Liber Vetustissimus

Liber Vetustissimus

This precious tome contains a chronicle of Prague from the 14th to the 16th centuries written on paper, the Liber vetustissimus statutorum et aliarum rerum memorabilium Veteris Urbis Pragensia. It is a massive codex measuring 37.5 x 28 cm and uses paper that likely came from Italy and may have been rebound ca. 1400 in the midst of when the 239-page living chronicle was being recorded. Parchment sheets from a 14th century songbook tied together with textile laces were used for the covers. Therefore, the exterior is decorated by four-line staves, song lyrics, and neume musical notation in red and black ink. It originally had an inscription on the spine, but it has not survived. This ad hoc binding belies the importance of this manuscript as a historical source and its significance as the oldest chronicle from Central Europe.

A Multilingual Record of Prague

The text in the book is written in Gothic semi-italics and italics, which was used in the 14th and early 15th centuries and is originally written in Latin. Although Latin continues to be used throughout the chronicle, German begins to appear in 1327 and continues to be used until 1419. Czech first begins to appear sparsely during the early 15th century, but Czech records appear regularly at the beginning of the 16th century, when Latin was replaced by Czech records with the adoption of the bourgeoisie. The chronicle begins in 1310 and contains copies of privileges and documents of the Old Town of Prague, municipal revenues and expenditures, lists of city councils, statute of craft guilds, records of the statutes and decisions of the city council, municipal debts, records on the bourgeoisie class, requisites for municipal scales and standard measurements, and more.