John Hus as a first light of the first day. To the iconography of the Martinicka Bible

The essay is concerned with the question as to why is the earliest Czech depiction of the death of John Hus located next to an initial representing the creation of the world. It is probably a picture comment based on the relation of 2 Cor. 6,14: "Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" with Gn 1,4: "God saw that light was good, and he separated the light from darkness.

The cult of St Sigismund in Bohemia

Deals with different aspects of the cult of St Sigismund in Bohemia. St Sigismund became a Czech patron at a request from Emperor Charles IV, who obtained the remains of the saint for St Vitus Cathedral

The depiction of purgatory in the Smíškov gradual

The study newly identifies the iconography of a painting at the beginning of the opening canto of the Mass for the Dead on fol. 335v in the utraquist Gradual of Smíškov (Wien, ÖNB, Musiksammlungen, Suppl. mus. 15.492) as the Rescue of Souls from Purgatory, and records potential sources of the composition. The illumination proves that moderate utraquism in the issue of Purgatory did not differ from the Catholic stance much at the end of the 15th century