Jana Valtrová | Masaryk University (original) (raw)
Books by Jana Valtrová
The book deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 1... more The book deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 13th and 14th centuries( William of Rubruck, John of Plano Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Montecrovino, John of Marignola, Jordanus Catalanus, John of Cori, Ricold of Monte Croce and a few others).
Course of missionary activities and their final results were dependent on preconceptions, expectations, attitudes and skills of each one of the missionaries. Travel reports offer us an unique opportunity to study in detail the process of encountering, classifying and representing Asian ‘Others’.
Missionary images of Eastern Christians, Jews, Muslims and other Non-Christians were studied with the aim to decribe and reflect medieval typology, terminology and conceptual frames present in missionary discourse on ‘religion’. It has been pointed out by several scholars that the concept of a ‘religion’, as a modern general term and category did not exist in medieval thought. However, an analyses of missionary reports indicates that there occured a need for such a general category, although still nameless, which would embrace all ‘religions’. Such a need grows directly from missionary experience and aplication of missionary aims in practice – if Christianity should replace other beliefs and practices, these have to be considered as at least a bit comparable.
Encountering the ‘Other’ – Expectations, Observation, Communication
This chapter focuses on important features of the process of missionary encounters which influenced the specific content of missionary accounts. Main attention is paid to the relation between traditional European lore about the East, which formed the expectations of missionaries, and individual missionary experience. The chapter analyses three traditional topoi, each of them in the context of the above-mentioned reports: earthly paradise, the kingdom of Prester John and human monsters. Each of the authors adopted a slightly different strategy for how to solve the potential conflicts between tradition and experience. Analyses of these fabulous motives demonstrates that missionaries showed a combination of extraordinary observational skills and original ways of revising various elements of the traditional legends. The friars’ medieval travel accounts actually reflect a shift from imagination towards gradual encounter and exploration — in these reports the imagination of fabulous East gradually turned into exploration, description and interpretation of the observed reality.
Another important aspect of the process of encountering and describing the Other is communication – language skills, obstacles, the level of understanding and translation. The authors of travel accounts reveal that their language skills were often on an insufficient level and most of the missionaries had to relay on interpreters. Although the missionaries were able to gather many important and accurate information about the ‘Others’ through their interpreters, the lack of language skills represented a major problem for missionary work. It was the conceptual frame and often hardly compatible terminology of different religions which caused the biggest problems, as we can learn from the reports. Obviously the language barrier was one of the greatest challenges of medieval mission to Asia.
Missions as a Social Platform for Encountering the Others
Missionary aims and methods provided specific social frame for this situation. Local inhabitants were considered as potential converts, however could also represent a certain danger for missionaries themselves. Exploration of missionary methods and means offers us a detailed picture of the nature of everyday situations, in which the two sides met. In this chapter several crucial mission related questions are explored in detail: forms of presentation of Christianity to the locals, forms and contents of preachings, character of catechesis, long term missionary projects and Christian upbringing of local converts, material background of missions and adaptation of Christianity in local cultures and its practice among the new converts.
Following chapters of the book deal with the images of particular religious groups – Eastern Christians, Muslims, Jews and other Non-Christians with regard to the medieval typology and terminology, which are analysed as the part of the medieval discourse on religious matters in general.
Conceptualization of a ‘Religion’ in Medieval Missionary Reports
Although modern scholars have pointed out that there is no general term such as ‘religion’ in modern sense in the medieval thought, missionary reports seem to document an important milestone in the process of its formation.
General terminology worked with such terms as sect (secta), faith (fides) and law (lex), which were used in a specific context. ‘Sect’ was a term used without any negative connotations (unlike its modern meaning) to denote distinguished religious group, often it refered to their plurality – of sects in certain region. The term ‘faith’ was almost exclusively used for Christianity, more specificaly to Catholicism, often in such phrase as ‘true faith’ (fides vera). The term ‘law’ was variably used in such phrases as the ‘law of Mahomet’, ‘law of Jews’ or ‘Christian law’. In case of ‘idolatres’ missionaries often remind that they either have only a ‘natural law’ (lex natura), or they do not have any ‘law’ at all. The idea of a natural law, which represented certain basic awareness of God, was also one of the aspects which supported idealized views of idolatres.
In the Judeo-Christian culture religious practice was strongly connected to written codexes – written laws. Among idolatres missionaries often observed also certain ‘laws’, although they were not codified in a written form. I suggest that it was this encounter with various forms of idolatry, which disturbed the general terminology used in contact with various religions and became one of the impulsions for invention and wider usage of a general category of a ‘religion’.
Papers by Jana Valtrová
Riccoldo da Monte di Croce (†1320) : Missionary to the Near East and Expert on Islam, 2024
This paper tackles Riccoldo’s experience with converting non-Christians and non-Catholics to the ... more This paper tackles Riccoldo’s experience with converting non-Christians and non-Catholics to the Christian faith as expressed by the Western Church. The paper analyses a particular Riccoldo’s statement with respect to his broader experience as reflected in his works, and also compares it with the records of other Mendicant friars operating in Asia through the 13th and 14th centuries.
Religio: revue pro religionistiku, 2023
The article focuses on the question of the consumption of kumiss, a drink made from fermented mar... more The article focuses on the question of the consumption of kumiss, a drink made from fermented mare’s milk, among the various religious groups coexisting in the medieval Mongol empire. Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (B. Latour) and the project of provincializing Europe (D. Chakrabarthy), the article provides a comparative contextual analysis
of medieval sources, including accounts of the Franciscan friars John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, and other relevant sources relating to the history of the principalities of Rus’, communities of Syriac and Armenian Christians, and the Mongols. It sheds light on the role of kumiss as a natural, cultural, and religious agent, which provoked diverse attitudes among the different religious groups and revealed their interdenominational and interreligious dynamics. Comparing the various, often contrasting attitudes towards kumiss consumption enables us to better understand the missionary situation of the Franciscan friars and also reveal the practical challenges and problems facing medieval Christian missions in the Mongol empire.
Anthropologia Integra , 2023
The study deals with the problem of identification and localization of Anabaptist burial sites in... more The study deals with the problem of identification and localization of Anabaptist burial sites in South Moravia using the knowledge of biological anthropology, history, and religious studies. The Anabaptists were an internally diverse religious current of the Reformation that emerged in the 1520s in areas with German-speaking populations. As a result of persecution by religiously major Catholic or Protestant authorities, they were migrating to Moravia since 1526, where they found refuge until the 1620s. The migration of German-speaking groups of Anabaptists and their temporary stay in Moravia in the 16th and 17th centuries are among the significant events of the early modern period in our country. The Anabaptists differed from the local population in their ethnic origin, language, way of life, and religious beliefs. They left a distinctive and still noticeable trace in Moravian culture. Very little information is available about their burial sites, graves, funerary traditions, and human remains. In this article, we seek to summarize and confront information on the existing finds of skeletons and their inventories that might belong to one of the Anabaptist groups with historical records of their settlements or burial sites directly. In doing so, we also consider other minor religious groups whose presence in the area is documented by historical records. Comparison and identification of burial sites are hampered by incompleteness in all sources of records. For some settlements, we have historical records of burials, but we do not have archaeological reports of skeletons found to date. There are sketchy references to skeletons found associated with other sites, but more detailed archaeological reports are not available. The clear identification of skeletal remains as belonging to Anabaptists is challenging due to indistinct and non-specific nature of the funerary practices, the confessional diversity, and the relatively short time of the Anabaptists’ stay in Moravia. Previous rescue archaeological efforts, which included unsystematic linear excavations and non-standard excavation conditions, have also played a role in the ambiguity of identification. Finally, if a larger number of skeletons are already involved and the funerary practices do not exclude the possibility that they are Anabaptists, the certainty is complicated by various incongruent ritual indicators (which, of course, may also be due to our limited knowledge about the actual diversity even within denominations) and other circumstances, such as the almost complete absence of objective dating. The sites mentioned in the article may belong to the Anabaptists, but the certainty established with the help of laboratory methods is currently available only for the burial site in Přibice (Brno-venkov district). The inventory of potential Anabaptist burial sites compiled here can serve as a starting point for verifying the origin of the persons buried there using modern natural science methods - analysis of ancient DNA and isotopes.
Martin Bauer - Philip Booth - Susanna Fisher (eds.), To Jerusalem and Beyond Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Latin Travel Literature, c.1200-1500, 2023
The mendicant travel accounts to Asia, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubru... more The mendicant travel accounts to Asia, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, express their fear of the Mongols. The paper demonstrates how understanding such emotional expressions within their travel accounts can help us broaden our understanding of these particular texts. Following Barbara Rosenwein's theory of emotional communities, the paper suggests distinguishing between two different emotional communities and two systems of feelings that meet, combine, and even clash within one travel account-the audience's emotional community and the traveller's emotional community. Besides the problem of their mutual interaction within one text, the paper also examines expressing emotions in a subordinate position by using James Scott's theory of 'hidden transcripts'.
Dingir, 2022
Příspěvek nastiňuje příchod buddhismu do Evropy v období okolo přelomu 19. a 20. století a v jeho... more Příspěvek nastiňuje příchod buddhismu do Evropy v období okolo přelomu 19. a 20. století a v jeho první polovině. Poukazuje na úzká propojení mezi mezi tehdejší vznikající orientalistikou a zájemci o východní náboženství. Pozornost je věnována především Vincenci Lesnému a jeho kontaktům s dobovými zájemci o buddhismus.
![Research paper thumbnail of Nedoceněná oběť? Propojené historie středověkých františkánských mučednictví v Asii [Underrated sacrifice? Connected histories of medieval Franciscan martyrdoms in Asia]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/94594704/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Axis Mundi, 2022
The paper discusses medieval Latin missionary accounts regarding the martyrdom of Franciscan fria... more The paper discusses medieval Latin missionary accounts regarding the martyrdom of Franciscan friars in the Indian town of Thana in 1321. It focuses on its reflection within the Latin letters by Franciscans in Mongol China with particular regard to the local cultural context. Following up on the research of Isabelle Heullant-Donat and Christopher MacEvitt, the paper links the attitudes towards martyrdom with the local perspectives on poverty and the local religious policies regarding Christian-Muslim relations. The paper suggests that the Franciscan mission in China in the first half of the 14th century did not appreciate martyrdom as a valuable strategy for their mission. The paper aims to contribute to the entangled histories of the medieval Franciscan missions in Asia.
Eurasian Studies, 2020
The paper discusses the role of Christian material culture for the encounter between the Francisc... more The paper discusses the role of Christian material culture for the encounter between the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck (1220-93) and the Mongol rulers and high officers, as it is narrated in Rubruck’s Itinerarium. The analysis of the amount and nature of the items taken by Rubruck lead us to reconsider his commitment to Christian mission, which is often underestimated in favour of diplomacy. The discourse of Rubruck’s handling of Christian liturgical equipment, its loss and substitution reveals his faithfulness both to the ideals of the Franciscan order, as well as loyalty to the French King Louis IX. The frictions with Mongolian habits regarding gift giving reveal some of the practical troubles of the Franciscan mission among the Mongols.
![Research paper thumbnail of Stravování františkánů na cestách po mongolské říši v polovině 13. století [Food and Eating Habits of the Franciscans travelling among the Mongols around half of the 13th century]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/60007672/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Nový Orient, 2018
The accounts of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck from around the half of the 13th cen... more The accounts of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck from around the half of the 13th century, report about the issues of food and nutrition of Europeans travelling across the Mongolian steppe. The diet of these Franciscans was influenced not only by natural conditions but also by the social and religious context of their travels. One of the problems was a taboo concerning the consumption of qumis, which was spread among the Eastern Christians. The two friars seem to hold the opposite stance towards this question.
Mongolica Pragensia , 2017
The paper deals with several travel accounts of Christian friars in the early phase of contacts b... more The paper deals with several travel accounts of Christian friars in the early phase of contacts between the Western world and the Mongols, during the period from the 1230s until the establishment of a permanent mission around 1300 in Khanbaliq. The paper is focused on the social and practical aspects of these travels, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck. This paper brings an overview of several important issues arising from the social situation of the missionaries during their travels and revolves around the following topics: social contacts; means of communication with local inhabitants and intermediaries; and target groups of mission.
The article strives to contribute to the discussion about medieval development of thinking about ... more The article strives to contribute to the discussion about medieval development of thinking about “religion” by exploring selected Christian
missionary accounts about non-Christians in Mongolian empire and India. The contact with religious plurality in these areas, together with missionary zeal, encouraged new ways of thinking about “religion”, which
challenged the existing terminology concerning “religion” (terms lex,
secta, fides, ritus). Analyses of missionary terminology and descriptions
of various “religions” reveals a tendency to implicitly accept general
comparability of Christianity with non-Christian traditions. Not in terms
of truthfulness, however in terms of typology – Christianity comes to replace and upgrade previous ways of life. In this context the question of
relationship between religious practice (religion as worship) and faith
(religion as system of beliefs) becomes very important. The question of
(non)reception of missionary thinking about “religion” within European
audience is also briefly outlined.
Numen-international Review for The History of Religions, 2010
The article deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during th... more The article deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 13th and 14th centuries. These reports were written by Franciscan and also some Dominican missionaries, namely William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Marignola, Jordanus Catalanus and a few others. The aim of the article is to analyze the encounter of European travelers’ “traditional” ideas about Asia with the actual reality. Did the friars mostly rely on their anticipations, or were they open to new information, even if this could destroy views often advocated by eminent authorities of European medieval thought? The article analyses three “traditional” topoi, each of
them in the context of the above-mentioned reports: earthly paradise, the kingdom of Prester John and human monsters. All of them belonged to the medieval lore regarding the East, Each of the authors adopted a slightly different strategy for how to solve the potential conflicts between “tradition” and experience. Finally, I suggest conceptualizing the problem
of “tradition” and experience in medieval travel accounts with reference to a typology of “otherness” created by Karlheinz Ohle. In my opinion, the friars’ medieval travel accounts actually reflect a shift from imagination towards gradual encounter and exploration — in these reports the imagined fabulous East gradually turned into an explored reality.
![Research paper thumbnail of Nestoriáni v evropských středověkých zprávách o Asii [Nestorians in European Medieval Accounts about Asia]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/36108376/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](ROZEHNALOVÁ, Jana. Nestoriáni v evropských středověkých zprávách o Asii. Nový Orient, Praha: Orie... more ROZEHNALOVÁ, Jana. Nestoriáni v evropských středověkých zprávách o Asii. Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav AV ČR, 2009, vol. 64, No. 2, p. 17-21.
Published under my maiden name.
Main aim of the article is to analyze the image of Nestorians as presented in several medieval European travel accounts about Asia (William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni Marignolla, Marco Polo). Nestorians were depicted as ‘the worst heretics’, often considered to be worse in their morals than the ‘pagans’.
Strongly negative attitude of the authors towards Nestorians can be ascribed to certain rivalry between Latin Christian and Nestorians. However, it seems that negative associations were closely connected to the existing European idea about ‘Nestorianism’ as a heresy, rather than to factual differences between Latin and other Christians.
![Research paper thumbnail of Saracéni ve zprávách evropských středověkých misionářů v Asii [Saracens in the Accounts of Medieval European Missionaries to Asia]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/36108409/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav Akademie věd České republiky, 2010, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 18-23... more Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav Akademie věd České republiky, 2010, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 18-23.
Main aim of the article is to analyze the image of Saracens as presented in several medieval European travel accounts about Asia (William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone...etc.). The article analyses various perspectives of the missionaries concerning Saracens and their ‛lex Machumeti’. Saracens were often viewed with a great suspicion and criticism, especially when stories of Christian martyrs were mentioned. In some reports this is connected with simplistic representations and imaginations of Islam as a corruption of Christian original (Odoric). However, other missionaries give a little bit serious report details about Muslim life, beliefs and customs without providing a Christian template (Rubruck), or mention cases of tolerance and mission (Peregrino de Castello).
Kapitola analyzuje několik středověkých cestopisů o Asii (V. Rubruk, J. Carpini, J. Marignola aj.... more Kapitola analyzuje několik středověkých cestopisů o Asii (V. Rubruk, J. Carpini, J. Marignola aj.) z hlediska způsobů, jimiž autoři poznavaji nezname kraje. Hlavnim tematem je zde vztah tradicnich představ o Asii a empirickeho pozorovani autorů. Text pojednava o tom, jak autoři zpracovavali sva ocekavani i vseobecně rozsiřene představy tvaři v tvař realitě.
The article deals with European perspectives on Indian Christianity. The author argues that India... more The article deals with European perspectives on Indian Christianity. The author argues that Indian Christianity has been often studied as changed or even distorted version of (western) Christianity, without respect to the actual history and development of this tradition in India. It is argued that Indian Christianity (or rather Christianities) should be studied within Indian context and not regarded only as a product of colonial period.
Nový Orient, 2007
Článek pojednává o počátcích působení Portugalců v jižní Indii a jejich vlivu na existující křesť... more Článek pojednává o počátcích působení Portugalců v jižní Indii a jejich vlivu na existující křesťanskou komunitu.
The article deals with awareness of and knowledge about Indian Christians in medieval Europe, as... more The article deals with awareness of and knowledge about
Indian Christians in medieval Europe, as well as the attitudes of medieval European travellers and missionaries towards them. The main aim of the article is to analyse the discourse of medieval accounts, with a special focus on theoretical conceptions of the ‘difference’ between Latin Christians and Christians of other denominations. I argue that the image
of Indian Christians was influenced by the conceptualization of their difference from the Latin Christians.
Journal of Religion in Europe, 2008
The article discusses the development of concepts of Buddhism in Czech culture from the end of th... more The article discusses the development of concepts of Buddhism in Czech culture from the end of the nineteenth century until 1989. The analysis is based on scholarly contributions but also looks at a number of popular works written by Czech authors. Its main intention is to trace the background of particular views on Buddhism and its interpretations within the changing contexts of philosophical
and political interests.
The book deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 1... more The book deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 13th and 14th centuries( William of Rubruck, John of Plano Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Montecrovino, John of Marignola, Jordanus Catalanus, John of Cori, Ricold of Monte Croce and a few others).
Course of missionary activities and their final results were dependent on preconceptions, expectations, attitudes and skills of each one of the missionaries. Travel reports offer us an unique opportunity to study in detail the process of encountering, classifying and representing Asian ‘Others’.
Missionary images of Eastern Christians, Jews, Muslims and other Non-Christians were studied with the aim to decribe and reflect medieval typology, terminology and conceptual frames present in missionary discourse on ‘religion’. It has been pointed out by several scholars that the concept of a ‘religion’, as a modern general term and category did not exist in medieval thought. However, an analyses of missionary reports indicates that there occured a need for such a general category, although still nameless, which would embrace all ‘religions’. Such a need grows directly from missionary experience and aplication of missionary aims in practice – if Christianity should replace other beliefs and practices, these have to be considered as at least a bit comparable.
Encountering the ‘Other’ – Expectations, Observation, Communication
This chapter focuses on important features of the process of missionary encounters which influenced the specific content of missionary accounts. Main attention is paid to the relation between traditional European lore about the East, which formed the expectations of missionaries, and individual missionary experience. The chapter analyses three traditional topoi, each of them in the context of the above-mentioned reports: earthly paradise, the kingdom of Prester John and human monsters. Each of the authors adopted a slightly different strategy for how to solve the potential conflicts between tradition and experience. Analyses of these fabulous motives demonstrates that missionaries showed a combination of extraordinary observational skills and original ways of revising various elements of the traditional legends. The friars’ medieval travel accounts actually reflect a shift from imagination towards gradual encounter and exploration — in these reports the imagination of fabulous East gradually turned into exploration, description and interpretation of the observed reality.
Another important aspect of the process of encountering and describing the Other is communication – language skills, obstacles, the level of understanding and translation. The authors of travel accounts reveal that their language skills were often on an insufficient level and most of the missionaries had to relay on interpreters. Although the missionaries were able to gather many important and accurate information about the ‘Others’ through their interpreters, the lack of language skills represented a major problem for missionary work. It was the conceptual frame and often hardly compatible terminology of different religions which caused the biggest problems, as we can learn from the reports. Obviously the language barrier was one of the greatest challenges of medieval mission to Asia.
Missions as a Social Platform for Encountering the Others
Missionary aims and methods provided specific social frame for this situation. Local inhabitants were considered as potential converts, however could also represent a certain danger for missionaries themselves. Exploration of missionary methods and means offers us a detailed picture of the nature of everyday situations, in which the two sides met. In this chapter several crucial mission related questions are explored in detail: forms of presentation of Christianity to the locals, forms and contents of preachings, character of catechesis, long term missionary projects and Christian upbringing of local converts, material background of missions and adaptation of Christianity in local cultures and its practice among the new converts.
Following chapters of the book deal with the images of particular religious groups – Eastern Christians, Muslims, Jews and other Non-Christians with regard to the medieval typology and terminology, which are analysed as the part of the medieval discourse on religious matters in general.
Conceptualization of a ‘Religion’ in Medieval Missionary Reports
Although modern scholars have pointed out that there is no general term such as ‘religion’ in modern sense in the medieval thought, missionary reports seem to document an important milestone in the process of its formation.
General terminology worked with such terms as sect (secta), faith (fides) and law (lex), which were used in a specific context. ‘Sect’ was a term used without any negative connotations (unlike its modern meaning) to denote distinguished religious group, often it refered to their plurality – of sects in certain region. The term ‘faith’ was almost exclusively used for Christianity, more specificaly to Catholicism, often in such phrase as ‘true faith’ (fides vera). The term ‘law’ was variably used in such phrases as the ‘law of Mahomet’, ‘law of Jews’ or ‘Christian law’. In case of ‘idolatres’ missionaries often remind that they either have only a ‘natural law’ (lex natura), or they do not have any ‘law’ at all. The idea of a natural law, which represented certain basic awareness of God, was also one of the aspects which supported idealized views of idolatres.
In the Judeo-Christian culture religious practice was strongly connected to written codexes – written laws. Among idolatres missionaries often observed also certain ‘laws’, although they were not codified in a written form. I suggest that it was this encounter with various forms of idolatry, which disturbed the general terminology used in contact with various religions and became one of the impulsions for invention and wider usage of a general category of a ‘religion’.
Riccoldo da Monte di Croce (†1320) : Missionary to the Near East and Expert on Islam, 2024
This paper tackles Riccoldo’s experience with converting non-Christians and non-Catholics to the ... more This paper tackles Riccoldo’s experience with converting non-Christians and non-Catholics to the Christian faith as expressed by the Western Church. The paper analyses a particular Riccoldo’s statement with respect to his broader experience as reflected in his works, and also compares it with the records of other Mendicant friars operating in Asia through the 13th and 14th centuries.
Religio: revue pro religionistiku, 2023
The article focuses on the question of the consumption of kumiss, a drink made from fermented mar... more The article focuses on the question of the consumption of kumiss, a drink made from fermented mare’s milk, among the various religious groups coexisting in the medieval Mongol empire. Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (B. Latour) and the project of provincializing Europe (D. Chakrabarthy), the article provides a comparative contextual analysis
of medieval sources, including accounts of the Franciscan friars John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, and other relevant sources relating to the history of the principalities of Rus’, communities of Syriac and Armenian Christians, and the Mongols. It sheds light on the role of kumiss as a natural, cultural, and religious agent, which provoked diverse attitudes among the different religious groups and revealed their interdenominational and interreligious dynamics. Comparing the various, often contrasting attitudes towards kumiss consumption enables us to better understand the missionary situation of the Franciscan friars and also reveal the practical challenges and problems facing medieval Christian missions in the Mongol empire.
Anthropologia Integra , 2023
The study deals with the problem of identification and localization of Anabaptist burial sites in... more The study deals with the problem of identification and localization of Anabaptist burial sites in South Moravia using the knowledge of biological anthropology, history, and religious studies. The Anabaptists were an internally diverse religious current of the Reformation that emerged in the 1520s in areas with German-speaking populations. As a result of persecution by religiously major Catholic or Protestant authorities, they were migrating to Moravia since 1526, where they found refuge until the 1620s. The migration of German-speaking groups of Anabaptists and their temporary stay in Moravia in the 16th and 17th centuries are among the significant events of the early modern period in our country. The Anabaptists differed from the local population in their ethnic origin, language, way of life, and religious beliefs. They left a distinctive and still noticeable trace in Moravian culture. Very little information is available about their burial sites, graves, funerary traditions, and human remains. In this article, we seek to summarize and confront information on the existing finds of skeletons and their inventories that might belong to one of the Anabaptist groups with historical records of their settlements or burial sites directly. In doing so, we also consider other minor religious groups whose presence in the area is documented by historical records. Comparison and identification of burial sites are hampered by incompleteness in all sources of records. For some settlements, we have historical records of burials, but we do not have archaeological reports of skeletons found to date. There are sketchy references to skeletons found associated with other sites, but more detailed archaeological reports are not available. The clear identification of skeletal remains as belonging to Anabaptists is challenging due to indistinct and non-specific nature of the funerary practices, the confessional diversity, and the relatively short time of the Anabaptists’ stay in Moravia. Previous rescue archaeological efforts, which included unsystematic linear excavations and non-standard excavation conditions, have also played a role in the ambiguity of identification. Finally, if a larger number of skeletons are already involved and the funerary practices do not exclude the possibility that they are Anabaptists, the certainty is complicated by various incongruent ritual indicators (which, of course, may also be due to our limited knowledge about the actual diversity even within denominations) and other circumstances, such as the almost complete absence of objective dating. The sites mentioned in the article may belong to the Anabaptists, but the certainty established with the help of laboratory methods is currently available only for the burial site in Přibice (Brno-venkov district). The inventory of potential Anabaptist burial sites compiled here can serve as a starting point for verifying the origin of the persons buried there using modern natural science methods - analysis of ancient DNA and isotopes.
Martin Bauer - Philip Booth - Susanna Fisher (eds.), To Jerusalem and Beyond Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Latin Travel Literature, c.1200-1500, 2023
The mendicant travel accounts to Asia, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubru... more The mendicant travel accounts to Asia, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, express their fear of the Mongols. The paper demonstrates how understanding such emotional expressions within their travel accounts can help us broaden our understanding of these particular texts. Following Barbara Rosenwein's theory of emotional communities, the paper suggests distinguishing between two different emotional communities and two systems of feelings that meet, combine, and even clash within one travel account-the audience's emotional community and the traveller's emotional community. Besides the problem of their mutual interaction within one text, the paper also examines expressing emotions in a subordinate position by using James Scott's theory of 'hidden transcripts'.
Dingir, 2022
Příspěvek nastiňuje příchod buddhismu do Evropy v období okolo přelomu 19. a 20. století a v jeho... more Příspěvek nastiňuje příchod buddhismu do Evropy v období okolo přelomu 19. a 20. století a v jeho první polovině. Poukazuje na úzká propojení mezi mezi tehdejší vznikající orientalistikou a zájemci o východní náboženství. Pozornost je věnována především Vincenci Lesnému a jeho kontaktům s dobovými zájemci o buddhismus.
Axis Mundi, 2022
The paper discusses medieval Latin missionary accounts regarding the martyrdom of Franciscan fria... more The paper discusses medieval Latin missionary accounts regarding the martyrdom of Franciscan friars in the Indian town of Thana in 1321. It focuses on its reflection within the Latin letters by Franciscans in Mongol China with particular regard to the local cultural context. Following up on the research of Isabelle Heullant-Donat and Christopher MacEvitt, the paper links the attitudes towards martyrdom with the local perspectives on poverty and the local religious policies regarding Christian-Muslim relations. The paper suggests that the Franciscan mission in China in the first half of the 14th century did not appreciate martyrdom as a valuable strategy for their mission. The paper aims to contribute to the entangled histories of the medieval Franciscan missions in Asia.
Eurasian Studies, 2020
The paper discusses the role of Christian material culture for the encounter between the Francisc... more The paper discusses the role of Christian material culture for the encounter between the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck (1220-93) and the Mongol rulers and high officers, as it is narrated in Rubruck’s Itinerarium. The analysis of the amount and nature of the items taken by Rubruck lead us to reconsider his commitment to Christian mission, which is often underestimated in favour of diplomacy. The discourse of Rubruck’s handling of Christian liturgical equipment, its loss and substitution reveals his faithfulness both to the ideals of the Franciscan order, as well as loyalty to the French King Louis IX. The frictions with Mongolian habits regarding gift giving reveal some of the practical troubles of the Franciscan mission among the Mongols.
Nový Orient, 2018
The accounts of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck from around the half of the 13th cen... more The accounts of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck from around the half of the 13th century, report about the issues of food and nutrition of Europeans travelling across the Mongolian steppe. The diet of these Franciscans was influenced not only by natural conditions but also by the social and religious context of their travels. One of the problems was a taboo concerning the consumption of qumis, which was spread among the Eastern Christians. The two friars seem to hold the opposite stance towards this question.
Mongolica Pragensia , 2017
The paper deals with several travel accounts of Christian friars in the early phase of contacts b... more The paper deals with several travel accounts of Christian friars in the early phase of contacts between the Western world and the Mongols, during the period from the 1230s until the establishment of a permanent mission around 1300 in Khanbaliq. The paper is focused on the social and practical aspects of these travels, namely those of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck. This paper brings an overview of several important issues arising from the social situation of the missionaries during their travels and revolves around the following topics: social contacts; means of communication with local inhabitants and intermediaries; and target groups of mission.
The article strives to contribute to the discussion about medieval development of thinking about ... more The article strives to contribute to the discussion about medieval development of thinking about “religion” by exploring selected Christian
missionary accounts about non-Christians in Mongolian empire and India. The contact with religious plurality in these areas, together with missionary zeal, encouraged new ways of thinking about “religion”, which
challenged the existing terminology concerning “religion” (terms lex,
secta, fides, ritus). Analyses of missionary terminology and descriptions
of various “religions” reveals a tendency to implicitly accept general
comparability of Christianity with non-Christian traditions. Not in terms
of truthfulness, however in terms of typology – Christianity comes to replace and upgrade previous ways of life. In this context the question of
relationship between religious practice (religion as worship) and faith
(religion as system of beliefs) becomes very important. The question of
(non)reception of missionary thinking about “religion” within European
audience is also briefly outlined.
Numen-international Review for The History of Religions, 2010
The article deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during th... more The article deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 13th and 14th centuries. These reports were written by Franciscan and also some Dominican missionaries, namely William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Marignola, Jordanus Catalanus and a few others. The aim of the article is to analyze the encounter of European travelers’ “traditional” ideas about Asia with the actual reality. Did the friars mostly rely on their anticipations, or were they open to new information, even if this could destroy views often advocated by eminent authorities of European medieval thought? The article analyses three “traditional” topoi, each of
them in the context of the above-mentioned reports: earthly paradise, the kingdom of Prester John and human monsters. All of them belonged to the medieval lore regarding the East, Each of the authors adopted a slightly different strategy for how to solve the potential conflicts between “tradition” and experience. Finally, I suggest conceptualizing the problem
of “tradition” and experience in medieval travel accounts with reference to a typology of “otherness” created by Karlheinz Ohle. In my opinion, the friars’ medieval travel accounts actually reflect a shift from imagination towards gradual encounter and exploration — in these reports the imagined fabulous East gradually turned into an explored reality.
ROZEHNALOVÁ, Jana. Nestoriáni v evropských středověkých zprávách o Asii. Nový Orient, Praha: Orie... more ROZEHNALOVÁ, Jana. Nestoriáni v evropských středověkých zprávách o Asii. Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav AV ČR, 2009, vol. 64, No. 2, p. 17-21.
Published under my maiden name.
Main aim of the article is to analyze the image of Nestorians as presented in several medieval European travel accounts about Asia (William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni Marignolla, Marco Polo). Nestorians were depicted as ‘the worst heretics’, often considered to be worse in their morals than the ‘pagans’.
Strongly negative attitude of the authors towards Nestorians can be ascribed to certain rivalry between Latin Christian and Nestorians. However, it seems that negative associations were closely connected to the existing European idea about ‘Nestorianism’ as a heresy, rather than to factual differences between Latin and other Christians.
Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav Akademie věd České republiky, 2010, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 18-23... more Nový Orient, Praha: Orientální ústav Akademie věd České republiky, 2010, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 18-23.
Main aim of the article is to analyze the image of Saracens as presented in several medieval European travel accounts about Asia (William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone...etc.). The article analyses various perspectives of the missionaries concerning Saracens and their ‛lex Machumeti’. Saracens were often viewed with a great suspicion and criticism, especially when stories of Christian martyrs were mentioned. In some reports this is connected with simplistic representations and imaginations of Islam as a corruption of Christian original (Odoric). However, other missionaries give a little bit serious report details about Muslim life, beliefs and customs without providing a Christian template (Rubruck), or mention cases of tolerance and mission (Peregrino de Castello).
Kapitola analyzuje několik středověkých cestopisů o Asii (V. Rubruk, J. Carpini, J. Marignola aj.... more Kapitola analyzuje několik středověkých cestopisů o Asii (V. Rubruk, J. Carpini, J. Marignola aj.) z hlediska způsobů, jimiž autoři poznavaji nezname kraje. Hlavnim tematem je zde vztah tradicnich představ o Asii a empirickeho pozorovani autorů. Text pojednava o tom, jak autoři zpracovavali sva ocekavani i vseobecně rozsiřene představy tvaři v tvař realitě.
The article deals with European perspectives on Indian Christianity. The author argues that India... more The article deals with European perspectives on Indian Christianity. The author argues that Indian Christianity has been often studied as changed or even distorted version of (western) Christianity, without respect to the actual history and development of this tradition in India. It is argued that Indian Christianity (or rather Christianities) should be studied within Indian context and not regarded only as a product of colonial period.
Nový Orient, 2007
Článek pojednává o počátcích působení Portugalců v jižní Indii a jejich vlivu na existující křesť... more Článek pojednává o počátcích působení Portugalců v jižní Indii a jejich vlivu na existující křesťanskou komunitu.
The article deals with awareness of and knowledge about Indian Christians in medieval Europe, as... more The article deals with awareness of and knowledge about
Indian Christians in medieval Europe, as well as the attitudes of medieval European travellers and missionaries towards them. The main aim of the article is to analyse the discourse of medieval accounts, with a special focus on theoretical conceptions of the ‘difference’ between Latin Christians and Christians of other denominations. I argue that the image
of Indian Christians was influenced by the conceptualization of their difference from the Latin Christians.
Journal of Religion in Europe, 2008
The article discusses the development of concepts of Buddhism in Czech culture from the end of th... more The article discusses the development of concepts of Buddhism in Czech culture from the end of the nineteenth century until 1989. The analysis is based on scholarly contributions but also looks at a number of popular works written by Czech authors. Its main intention is to trace the background of particular views on Buddhism and its interpretations within the changing contexts of philosophical
and political interests.
![Research paper thumbnail of Indičtí křesťané apoštola Tomáše ve středověkých evropských pramenech [Indian Christians of St. Thomas in Medieval European Sources]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/37812838/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Studia Orientalia Slovaca, Bratislava: FiF UK Bratislava, 2006, 5, No. 5, p. 31-54. Published und... more Studia Orientalia Slovaca, Bratislava: FiF UK Bratislava, 2006, 5, No. 5, p. 31-54. Published under my maiden name Rozehnalová.
We welcome papers which deal with issues related to development of religious self-consciousness a... more We welcome papers which deal with issues related to development of religious self-consciousness and conceptualization of "religion" in the early modern era.
Virtual Medieval Congress Leeds, 2020
The session is part of a tripartite panel focused on material aspects of contacts and travels bet... more The session is part of a tripartite panel focused on material aspects of contacts and travels between Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages. The first session of the panel aims to explore these interactions as reflected in European art objects, early Renaissance Italian paintings, Venetian glassware and Islamic glass produced in the Mamluk sultanate. The session provides ground for discussing how representations of "Exotic East" materialised in different artistic, political and intellectual contexts of medieval Europe.
Programme of the tripartite panel organized for the IMC Leeds 2019. The panel is focused on mater... more Programme of the tripartite panel organized for the IMC Leeds 2019. The panel is focused on material aspects of contacts and travels between Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages.
Mongols and Religions, 15-17 May 2019, Wien, 2019
Conference: To Jerusalem and Beyond. New Directions in the Study of Latin Travel Literature ca. 1250 – 1500, 2019
The paper draws attention to the discourses of emotions, especially fear, expressed in travel acc... more The paper draws attention to the discourses of emotions, especially fear, expressed in travel accounts of the Franciscan friars, namely William of Rubruck and John of Plano Carpini. The paper applies the concept of "emotional communities" (B. Rosenwein) upon these texts in order to reveal the broader context and meaning of these "fears".
Religio, 2018
The report provides an overview of a discussion panel organized by the authors for the Second rel... more The report provides an overview of a discussion panel organized by the authors for the Second religious studies conference in Olomouc (10/2017). The discussion dealt with the issue of low representation of women in academia, with a focus on situation within Czech Religious Studies. The panel strived to identify major obstacles that hinder women´s academic carier.
The paper focuses on the question of attitudes of Franciscan friars, who travelled to the Mongols... more The paper focuses on the question of attitudes of Franciscan friars, who travelled to the Mongols in the 13th century, towards the consumation of qumis by local Christians and potential converts. For its central role in local religious ritual, qumis was considered by some Christians as a food unacceptable for Christians. The paper analyses the attitudes of Franciscan friars towards the tabuization of qumis and its potential impact on the success of their missions.
The paper explores the impact of a French traveler and writer Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) on... more The paper explores the impact of a French traveler and writer Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) on the discourses of Tibetan Buddhism in Czech Oriental studies during the twentieth-century. Her writings about Tibet and its ‘esoteric wisdom’, which she claimed to have mastered, invoked curiosity and fascination, not only among the adherents of various esoteric streams, but also among scholars of Oriental studies. The paper focuses on her role as a mediator of knowledge about Tibetan Buddhism to the Western audience and points out her, still little acknowledged, contribution to the pivotal change of Western discourse on this topic.
The panel aims to explore the relationship between travel, memory and travel accounts. Memory is ... more The panel aims to explore the relationship between travel, memory and travel accounts. Memory is a powerful tool, enabling the traveller to preserve and relive ones' experience from a journey and also becomes an important source for travel accounts. The first session of the panel focuses on the relationship between personal (in)experience of travel, memories of travel and travel writing. Paper a) Rebecca Lawton, Remembering pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem: Analysing eye witness testimony in early medieval topographical texts and travel accounts Paper abstract: Through memory pilgrims shared their experience with those who many never make the journey themselves. The eye witness experience of the original pilgrim lies at the heart of pilgrim itineraries and syllogae collections of inscriptions from Rome. It is also at the forefront of how travel is recorded in the accounts of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, namely the 'Hodoeporicon' of St Willibrord and Adomnan's De Locis Santis. This paper seeks to analyse how eye witness testimony is presented in these travel texts and its impact on the reader. This discussion aims to understand how the memory of the original pilgrim experience, accessed via eye witness testimony, gave the readers their own experience of pilgrimage to these holy places. Paper b) Felicitas Schmieder, Il Milione-Marco Polo's travel memories? Paper abstract: Marco Polo's Milione is certainly one of the most famous medieval travel reports – but the text(s) we possess of it have neither been written by Marco himself nor by another traveller. The success the Milione had resulted in translations into several languages, some of them going hand in hand with quite considerable redactions, and the text or parts of it were put in many different contexts none of which left the text completely untouched. So on
In his Ad nationes orientales Riccoldo da Monte di Croce makes a remarkable statement concerning ... more In his Ad nationes orientales Riccoldo da Monte di Croce makes a remarkable statement concerning the difficulty with which followers of different religions were converted to Roman Christianity. The paper analyses Riccoldo’s opinion on this issue in the context of contemporary missionary experience, both Dominican and Franciscan, in Asia.
The main aim of the presentation was to reflect the discrepancies between modern term "religion" ... more The main aim of the presentation was to reflect the discrepancies between modern term "religion" and medieval concepts of this phenomenon. An analysis of selected accounts of medieval Franciscan and Dominican friars about Asia had shown which terminological and conceptual tools they were using to describe Asian non-Christian Others.
Příspěvek se zabýval charakteristikou mučednictví františkánů v kontextu středověkých misií a pou... more Příspěvek se zabýval charakteristikou mučednictví františkánů v kontextu středověkých misií a poukázal zejména na specifika misie v Číně, vedené Janem z Montecorvina.
International Medieval Congress Leeds 2016: Food, Feast & Famine, 2016
The paper explores the role of eating, drinking and fasting in the process of negotiating identit... more The paper explores the role of eating, drinking and fasting in the process of negotiating identities of Latin Christian missionaries in medieval Mongolian empire. Missionaries were confronted with different cultural and dietary habits in everyday contacts with common people and potential converts. The paper will address such questions as to what extent could food play a role in establishing relations between the missionaries and their environment and to what extent did the missionaries accommodate their habits and norms to the actual circumstances and practical needs.
Paper given at an international conference "Mongolian Expansion and Its influence on Development ... more Paper given at an international conference "Mongolian Expansion and Its influence on Development in the Eurasian Area in the 13th and 14th Centuries", 5-8. 10. 2016, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The presentation strived to contribute to the discussion about medieval development of thinking about “religion” by exploring selected Christian missionary accounts about non-Christians in Mongolian empire. What kind of terminological and conceptual problems were the Christian missionaries facing when describing Asian religions? The contact with religious plurality in these areas, together with missionary zeal, encouraged new ways of thinking about “religion”, which challenged the existing terminology concerning “religion” (terms lex, secta, fides, ritus). Analyses of missionary terminology and descriptions of various “religions” reveals a tendency to implicitly accept general comparability of Christianity with non-Christian traditions. The presentation mapped certain problems that the missionaries had to face and suggests, that this experience with religious plurality provoked thinking about "religion" as general category.
Presentation was given at the XXI. IAHR Wold Congress in Erfurt, Germany. The paper presents ma... more Presentation was given at the XXI. IAHR Wold Congress in Erfurt, Germany.
The paper presents major shifts in the development of medieval Christian missionary efforts which were made during the 13th and 14th centuries in Asia by Franciscan and Dominican friars. Reports of such missionaries as William of Rubruck, John of Plano Carpini, John of Montecorvino, Jordan of Catala and others are used as sources for this analysis. The main aim of the paper is to show transformation of missionary strategies as a process of more or less successful adaptation of particular missionaries in new cultural and religious environment, their flexibility and ability to focus on a prospective group of converts. In connection to this process not only the missionary strategies changed, but also their original goals were redefined. Representation of these goals, original and new ones, within the context of missionary reports and their desired effect on European audience is also discussed.
The talk was presented at conference Orientalia Antiqua Nova XIV., in April 2014, Pilsen, Czech R... more The talk was presented at conference Orientalia Antiqua Nova XIV., in April 2014, Pilsen, Czech Republic. The talk focused on a few aspects of medieval European missions to the Mongols which are closely interconnected. Practical obstacles, mainly the language barrier between the missionaries and their prospective converts was one of the main factors which strongly influenced transformation of mission strategies during the 13th century. Proclaimed goals of the Mongol mission, which was originaly aimed to the 'infidels' do not correspond to the actual results of these missions which achieved best results among various Non-Catholic Christians who already lived in that region.
International conference of ISORECEA. "Twenty Years After: Secularization and Desecularization in... more International conference of ISORECEA. "Twenty Years After: Secularization and Desecularization in Central And Eastern Europe", 16–18 Dec 2010, Brno, Czech Republic.
Clanek pojednava o autoru serie knih o Tibetu pisicim pod pseudonymem Lobsang Rampa a vlivu jeho ... more Clanek pojednava o autoru serie knih o Tibetu pisicim pod pseudonymem Lobsang Rampa a vlivu jeho dila na zapadni představy o tibetskem buddhismu.
Clanek mapuje pocatky evropskeho objevovani Tibetu a vývoj představ o tibetskem buddhismu v dilec... more Clanek mapuje pocatky evropskeho objevovani Tibetu a vývoj představ o tibetskem buddhismu v dilech křesťanských misionařů.
Clanek se zabýva obrazem tibetskeho buddhismu v prostředi komunistickeho Ceskoslovenska, předevsi... more Clanek se zabýva obrazem tibetskeho buddhismu v prostředi komunistickeho Ceskoslovenska, předevsim ze zaměřuje na původni ceske cestopisy z padesatých let a analyzuje zpravy podavane v ceských novinach o proticinskem povstani v Tibetu v roce 1959.
Clanek se zabýva vývojem evropských představ o Tibetu a tibetskem buddhismu ovlivněných romatisme... more Clanek se zabýva vývojem evropských představ o Tibetu a tibetskem buddhismu ovlivněných romatismem, jejichž vyvrcholeni představuje roman Jamese Hiltona Ztracený obzor.
Historická Revue 1/2015, vol. XXVI, p. 37-41.
by Alessandro Saggioro, Marianna Ferrara, David Charles Wright Carr, Jana Valtrová, Daniel Barbu, Silvia Alfayé, anita agostini, Andrea Nicolotti, Francesco Berno, Andrea Annese, Manuel Ceccarelli, Mitsutoshi Horii, Madlen Krueger, Michel Kobelinski, Jens Ulff-Moller, and Jens Ulff
Encounters with otherness in the Middle Ages could take place as a result of long and short journ... more Encounters with otherness in the Middle Ages could take place as a result of long and short journeys, from northern Europe to the Middle or Far East for trade or crusade or from one side of a mountain frontier to the other, taking the traveller from a Christian to a Muslim space. In every case travellers confronted existing ideas of the Other with direct experience to create new syntheses of knowledge or rejections of it. These three papers will examine the ways in which ideas about Others shaped accounts of meetings with them in a range of different narrative sources.
The panel welcomes papers which from various perspectives deal with the relationship between trav... more The panel welcomes papers which from various perspectives deal with the relationship between travel, travel writing, and memory in a very broad sense.
This panel will explore the relationship between religion and (mis)communication from the vantage... more This panel will explore the relationship between religion and (mis)communication from the vantage point of both geographical, cultural, and disciplinary margins.
Religion and (mis)communication at the margins: disability, failure, and uncertainty
The panel welcomes papers related to the topic of travels which occurred between medieval Europe ... more The panel welcomes papers related to the topic of travels which occurred between medieval Europe and Asia and focus on borders in every sense of the word. In this panel we want to search for answers, not exclusively, but also to the following questions:
Call for papers for a panel at International Medieval Congress LEEDS, 1-4 July 2019, special them... more Call for papers for a panel at International Medieval Congress LEEDS, 1-4 July 2019, special thematic strand: Materiality. Panel title: ‘Materiality and Medieval Travels between Europe and Asia’
Zprava shrnuje obsah a zavěry diskusniho panelu, který jsme uspořadaly pro Druhou olomouckou reli... more Zprava shrnuje obsah a zavěry diskusniho panelu, který jsme uspořadaly pro Druhou olomouckou religionistickou konferenci (řijen 2017). Diskuse se zaměřila na nizke zastoupeni žen v jednotlivých vědnich oborech, konkretněji v ceske religionistice. Panel poukazal na překažky, ktere výrazně brzdi rozvoj vědecke kariery žen.
Religio: revue pro religionistiku