Jezovita Balbinus Komrek Stanislav (2023)

This Czech-language novel about the life of scholar, writer, priest and teacher Bohuslav Balbn (16211688) combines fact and fiction as closely as possible while striving to portray the customs and atmosphere of his time faithfully. The seventeenth century, dominated by the Thirty Years War, was among the darkest periods in the history of the Czech lands and neighbouring Central Europe, perhaps comparable only with the twentieth century. Balbn, too, had to navigate the eras maze of self-interest and horror as best he could. Before he became an idealised, dusty stuffed figure in the pantheon of revered old men of the Czech National Revival, he was a flesh-and-blood person, an enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, the first Czech scout leader and a champion of the Czech language and nation.