Paradoxically, Tomek decided to do that as Palacký’s former disciple. However, the paths of the two historians diverged during the 1850’s era of “Bach’s absolutism”, and their later reconciliation did not lead to the restoration of V. V. Tomek’s rank as a disciple. Nevertheless, Tomek mostly agreed with Palacký’s view of Early and High Medieval Czech history. It was the Hussite era that contributed to the main discrepancy between these two historians. The Hussite movement in fifteenth century Czech territories was actually the main topic of interest for both Palacký and Tomek. From Palacký’s liberal and Protestant perspective, the Hussitism constituted the “zenith of the Czech history”. The view of Tomek was far more nuanced: Tomek considered the Hussite era as one of the most important periods in Czech history, though, while his sympathies were on the Hussite side, however, as a Catholic and conversative, Tomek harshly condemned the revolutionary radicalism of the Hussite era. Topographic studies by Tomek, to which he dedicated about two decades of his life, were also an important element, leading him to the conclusion that fifteen years of the Hussite wars deprived Prague of a century of development. Tomek became the first author to provide a centrist narrative of the Hussite era, but he was not able to cement his view in the mind of the public, probably because of his lack of a wider historical vision, which in turn was prevalent in Palacký’s work.