Lauterbeck’s Regentenbuch and Veleslavin’s Politia historica: or an exemplum about a possible relationship between humanism, reformation, and politics in the [Holy Roman] Empire and the Kingdom of Bohemia in the second half of the 16th century

Abstract

The Regentenbuch was a popular political handbook written by the German scholar and politician Georg Lauterbeck (152[?]-1570). During his lifetime Lauterbeck issued seve- ral editions of his increasingly voluminous book. The last version, published posthumously in 1579, served as a model for the Czech translation entitled Politia historica. This was written and published by the Prague publisher Daniel Adam of Veleslavin (1546-1599) in 1584. The Czech version is for the most part a regular translation, but there are also many interesting omissions, additions and alterations. The paper compares these two books in their historical context and tries to find out the reasons for the differences. They resulted from the different political conditions in the Holy Roman Empire and in the Kingdom of Bohemia, and also from the different personal opinions of the two authors. After general comparison the paper thoroughly discusses several particular issues: the Lutheran character of the book; attitudes to the Jews; the role of the ancient exempla; the best form of govern- ment and the origin of the king’s power; the ruler’s subordination to the law and the image of a tyrant; the subject’s rights to resistance; the criticism of vices and problems typical of that epoch.