Protest
Dated Sept. 2, 1415, by 100 Bohemian Lords against the burning of John Hus. Since 1657 property of the University of Edinburgh
Some of the greatest writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were members of the Unity: John Augusta (1500-1572, Bishop and writer), John Blahoslav (1523-1571), collaborator on the Kralice Bible, author of Grammatika Česká, Charles, Lord of Žerotín (1564-1636), John Amos Komenský. The Unity reformed schools and promoted literature by setting up printing shops in Bohemia and Moravia. Toward the close of the fifteenth century a printing shop was opened in Mladá Boleslav; in the first part of the sixteenth century another was established at Bělá, near Bezděz, and still another at Litomyšl. The last named town was, up to 1547, looked upon as the chief seat of the administration of the church. Because of persecution, the Unity transferred its centre to Přerov in Moravia. Here too, it set up printing establishments, the one at Ivančice becoming in time far-famed. In 1578 the Ivančice concern was moved to Kralice (Moravia).
By common consent, the Kralice Bible, so called from Kralice, where it was printed, is regarded as the most enduring literary work of the Unity. For fourteen years eight eminent scholars worked on this Bible, rendering the translation into a language idiomatic, and pure beyond that of any other book. It was published between the years 1579-93, and Lord Žerotín bore the expense of it. The British Bible Society in publishing a Bohemian Bible followed exactly the edition of 1613.
The New York Lenox Library, which is now a part of the New York Public Library, owns: 1. A complete set of the Kralice Bible; the sixth volume, however, is of a later edition. 2. Two copies of the Prague Bible. 3. One copy of the Paul Severín of Kapí Hora Bible of the edition of 1537. The Kralice Bible was bought by Lenox, the founder of the Lenox Library, from the collection of the Duke of Sussex.[8]
John Amos Komenský
. John Amos Komenský (or Comenius, which is the Latinized form of the name), one of the great figures in Bohemian history, was born in 1592 in Moravia, (hence the suffix “Moravus” seen on some of his works) and died as an exile in 1670 in Holland.