Czechoslovakian Miniatures [antikvár]

In order to understand the historical, cultural and, above all, artistic development of the territory which now forms the Czechoslovak Republic, we must bear in mind the most important of the natural factors which have governed the political, economic and spiritual life of the Czechs and Slovaks: the geographical position of their homelands, which are situated in the heart of the European continent, far from any maritime lines of communication. To the east lies Slovakia; to the west, Bohemia and Moravia, which, together with part of Silesia, are located more or less at the intersection of the routes which have spanned Europe in every direction from time immemorial. In the Middle Ages, some of these routes lost their importance or were forgotten and replaced by others; but Christian missionaries, in the steps of the merchants, travelled along both old routes and new. It can thus be said that com-mercial relations between peoples and countries (without doubt more extensive than is commonly assumed) helped to create conditions favourable to the spread of Christianity. The new religion was not always welcomed; in some places, indeed, it aroused secret resistance. Yet it brought profound, even revolutionary, changes to the way of life and mental attitude of the peoples who dwelt outside the former confines of the Roman Empire and who were therefore unable to draw upon what remained of Roman civilization. They included the Slavonic tribes which were to make up the Czech and Slovak peoples, and which appear to have infiltrated into their present territorial domain from the second century of the Christian era onwards. By the fifth and sixth centuries they were almost 15