HISTORY OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN THE CZECH LANDS IV

Transkript

1 Rudolf Brázdil Oldřich Kotyza HISTORY OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN THE CZECH LANDS IV Utilisation of Economic Sources for the Study of Climate Fluctuation in the Louny Region in the Fifteenth Seventeenth Centuries MASARYK UNIVERSITY Brno 2000

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3 Rudolf BRÁZDIL Oldřich KOTYZA HISTORY OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN THE CZECH LANDS IV Utilisation of Economic Sources for the Study of Climate Fluctuation in the Louny Region in the Fifteenth Seventeenth Centuries MASARYK UNIVERSITY Brno 2000

5 PREFACE The reconstruction of the climate fluctuation in the period before the beginning of instrumental measurements is based on the use of the most varied sorts of indirect (proxy) data linked up either directly with the activity of man or they are of natural character. Within written sources, including direct data about the weather and/or about the events and phenomena dependent on weather, relatively little attention has been paid to sources of economic character which can suitably complement the knowledge obtained from other sources or can be used for their cross control. In the Czech Republic there are unique records of economic character dating to from the town of Louny in north-west Bohemia. This paper is devoted to their meteorological and climatological utilisation. It appears as the fourth volume of the publication series History of Weather and Climate in the Czech Lands. Its rise was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic of the project No. 205/98/1542 Reconstruction of the Climate of the Last Millennium in the Czech Lands solved in the years In connection with the publication of this study the authors are obliged with sincere thanks to: Asst. Prof. RNDr. Ferdinand Šamaj, DrSc., Bratislava, Slovak Republic, for valuable review notes to the present paper PhDr. Bohumír Roedl, State District Archives Louny, for the kind consent to the study of the Louny sources, the same as for valuable review remarks to the present paper PhDr. Jan Smetana, Litoměřice, for the kind loan of excerpts of Arcadius s annals PhDr. Bořivoj Herzlík for the English translation Mgr. Petr Štěpánek, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, for carrying out the calculations and making most of the graphic supplements Radek Neužil, the same Department, for drawing Figs. 10, 27, 32. Brno, December 1999 Rudolf Brázdil 1 and Oldřich Kotyza 2 1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, Brno 2 The District Museum of Local History, Mírové nám. 1, Litoměřice 3

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7 CONTENTS I UTILISATION OF ECONOMIC SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CLIMATE FLUCTUATION IN THE LOUNY REGION IN THE FIFTEENTH SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 7 1 Introduction 9 2 Written sources about weather and related phenomena from Louny in the fifteenth seventeenth centuries Written sources of economic character The chronicle of Pavel Mikšovic The iconography of the town of Louny as a source of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries 19 3 Kinds of meteorological information following from the interpretation of the Louny written sources of economic character 23 4 Interpretation and verification of reports from economic sources for the history of weather and climate in the Louny region The fifteenth century The sixteenth century The seventeenth century 69 5 Quantitative interpretation of selected data from the Louny written sources of economic character Instrumental data from Louny and surroundings applicable for calibration Temperature patterns of the winter season Determination of calibration relations Reconstruction of winter temperature patterns according to selected analogues from the instrumental period Reconstruction of winter temperature patterns winters according to series of temperature indices Compilation of temperature indices series Determination of calibration relations Verification of calibration relations Reconstruction of winter air temperatures Fluctuation of winter air temperatures at Prague Klementinum in the period and its European context Temperature patterns of spring and summer months Determination of calibration relations Reconstruction of temperature patterns of spring and summer months and the discussion of the results Conclusion References Written historical sources and abbreviations of their editions 124 Appendix I 132 5

8 Appendix II 133 Appendix III 135 Appendix IV 136 II EDITION EXCERPTS FROM THE LOUNY BOOKS OF ACCOUNTS 139 Introductory notes to edition excerpts from the Louny books of accounts 141 Liber rationum regalis civitatis Lunae ad annos pertinens 143 Liber rationum regalis civitatis Lunae ad annos pertinens 159 Liber rationum regalis civitatis Lunae ad annos pertinens 160 Liber rationum regalis civitatis Lunae ad annos pertinens 168 Liber rationum regalis civitatis Lunae ad annos pertinens 179 Registra obecní, do kterýchž se obecní důchodové a vydání sobotní zapisují, počínajíc od soboty po svatém Mistru Janovi z Husy léta Páně tisícího pětistého sedmdesátého. Příjem důchodův obecních sobotních skrze ouředníky městské Jakuba Písařovic, Řehoře Sabenu, Viktorína Křižianovic a Jana Mikšovic v středu po svatém Prokopu léta nadepsaného [ ] 191 Registra obecní, příjmův a vydání obecních, od léta Páně tisícího pětistého osumdesátého prvního [ ] 204 Registra příjmův a vydání města Lúna [ ] 216 Registra příjmův a vydání města Lúna [ ] 226 Registra příjmův a vydáních obecních města Lúna [ ] 238 Registra příjmův a vydáních obecních města Lúna [ ] 242 Registra memoriální ouřednická od léta 1588, do kterýchž se všelijaké paměti příjmův neb vydání poznamenávají. Buď, že se něčeho díl příjme a více na to přijímati má, což do pořádného příjmu zcela jíti nemohlo; buď že se komu ho na které dílo zavdá, aneb ještě více vydávati má; buď že se zaprodá (místo s někým smlúvy), aneb za věc prodanou díl toliko peněz vezme, tak aby z těchto register při počtu to všecko do pořádného příjmu a vydání anebo do dluhův vytaženo býti mohlo 245 Registra špitální Iste liber pro hospitali et curia allodiali deputatus inicium sui cepit post exustam hanc urbem etc. 249 Registra vydání na potřeby dvorské a špitální na opatrování kněží, žákův a čeledi etc. [ ] 270 Registra vydání na potřeby dvorské a špitální na opatrování kněží, žákův a čeledi etc. [ ] 277 Registra vydání na potřeby dvorské a špitální na opatrování kněží, žákův a čeledi etc. [ ] 287 Registra, do kterýchž se všelijaké vydání zádušní na opatrování dvoru špitálního, chudých ve špitále, kněží, oficiálův a žákův školních i také čeledi dvorské a špitální vpisuje a poznamenává. Založena Léta Páně 1605 [ ] 303 Registra dvoru ranskýho [ ] 317 Registra dvoru ranskýho, založená léta Páně 1613 [ ] 333 Glossary 345 References and sources 349 6

9 I UTILISATION OF ECONOMIC SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CLIMATE FLUCTUATION IN THE LOUNY REGION IN THE FIFTEENTH SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 7

10 8 A view of the town of Louny to Gabriel Bodenehr

11 1 INTRODUCTION Reconstruction of climate in the period before the beginning of regular instrumental measurements is based on the most varied sorts of proxy data, among which an important position belongs particularly to written sources. They contain not only direct reports about weather, but also information about events and phenomena dependent on weather and climate. Characteristic of records of this kind is, as a rule, a considerable temporal and spatial dissipation. They are usually oriented on the description of extreme meteorological conditions, characterising as a rule conspicuous deviations from the mean variation of weather during the year and with their expressions (such as hard winters, dry summers), and mentions of meteorological extremes with characterising of damage due to them (gales, floods, late or early frosts, etc.) (e.g. Pfister, 1988a; Bradley and Jones, eds., 1992; Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995a). From this pattern are excluded daily weather records describing qualitatively everyday weather in the order of years or decades (see e.g. Flohn, 1949, 1979; Lenke, 1968; Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995b, 1996, 1999). From such records even certain quantitative information can be obtained such as having the form of frequencies of the occurrence of certain meteorological characteristics (Flohn, 1949, 1979; Lenke, 1968; Pfister et al., 1999). Obtaining the necessary data base for the climate reconstruction of the pre-instrumental period thus represents a requiring compilation of the temporal and spatial mosaic for which every new detail is a contribution permitting the extension or the cross control of the existing data. From this point of view an important contribution for the reconstruction of climate can also be data of economic character. Some economic data can also be found in narrative sources (such as beginning of vintage, the size of the harvest, wine quality, price). But, as against them economic sources are of much more exact character, although their data are more complicated to be interpreted. But for exceptions direct weather characteristics of the period or direct information about meteorological phenomena are missing in them which can be judged at rather from certain economic activities, financial expenses or subsequent measures. On the other hand, with the systematic character of economic records it is possible to obtain on the whole continuous series of information about the events which can subsequently be climatologically interpreted. In the broadest scope data concerning the growing of vine have so far been used for climatological reconstructions. The most representative series of grape harvest dates (1484 to 1879) comes from Le Roy Ladurie and Baulant (1980) who area-averaged 103 corresponding series for eastern and central France, western Switzerland and a few villages from south-western Germany. An incomplete series of analogous data for Vienna in the period is given by Lauscher (1985). Pfister (1988b) presents for the period complementary data for several other localities and, linking up with it, the corresponding series of the mean date of grape harvest in western Europe for in which he completed the data of Le Roy Ladurie and Baulant (1980) for Côte d Or. Burkhardt and Hense (1985) reconstructed, on the basis of data of Le Roy Ladurie and Baulant (1980), mean temperatures of April-July for Basle for the period A number of further papers have been devoted to the quantitative reconstruction of air temperature and/or further climatic parameters (such as Flohn, 1958; Pejml, 1974; Lauscher, 1983; Lauer and Frankenberg, 1986; Glaser, 1991). In an analogous sense as the data about vine, the information about the beginning of the harvest and the yields of cereals can also be used. Examples of such papers based on long series of these data are e.g. from Switzerland (Stauffer and Lüthi, 1975; Pfister, 1979, 1988a), Germany (Glaser, 1991), Austria (Fliri, 1991) or Estonia (Tarand and Kuiv, 1994). In Bohemia data about beginning of harvest and hop yields at Dobroměřice in the years were 9

12 used by Pejml (1966). In another paper, according to data about the beginning of harvest at Milčice in the period he reconstructed the series of mean June air temperatures (Pejml, 1968). The possibility of utilising the town accounts (books of accounts) for climatology was referred to by Pejml (1966, 1974) and in a methodologically oriented study by Vaniš (1982). The methodology mentioned by them was utilised and corrected in the evaluation of the climate of medieval Czech Lands (Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995a). The objective of the submitted contribution is to show the possibilities of climatological utilisation of economic records on the example of the town of Louny in north-west Bohemia during the fifteenth seventeenth centuries. In that period two different calendars were used in the Czech Lands for dating. The switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one was done by the shift from 6 January to 17 January 1584 in Bohemia, in Moravia by the shift from 4 October to 15 October 1584 (for detail see Kollmann, 1974). All dates given in the present paper are therefore converted to the dating according to the Gregorian calendar. 2 WRITTEN SOURCES ABOUT WEATHER AND RELATED PHENOMENA FROM LOUNY IN THE FIFTEENTH SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES The State District Archives at Louny (SOkA Louny) has a significant position among the archives due to the numbers of preserved original documents, to which also chronicles and a series of town books belong (for their list see Lůžek, 1956; about the archives also Dušek, 1898; the Louny town books up to 1526 were included in the list of municipal books from the Czech Lands by Nový, 1963). It is remarkable that a modern synthesis of history is missing in a town having a lot of historical sources about its development. Mostly old monographs are tributary to the time of their rise, i.e. they abound in a number of errors and inequalities. If we omit unprinted book of the Baroque historiographer Johann Florian Hammerschmid Historia regiae urbis Lunae (Hammerschmid I ) dealing with the history of Louny in (it can hardly be considered to be a chronicle, as does Lůžek, 1956) then the earliest synthesis of the history of Louny (although hardly employable) can be considered the monograph by Wunš (1868). He was linked up with by the Slavětín parson and an excellent expert in the Louny archives F. Štědrý who, besides smaller papers (such as Štědrý, 1900, 1920) published a monographic study about the history of Louny in 1930 (a list of unprinted papers and copies of Štědrý see Lůžek, 1956). This work, even though amply utilised so far, cannot be considered a synthesis, but rather a mere accumulation of archives material or excerpts from it, which is often rightly criticised by historians (e.g. Pařez, 1987, 1992). A considerable fragmentary character in data is also evident in the hitherto latest summary procession of the history of Louny by Linhart (1937 there also references to his earlier papers). Another chapter deals in detail with the individual Louny archival documents, employed in the present paper, on the one hand with the Louny books of accounts (Chapter 2.1), by the Louny chronicles (Chapter 2.2) and the iconography of the town (Chapter 2.3). 10

13 2.1 WRITTEN SOURCES OF ECONOMIC CHARACTER From a long series of the town books preserved in the Louny archives only a small part has so far been edited. Among excellent editions belongs the Vaniš edition (Vaniš,1979a) of the earliest preserved Louny books of accounts and/or their fragments, the Louny books of accounts of (LR I ) and (LR II; both bound in one volume see SOkA Louny, AM Louny, catalogue number I E 9; further only catalogue numbers are quoted). From the first of them a list of interests of was published by Antl (1900). Vaniš (1979a) joined at the end of his edition also a list of Louny interests of 1460, which had been analysed by Macek (1950). On the analysis of the Louny earliest books of accounts is also based a number of papers by Vaniš (a complete list of his papers up to the year 1983 see Redakce, 1983), devoted not only to their genesis and comparison with a similar type of books from the Czech Lands (Vaniš, 1968), but also their utilisation for the study of the economy of the town of Louny (Vaniš, 1979b), the fluctuation of prices (Vaniš, 1981a) and also as a historicalgeographical source (Vaniš, 1980, 1981b, 1982, 1983, 1985) as well as of biographical research (Vaniš, 1988, 1990). The application of Vaniš s edition for the knowledge of the geographical horizon of the burgesses of Louny was contemplated by Kostlán and Zilynská (1985). To the hitherto latest editions belongs Roedl s edition of the books of capital sentences (Roedl, 1993b). Unfortunately only the book of (I C 26) was published whole, the second of (I C 27) only in the form of regesta. The Louny town books were naturally paid attention to in historical studies. Some of them were analysed on the formal and content aspects. Besides the above editions (Vaniš, 1979a; Roedl, 1993b) and the paper of Macek (1950) a serious and exemplary analysis of the first court book of (I C 1) is that by Herold (1971). The sixth court book of (I C 6) was studied by Pařez (1987) who based also his further studies about the town administration and its diplomacy on it (Pařez, 1990, 1992), about the social structure (Pařez, 1995 here also considering further books up to the quarter of the seventeenth century), and/or about confiscation of the Church property during the Hussite wars (Pařez, 1999a, 1999b). The general ledgers of Louny of (I E 11), (I E 12) and (I E 15) were paid attention together with the respective analysis of the town economy by Nechvátal (1966, 1998). Lůžek (1957) dealt with the earliest book of accounts of the hospital farmstead at Dobroměřice of (I E 10) and Křivka (1956) with the book of accounts of the farmstead at Raná of (I E 25) and (I E 26) and the land register of (I C 54). Besides the now obsolete syntheses of the history of Louny (see above) the data from the town books were utilised in specially conceived studies of many research workers. From them it is possible to name Kamiš (1962), Lůžek (1968, 1970b), Vanišová (1985), Fejtová (1988, 1991), Neudertová (1991a, 1991b), Mareš (1995) or Kasík (1996). The value of those books for the study of everyday life of pre-white Mountain Louny was perhaps most realised by the Louny archivist B. Roedl who, besides the above edition of the books of capital sentences studied the life of Louny from other aspects such as the comparison of accepting new burgesses at Louny and at Žatec (Roedl and Horáčková, 1985), costs of the activity of the capital court (Roedl, 1993a), the building enterprising at Louny (Roedl, 1992) or the building development of the town fortification (Roedl, 1999). Particularly in the last named study he clearly pointed to the possibility of utilising the extensive Louny archives material, particularly the books of accounts whose study is usually underestimated by historians also due to considerable labour consumption. This paper by Roedl is in a number of cases and/or in the working methods similar to ours, although the studied topic is different (Roedl s papers devoted to Mikšovic s chronicle, see Chapter 2.2) 11

14 Table 1. An overview of the used Louny books of accounts with mentioning the length of records and a list of missing records Liber rationum (LR I) 26 Oct Feb Missing: 18 Sep. 2 Oct. 1452, 16 Oct. 1452, 7 Jan. 18 Feb. 1454, 17 Mar. 28 Apr. 1455, 23 July Feb Liber rationum (LR II) 22 Nov Sep Liber rationum (LR III) 5 May Oct Missing: 2 Oct Liber rationum (LR IV) 11 Nov Aug Liber rationum (LR V) 7 Mar May 1570 Missing: 5 Sep Aug Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV I) 18 July Apr Missing: 6 Jan. 1573, 5 Jan. 1574, 25 Sep Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV II) 2 May Apr Missing: 24 Sep May 1585 Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV III) 29 Apr Apr Missing: 26 Dec Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV IV) 3 May Oct Missing: 27 Dec. 1608, 26 Dec. 1609, 1 Jan Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV V) 20 June Nov Registra příjmů a vydání (RPV VI) 7 Dec Dec Registra špitální (RŠ) 5 May Feb Registra vydání špitálních (RVŠ I) 3 Sep June 1571 Registra vydání špitálních (RVŠ II) 19 June Mar Missing: 2 Aug. 1572, 9 Aug. 1572, 26 Dec Registra vydání špitálních (RVŠ III) 29 Mar July 1605 Registra vydání špitálních (RVŠ IV) 16 July Dec Missing: 13 Dec. 1608, 27 Dec. 1608, 26 Dec. 1609, 25 Dec. 1610, 19 Nov. 1611, 10 Feb. 1618, 6 June 1620, 21 Nov. 26 Dec. 1620, 30 Apr Registra dvoru ranskýho (RDR I) 11 July May 1613 Registra dvoru ranskýho (RDR II) 18 May Dec Missing: 1 Feb. 1614, 15 Feb. 1614, 30 Jan. 1616, 21 Nov. 19 Dec Registra memoriální ouřednická (RMO)

15 Fig. 1. The structure of expenditures of the town of Louny (Nechvátal, 1966) For the present paper the most important are above all the books of accounts preserved with different breaks from 1450 to 1632, when their character changes essentially (Lůžek, 1956; Vaniš, 1968; Roedl, 1993b). Since Vaniš s studies (1968, 1979a) expressed the genesis of the Louny account books best, the explanation below is based on them, the same as on the list of Lůžek (1956) and the authors own study of those books. A list of all account books follows from Table 1. Fig. 2. The structure of incomes of the town of Louny (Nechvátal, 1966) The oldest preserved account books of the town of Louny are Liber rationum (Books of Accounts) written in Latin of (LR I ) and a torso of another one of (LR II ). Quite regularly all the incomes of the town were recorded in them, urbarial payments, tax payments to the royal chamber, etc. (Figs. 1 2). But the most important for the climate reconstruction is the part Distributa, where in the expenses of the town there appear payments of wages for different works (such as hay harvest and harvest, works in the vineyard, cutting of ice on the river or between the mill wheels, carrying out water from flooded cellars). As against other preserved account books, when the general accounting was done 13

16 only once a month (Vaniš, 1968), at Louny the payment was always on Saturdays, i.e. on the last day of the Christian week (which started by Sunday), so that the wages paid express the works of the whole week. On the basis of these data it is possible to judge indirectly at the course of weather which affected dates and the kind of those works (Vaniš s errors (1982) when processing these indirect data are hinted at by Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995a). Fig. 3. A specimen of the records from Liber rationum III (SOkA Louny, AM Louny, catalogue number I E 11) With the growth of the town and its assets the book-keeping became more complicated. The town administration grew and the town office increased, which is evident particularly in the sixteenth century (Nechvátal, 1966). The original books of accounts are split (starting with the year 1455) into further special books, such as books of extraordinary taxes, of church taxes, town incomes, extraordinary incomes, etc. (see Lůžek, 1956). Despite that the original town books of accounts kept their basic layout. They were written mostly in Czech, only some incomes are written in Latin. Up to Liber rationum of the fifteenth century (LR I, LR II ) there follow whole volumes of the years (LR III Fig. 3), (LR IV ) and (LR V ). In 1570 they were renamed to Registra příjmů a vydání (Registers of Incomes and Expenditures) and were preserved of the years 1570 to 1581 (RPV I), (RPV II), (RPV III), (RPV IV), (RPV V) and (RPV VI). Whereas until 1632 the municipal scribes always entered sums of the week expenditure on Saturdays, then this practice was abandoned and one passed to the practice of making monthly accounts, as was usual elsewhere in the Czech Lands (Lůžek, 1956; Roedl, 1993b). Unfortunately, from those books already in 1517 there disappear completely data about payments for field works and records of expenditures for acts in the community vineyards end in the year 1518 (LR III, fol. 66 r ). It may have been in connection with the loss of the former extensive property which the town had acquired during the Hussite Wars from the tenure of rich monasteries (to their gains see Vaniš, 1979a, 1979b; Pařez, 1999a, 1999b). Out of 14

17 Fig. 4. A map of Louny and surroundings 25 original villages in 1561 only Dobroměřice, Nečichy, Chraberce, Raná and two deserted villages Oblík and Trhlava (Fig. 4) belonged to Louny (Křivka, 1956). In spite of that the books of accounts are valuable by the fact that indirectly one can follow from them the course of weather during the winter months. The items for the performed field works evidently nearly all passed into the agenda of the farm at Dobroměřice. The genesis of the farm and its administration was best illustrated by Lůžek (1957) from whose study and from the preserved account books of the farm it is 15

18 Fig. 5. A specimen of the records of Registra špitální (SOkA Louny, AM Louny, catalogue number I E 10) further drawn. Dobroměřice and the farm, together with the villages of Raná, Nečichy, Trhlavy and the farm Oblík, were originally the possession of the monastery of St. Anne at Louny which passed into the possession of the town during the Hussite Wars (see Pařez, 1999a). In 1454 King Jiří z Poděbrad (George of Poděbrady) first took away this property of the town and then he returned it, zprovided that the town would build a hospital and keep it with the avails of the possession. The town really built the hospital. But the hospital farm was, of course, neither the property of the town nor of the church. The town only administered it under the supervision of the under-chamberlain who controlled the management of the farm as the royal property. For the purpose of the administration of the hospital farm and the adjoined villages the town began to keep special books in which incomes and expenses of the farm were recorded. The registers of the farmstead were preserved in a long series until The oldest book is Registra špitální (The Hospital Registers) of (RŠ ) (Fig. 5). Then the accounting was divided and Registra příjmů (Registers of Incomes) and Registra vydání (Registers of Expenses) were kept separately. Since the hospital farmstead depended fully on manpower hired and paid for work (Lůžek, 1957), interesting for the present study are above all expenditures for the individual agricultural works whose pay day was again Saturday. The prices of grains and wine at the market of Louny are for the time being kept aside, as they represent a complex set of problems as such (for that see Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995a). Registra vydání (Registers of Expenses) have been preserved for the years (RVŠ I ), 1571 to 1586 (RVŠ II), (RVŠ III) and (RVŠ IV). According to the paid wages it is possible to obtain from them information about floods, about the beginning and end of field works, about cutting ice on the pond, about clearing snow, etc. It is also possible to follow the size of the harvest, particularly of grain and hops, which was already noticed by Pejml (1966). Similar accounts have also been preserved from the farmstead at Raná. The new town farmstead was based on a large farmstead of the subject Jiří Studihrach (George Studihrach), 16

19 bought by the town in 1597 (Křivka, 1956). There exists a continuous series of incomes and expenses, always recorded in one book. Up to now there exist two books of the years 1598 to 1613 (RDR I Fig. 6) and (RDR II ), called Registra dvoru ranskýho (Registers of the Raná farmstead). They have the same structure as the accounts of the hospital farmstead. The above sources are completed, from 1588, by several records in Registra memoriální ouřednická (Memorial Official Registers RMO ). Nechvátal (1966) and Roedl (1999) drew attention to the important fact that sometimes the town scribes recorded the expenses with a one or two week s delay. In studying the Louny books for the purposes of the present paper it seems, however, that in the case of expenses for winter work (such as cutting ice at the mills and weirs on the Ohře) or for the harvest work, when the records constitute integral series, it was not a frequent case. If there was such a delayed record, then only in the case of the arrival of rafts at Louny, which, however, cannot be specified more exactly. In the archives of Louny also farming records of a wealthy burgess Jan Zákostelský z Bílejova (John Zákostelský of Bílejov) (Zákostelský) are kept of (Honc, 1968). Zákostelský recorded in his book among others also the results of the grain harvests and wine, different costs and claims to his creditors and employees, loans to the subjects and the town, etc. Records of harvests and/or avails of grain can hardly be utilised, because the area of the sown land is not exactly known (it changed year by year), or so far it is impossible to determine the ratio of the sown and the harvested grain. In the vineyard the situation is simpler, because it had a stable area. Even though the account books of Louny have been preserved incomplete, they allow to obtain series of data of very good quality. Their combination with further sources can make it possible to arrive at a representative picture of climatic fluctuation at Louny and its surroundings in most of the years of the period , and/or precision reports of weather from narrative sources (analysis to the years , , see Brázdil and Kotyza, 1995a). Fig. 6. A specimen of the records of Registra dvoru ranskýho I (SOkA Louny, AM Louny, catalogue number I E 25) 17

20 2.2 THE CHRONICLE OF PAVEL MIKŠOVIC The archives of the former royal town of Louny keeps in its collections a copious manuscript foliant of a chronicle (Lůžek, 1956), which was retrospectively written from 1490 to 1631 by the Louny burgess Pavel Mikšovic (Paul Mikšovic) or Mikšů, Mikeš (Mikšovic). Mikšovic s chronicle in an extract was printed with many errors and drawbacks by Kovář ( ). Kovář (ibidem) stated in the introduction to the edition of the chronicle also fundamental biographical data that can be completed and specified according to later studies (particularly Roedl, 1986, 1988, 1993). In the archives of Louny a copy of Mikšovic s chronicle is kept, coming from the hand of the parson of Slavětín and an expert in the history of Louny, F. Štědrý (Štědrý, s.a.). From the context it follows that Pavel Mikšovic was born some time in the middle of the 1570s. He may have acquired his education at the Louny Latin school, and besides his native Czech language he also mastered Latin very well. From 1595 he was an official servant allocated to the first aldermen s scribe. He also belonged to the men of letters of the Czech choir at the dean s church of St. Nicholas. In 1600 he acquired the town right and married Kateřina (Catherine), daughter to the burgess Šimon Paul (Simon Paul), and he left his post at the town hall at Louny. He earned his living as a grain middleman, the same as his father-in-law. An important source of income for him was the lawyer s practice and in the town books he appears as the representative of some disunited parties in thirty processes. In 1620 he declares his property including one house, a hop-garden and two vineyards. His house had the brewer s licence and there was a pub in it. As Roedl (1988) writes, for his whole life Pavel [Mikšovic] did not have any function in an town representative body or in another office, he did not proceed against anybody, as far as it is known he was not arrested, and thus his most important achievement was the writing of the chronicle". Pavel Mikšovic, as a fervent Utraquist of anti-catholic character was obliged to pass, with the majority of burgesses, under pressure as early as in 1625 to the Catholic creed. He died on 10 February 1632 and he was buried at the Louny church of St. Peter, as added to his chronicle by an unknown author, maybe his descendant. After the death of Pavel Mikšovic the chronicle got into the hands of the foremost Louny patrician Jan Cholossius (John Cholossius), which is also witnessed by his remarks of chronicle character, added to Mikšovic s chronicle. This fact seems to hint at the relation of Pavel Mikšovic with the Cholossius family, since the well known Humanist poet and a patrician of Louny, Adam Cholossius Pelhřimovský (about him see Truhlář et al., 1966) was even his godfather. Sometimes even Mikšovic s illegal relation to that family is considered, i.e. his illegitimacy, etc. (Roedl, 1986). As compared with other narrative sources, Mikšovic wrote in his chronicle in great detail also about the time which he did not experience himself. The source of his information was on the one hand the second edition of Veleslavín s calendar (DAzV) published in 1590, under whose influence he may have started writing his work, on the other hand the rich town archives. He may have also drawn from unknown, nowadays lost memorabilia, several of which existed at Louny, as demonstrated not only by accidental notes in the books of court statements of witnesses (see Roedl, 1988), but also a fragment of the register of an unknown chronicle (Rejstřík), maybe of a parish (decanal) memorial book whose beginnings may be found in the late fifteenth or in the early sixteenth century, and which was led up to the year 1738, and the annals of the eighteenth century by Jan Mojžíš (Lůžek, 1970a) which, as against Mikšovic, contains many further credible reports of the sixteenth century (of course he copied some events literally from Mikšovic). Characteristic of Mikšovic s chronicle (Fig. 7) are annual records. He included in it a lot of register data and records from his life and from the life of the town. As a downright farmer he was interested in weather and related phenomena, so that he very frequently men- 18

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