Portraits of some selected personalities connected with Listy filologické

(in alphabetical order)

Jan Gebauer (8. 10. 1838 - 25. 5. 1907)

Czech philologist (representative of the so called „school of young grammarians“; the author of the monumental Historical Grammar of the Czech Language), literary historian (The Life and Writings of Tomáš Štítný, 1924, ed. J. Vodehnal), the editor of Old Czech literature (e.g. Alexandreis), folklorist, translator, the author of text-books and of orthographic handbooks. The founder of Czech studies at university, lexicographer (he began to publish Old Czech dictionary). The active participant at the quarrels  concerning the authenticity of the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové, Zelená Hora and other fabled literary documents. The unfinished selection of his literary-historical works was published as Literary-historical Essays; his philological works have not been published yet. The bibliography of his works was composed by T. Syllaba (Jan Gebauer: bibliogr. soupis publ. prací a úv. studií a dokumentací k 100. výročí založení Gebauerova slovanského semináře 1979). Redactor of Listy filologické between 1873–1905.

František Groh (13. 11. 1863 - 22. 11. 1940)

Classical philologist, professor at the Prague University, a disciple of Josef Král. Inaugural dissertation Studies on Aristotle´s Athenaión politeia; his most important works comprise The Greek Theatre, The Topography of Ancient Athens; he also revised the well known book The Greek and Roman Mythology written in Czech by L. Saska. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1899-1919.

Josef Hrabák (3. 12. 1912 - 6. 8. 1987)

Czech literary-historian (first using structuralist, later pronounced, nonadequately sociologizing Marxist methodology), theoretist (esp. versologist), critic and editor (Saint Procop´s Legend, Old Czech Satires of Manuscript of Hradec and of the School of Smil, F. Kocmánek, Fortunatus etc.) dealing with the Czech literature in its entire chronological scope; the professor of Czech literature at the Brno university. His studies about Old Czech literature were published as The Studies from the Older Czech Literature (1956, rev. ed. 1962), and From the Older Czech Literature (1964). His foreign-language works were published in Festschrift Polyglotta (1972). Highly esteemed is his work Introduction to the theory of verse (1956, rev. ed. 1958). His bibliography was composed by J. Veselý (Bibliografie díla Josefa Hrabáka 1972); the years 1972–81 covers idem, in: Česká literatura 1982, p. 429; for the years 1982–90 see M. Krčmová, in: Sborník prací Filozofické fakulty  brněnské univerzity, řada literárněvědná (D), no. 39, 1992, p. 165. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1961–1987.

Oldřich Hujer (25. 11. 1880 - 4. 6. 1942)

 Czech linguist, dialectologist, sympathizing with „the school of young grammarians“; the professor of comparative indo-european studies at the Charles University in Prague (1919-1942); the author of the works focusing on the comparative indo-european studies, on the Slavonic philology and on the history of the Czech language (The Slavonic Nominal Declination, 1910; Comparative Indo-European phonetics, 1911; selected papers and reviews were published as Contributions to the history and dialectology of the Czech language I, 1961 not finished). The bibliography of his works was composed by J. Kurz (Soupis prací Oldřicha Hujera, 1940). Redactor of Listy filologické between 1913-1942.

Otakar Jiráni (10. 1. 1879 - 24. 1. 1934)

Versatile classical philologist, disciple of Josef Král and Josef Zubatý. Since 1920 a professor at the Prague University. He focused mainly on Roman lyrical poetry, antique mythology and literature. He translated the works of Horace into Czech (1923 Odes; 1929 Satires and Epistles), his most extensive work is the Syntax of Latin (1915). Redactor of Listy filologické between 1920-1933. Bibliography of his works was composed by B. Ryba, in: Listy filologické 61, 1934, pp. 8-18.

Josef Král (18. 12. 1853 - 19. 9. 1917)

Classical philologist, the dean of Faculty of Arts (1896) and the President of Czech University (1909), the founder of modern Czech classical philology, who raised many excellent students and disciples. He focused (as an editor and translator as well) inter alia on Sophocles, he translated from the Greek and Roman drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Plautus etc.). The pioneer  of the accentual translation (based on a distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables) of Ancient prosody into Czech. His life-work is Greek and Roman Rhytmics and Metrics in four volumes. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1886-1905.

Jan Kvíčala (6. 5. 1834 - 10. 6. 1908)

An important Czech classical philologist, who attended also the seminars of F. Ritschl and O. Jahn at Bonn; in 1887 the Dean of Faculty of Arts at the Prague University. Co-founder of the series Bibliothéka klassiků řeckých a římských (The Library of Greek and Roman Classics), for which he translated e.g. Herodotus or Cicero. One of the founders of Listy filologické; he remained the redactor of LF until 1886, when he left the journal due to the disputes over the authenticity of Manuscript of Dvůr Králové and the Manuscript of Zelená Hora with his best disciple Josef Král.  He focused inter alia on textual criticism of Greek tragics, Plato or Virgil.

Václav Machek (8. 11. 1894 - 26. 4. 1965)

Czech linguist, etymologist (the disciple of A. Meillet, influenced also by the German methodology of Wörter und Sachen); the professor of comparative indo-european linguistics at the Brno university (1935-1965); he occupied himself with baltistics, Hittie language, the comparative Slavonic linguistics, Czech and Slovak languages. His monographs comprise Composition of the expressive terms (1930), Czech and Slovak names for Herbs (1954); Etymological Dictionary of the Czech language (1957), monumental Etymological dictionary of the Czech and Slovak languages (1957). The selection of his Slavonic studies was published as Studies from Slavonic linguistics (1958). His bibliography till 1964 was composed by A. Erhart, in: Sborník prací Filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity, řada jazykovědná (A), no. 12, 1964, pp. 8–15. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1942–51, 1957–61.

Jindřich Niederle (28. 10. 1840 - 8. 9. 1875)

Classical philologist, the disciple of F. Lepař, professor at the secondary grammar school, in 1867-1870 he directed the Greek seminar at the Prague University. He translated e. g. Sophocles, Homer or Cicero into Czech; his most important work is the Greek Grammar (1. ed. 1873), the first grammar of Ancient Greek written in Czech, which has been used in revised version until these days as a standard manual. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1874-75.

Bohumil Ryba (8. 11. 1900 - 6. 2. 1980)

Classical philologist and a pioneer of Latin medievistics, since 1934 the professor at the Prague University. In 1954 he was sentenced to 19 years for high treason in a fabricated trial (released in 1960). The founder of  Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum, which is being publiehd up to the present day. Redactor of Listy filologické between 1930-1951. Further information see Zd. K. Vysoký, in: Listy filologické 94, 1971, pp. 163-172. 

Jaroslav Vlček (22. 1. 1860 - 21. 1. 1930) 

Czech literary historian (his mother was of Slovak origin) of positivist schooling, the professor at the Charles University in Prague (1907–1918, 1923–30); he shortly worked at the Ministry of Education (as a surveyor of Slovak education); organizer of Slovak cultural life, redactor, author of the secondary grammar schools reading books in Czech and Slovak, editor (K. H. Mácha, V. Hálek, J. Král´, J. Matúška, Almanachy A. J. Puchmajera etc.). The author of The History of Slovak literature (1889, 1890), The History of Czech literature (1892–1921; 2. ed. 1931) and of the Slovak literature chapters in the collective work The Czech Literature of the 19th century (1902–1907, exp. ed. 1911–1917). He focused mainly on the selected problems of the Czech and Slovak literature of the 16th–18th centuries. For bibliography till 1920 see M. Hýsek – J. Jakubec, Z dějin české literatury, pp. 41 ff. (1920). Redactor of Listy filologické between 1899–1928.

Last actualization 08.03.2007