Lumir and Song

Lumir a pisen

The ‘Queen’s Court’ and ‘Green Mountain’ manuscripts were purportedly discovered in Bohemia in 1817 and 1818 by Václav Hanka, a philologist and librarian at the National Museum in Prague. These manuscripts carried a political message, serving as evidence of the Czech democratic tradition and the resistance against foreign attempts to suppress it. They consisted of several poems allegedly penned in Old Czech during medieval times. The impact of the ‘Queen’s Court’ and ‘Green Mountain’ manuscripts on Czech culture was significant, inspiring renowned artists such as the composer Bedřich Smetana, the writer Julius Zeyer, the painter Mikoláš Aleš, and the sculptor Josef Václav Myslbek. The debate surrounding the authenticity of these manuscripts persisted for nearly a century. Tomáš Masaryk, the future first President of Czechoslovakia, played a significant role in exposing the forgery. He presented his analysis in a series of articles published in ‘Athenaeum’, a magazine devoted to Czech culture and science, which he founded in 1883. Masaryk argued that national identity cannot be constructed on false foundations. Although Václav Hanka and his friend Josef Linda were likely the authors of both manuscripts, they never admitted to it.