THE IDEOLOGY OF NOBILITY AND PUBLIC SPACE IN BOHEMIA
1306-1415
The present project sought to achieve a reasonably exhaustive definition of the Medieval Czech society and understanding of its “working rules” and modalities of its functioning. I decided to focus on the study of nobility, a group largely instrumental in initiating processes of social change during the 13th century, thereby contributing to the inception of political dialogue, as well as to the maturation of political thought in Bohemia. I focused above all on the ideology of nobility in its correlation with public space.
The Czech nobility constituted itself as a political “pole” emancipating itself vis-a-vis the sovereign and his close inner circle, thereby disrupting the eminently vertical scheme of traditional political communication between prince and subjects – a vertical communication, which could at the same time proceed in both ways – and consequently enriched this communication by a new, horizontal dimension (and permitted the emergence of public space). The 14th century is a pivotal period to understand these changes: a number of crises contributed significantly to the consolidation of nobility´s standing and impelled it to express its political views. I approached its analysis through the study of written sources produced by the nobility between 1300 and 1415, with a view to obtaining a most comprehensive insight into the period under survey in its contextual complexity.
This project was the basis for the development of the Luxdynast project.