most correct version of Hus’s letters, both Bohemian and Latin, which exists. Professor Höfler, in his Geschichtschreiber der Hussitischen Bewegung, has also published a considerable number of letters of Hus. Dr. Höfler’s superficiality, his very slight knowledge of the Bohemian language, and his fanatical hatred of church-reform and the Bohemian nation, render it necessary to use his works with great caution. A large number of Hus’s letters, among them some not contained in Palacky’s collection, were published by Mr. Bohumil Mares in 1891. The Latin letters, however, appear only in a Bohemian translation. Karel Jaromir Erben, in his edition of Bohemian works of Hus, which will be mentioned presently, has included fifteen Bohemian letters of the master. Some of the letters were translated into English by the late Rev. A. Wratislaw, who was acquainted with the Bohemian language, and I have translated a few in my previous writings. I have done so on a larger scale in the present work. Hus’s letters have also been translated into English by Mr. Mackenzie, who used the French version of M. de Bonnechose, and by Mr. Workman, who for the Bohemian letters used the Latin translation of Professor Kvicala, as well as the not always trustworthy German translation of Professor Höfler.
Though the letters have remained and perhaps always will remain the work of Hus that has most admirers, other works of the master were also again published in the nineteenth century. This task was not always an easy one. Though the Austrian government no longer attempted entirely to suppress all memory of Hus among the people, the absolutist authorities of Vienna still viewed with marked displeasure all mention, and particularly all praise of Hus. As late as in 1857 the celebrated Bohemian philologist, Safarik,[1] wrote to the Russian scholar Pogodin: “Nobody here dares to edit Hus’s works, writings against Hus would be more in request. Let the dead repose. Hus ne nominetur quidem, aut uratur
- ↑ See my History of Bohemian Literature, pp. 383–387.
