Christmas - Zlutice Hymn Book

Catalogue number	0664
Date of issue	10.11.2010
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	50 stamps
Size of picture	40 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Fabián Puléř, Zdeněk Ziegler

The 1558 Zlutice Hymn Book is a rare renaissance parchment folio (sized 63x40x16cm, weighing 28kg), containing 471 sheets of Czech utraquist liturgical texts for the divine services and hymns, decorated with remarkable paintings. The book was ordered by the Zlutice town councillors for the local literary brotherhood, for the considerable expense of 283 threescore of Meissen groschen, of which the sum of 23 threescore was contributed by the lord of the estate. Jan Táborský of Klokotská Hora, owner of a painting shop in Prague, used the following words to appreciate their generosity: "Eager to sing, the people of Zlutice ordered costly scripts to be made and written in a reasonable (i.e. Czech) language." The author of the letters (Czech bastarda) and notation was Vavrinec Bily. The book was illuminated by the famous painter Fabian Puler of Usti nad Labem. The 16 miniature paintings in the initial letters and arabesques are particularly well appreciated. They contain the coats of arms of Zlutice and each of the donators and guilds, scenes from the Old and the New Testaments as well as from the life of the townspeople (feasts, bull slaughtering, Sunday rest), paintings of famous Czech historic persons (Saint Wenceslas, John Hus, Jerome of Prague; the two latter ones being erased in the 17th century) as well as certain of the donators, both townspeople and lower noblemen from the neighbourhood.
The Hymn Book, until 1977 deposited in the Prague's City Museum, is now a part of the collections of the Museum of Czech Literature in Prague. The City Museum keeps a replica of the book.

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