Počátkové českého básnictví a německá metrika. K proměnám českého verše v nadnárodním kontextu
Počátkové českého básnictví and German Theory of Verse. Concerning Transformations in Czech Verse in the Supranational Context

Summary/Abstract: The work Počátkové českého básnictví, obzvláště prozódie (The Principles of Czech Verse, with Special Reference to Prosody, 1818) by Pavel Josef Šafařík (1795–1861) and František Palacký (1795–1861) (and Jan Blahoslav Benedikti [1796–1847]) and its influence on early‑nineteenth discussions about the character of Czech verse have till now usually been considered in the context of Czech (and Slovak) literature. By contrast, this article, after a characterization of the work, considers its relation to the German concepts of prosody and meter (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Gottfried Hermann, and Johann August Apel), and also to Josef Jungmann’s (1773–1847) no‑longer extant Nepředsudné mínění o prozódii české (An Impartial Opinion on Czech Prosody, 1804). This article explores Šafařík and Palacký’s treatment of those relationships. Although the authors of Počátkové turned to it only selectively, Herrmann’s work appears to have been an important intellectual basis for Šafařík and Palacký’s endeavour to develop a complex delineation of modern Czech verse, which had much in common with the principles of music. In its conclusions, the article thus follows on from Miroslav Červenka’s later ideas that it would be useful to study the history of Czech verse in its European context, without detracting from what made Czech verse special.

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