The exhibited manuscript represents a unique source from the period of the first Czech translations of the Bible and the development of preaching in mediaeval Bohemia.
The Gospel of St. Matthew with Homilies
Bohemia, 1370–1380, NL Prague, XVII A 4
pp. 226–227
The work, The Gospel of Saint Matthew with Homilies, consists of a Czech translation of the Gospel of Matthew, divided into pericopes read during liturgical services, and homilies in which the preacher interprets each reading word by word. Both the Gospel and the homilies were created by a single author in the 1350s, who drew inspiration for the homilies from the writings of Church Fathers such as Jerome, Gregory the Great, and Bede the Venerable. This unknown author is also associated with the earliest translation of the Bible into Czech. He belonged to a group of translators who, during the reign of Charles IV, undertook the challenging task of translating the entire Bible into the vernacular. The author of The Gospel of Saint Matthew with Homilies contributed to this significant endeavour by translating the first part of the Apostle Paul's letters.
This standalone and distinctive version of Matthew’s Gospel has survived not only in this manuscript but also in two illuminated copies from the early 15th century: the Litoměřice-Třeboň Bible (1410–1414), commissioned by the mint master Petr Zmrzlík of Svojšín, and the Olomouc Bible (1417). Additionally, a recently discovered fragment of a parchment folio containing portions of chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew’s Gospel, dating to the third quarter of the 14th century—the same period as the creation of The Gospel of St. Matthew with Homilies—is preserved in the National Museum Library (shelf mark 1 D a 2/18b).
The significance of The Gospel of St. Matthew with Homilies extends beyond the borders of Bohemia. It is one of only eleven known works that were translated from Old Czech into Croatian during the Middle Ages, likely by Croatian monks invited to Prague by Charles IV to cultivate the Slavic liturgy at the Emmaus Monastery. The Croatian version, Homilijar na Matejevo evanđelje, preserved in a manuscript from the late 15th to early 16th century, provides a unique testimony to the transmission of medieval preaching traditions among Slavic nations.
The manuscript is displayed open to pages featuring an excerpt from the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, containing the parable of the hidden treasure in the field (beginning at the bottom of page 226). The author supplemented this with an interpretation by the Roman Emperor and Czech King Charles IV, derived from the Czech translation of his Autobiography (chapters 11–13).
The manuscript can also be viewed digitally here >>