Jakub Srkal’s 1579 Litoměřice Cantional

Abstract

On the basis of a little-known manuscript cantional from Litoměřice (1579) and of the analysis of its repertoire, this article presents new discoveries on the topic of the Bohemian song postils of the sixteenth century and on the question of the distribution and thesauration of songs during the early modern period. It documents how specific songs based on Gospel readings were spread, passing from the German collection by Nicolaus Herman of Jáchymov to their Czech translation by Tomáš Řešátko, and onwards to the scribe Jakub Srkal of Litoměřice. The study defines the points of similarity and agreement and the differences between Srkal’s and Řešátko’s cantional, which was published posthumously in Prague in 1610. At a more general level, it also deals with the question of the relationship between the manuscript and printed sources. Besides giving a basic description of the cantional, it also presents facts about Jakub Srkal and about other manuscripts owned by the Bohemian literati from the Church of All Saints in Litoměřice in the latter half of the sixteenth century.