The Old Czech Apocryphal Story of Joseph (Son of Jacob)

From the end of the 19th century, the Old Czech apocryphal story of Joseph (son of Jacob), called Life of Joseph, has not been in the center of the scholars' and editors' attention, and therefore many pivotal philological questions concerning this Old Czech composition have not been satisfactory solved yet. This thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of the Old Czech Life of Joseph in terms of textual criticism and literary history and attempts to bring answers to the main problems of its contextualization. The six extant medieval manuscripts of the Life of Joseph, representing the inherent part of the thesis, are provided with critical edition. The Old Czech Life of Joseph is a late medieval work of an anonymous author and should be dated to the second half or to the end of the 14th century. It is based on a Latin model, namely Historia Ioseph, which was composed in the year 1336 by the Spanish Dominican Alfonso Buenhombre (Alphonsus Bonihominis). The Czech Life of Joseph is the unique vernacular translation of Alfonso's Latin text. This Latin text has not been broadly disseminated. I am aware of the existence of 14 manuscripts, six of which originated in Bohemia and represent the specific Bohemian manuscript branch. The Czech translation is admittedly based on the Latin text related closely to..