Re: looking for Baresch

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

"Rafal T. Prinke" wrote:

> Georg Baresch, one of the key figures in the early history of
> the VMS, seems to be no lesser an enigma than the MS itself.

<snipped>

> I have now checked (and I should have thought of it long ago!)
> the _Berni rula_. It is the tax census of the Czech lands
> from 1653 and names everyone who owned something (house or land).

Mnishowski and of course Hajek were long dead by that time,
so their entries would have been found through their 
descendants/heirs. For Baresch we don't known when he 
died but we have even less of a clue about any dependants.

> If Baresch had a house in Prague, he should be there.
> But he is not! 

I agree that this is a bit of a surprise. His letter of 
1639 was sent from Prague.

> 3. At the Fruit Market (Ovocny trh), there was a house without
>    any special name [pity - I like those names!] owned by
>    Karel Skreta Sotnovsky z Zaviric, a painter, who inherited
>    it from Johana Strosburgova, a daughter of Dr Tadeas Hajek
>    z Hajku [so it was probably Hajek's house where Dee and
>    Kelley had stayed].

Skreta is of course quite famous. He painted Dionysius Misseroni
(and his family), and if I'm not mistaken, he also killed a famous
Dutch painter (or maybe only half famous).
Hajek's house where Dee stayed was at Betlemska though.

> 4. At the corner of Dlouha and Dusni there was a house called
>    "At the Golden Stones" (U zlatych kamen) which was sold
>    in 1628 by representatives of the _emigrant_ Samuel Dobransky
>    z Nigropontu [ie. Pontanus] to the present owner - Jan Jiri
>    Tonner. Another member of the family - Jan junior Dobransky
>    z Nigropontu had 1/4 of the house of his wife at Betlemska.

This is becoming confusing. The Pontanus who was a friend of
Jacobus of Tepenec died around 1614. Marci had a pupil called
Dobrzenski de Nigroponte, but I can't think of his first name
right now. Not Samuel. He would have been in his childhood in
1628.

> But no Baresch...

Alas. 

Czech "ovoce" is definitely fruit. But the minor differences
between the various Slavionic languages do not really surprise
me. I'm Dutch and my wife is Belgian (Flemish). Strictly speaking,
we speak the same language. But I could make a very long list
of everyday words which have a completely different (usually
unrelated) meaning in both flavours of the one language...

Cheers, Rene