Re: looking for Baresch

[Mark Perakh <perakh@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just a nit-picking comment to interesting information. I would translate
Ovocni trh as Vegetable market rather than Fruit market. Cheers, Mark

"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.
> As I reported earlier, a friend in Prague was assured
> by the University information department that no one of that
> name was affiliated to the Carolinum at the time in question.
> My conclusion was that he must have been a wealthy burgher
> of Prague, as burghers often had sizable libraries.
> Also the fact that he had a book collection might indicate
> that he should have had a house to keep it in.
>
> 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).
> Part of it was published after the war and in the 1950's.
> Unfortunately, the publication project was abandoned
> in the 1960's - but fortunately for us the volume for Prague
> (vol. 3) was published in 1949 with long footnotes etc.
>
> If Baresch had a house in Prague, he should be there.
> But he is not! The closest match is one Jiri Benes (s-hacek so
> may have been spelt "Georg Benesch" in German), a mangler and
> elder of the linen-dyers guild. There are also some other
> people named Benes with a different first name. It is a popular
> Czech surname - viz. the president of pre-war Czechoslovakia.
>
> Most of the other players are easily found, however.
>
> 1. Marek Marci is recorded as "pan doctor Marek" and described
>    as "wealthy". He had a house with stables for six horses
>    at the Melantrichova street which was called "At the Golden Pig"
>    (U zlate svine). He also had another house at the same street
>    which he sold in 1657.
>
> 2. Just round the corner from Melantrichova, at Havelska
>    (and on the same page of the register) was the house
>    "At the Old Women" (U bab) of the late Raphael Mnisovsky
>    z Sebuzina, now owned by his two daughters (both adult
>    but one still unmarried). Raphael is also described as
>    wealthy, and the tax was 8 zlaty (Marek paid 7 only).
>
> 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].
>
> 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.
>
> But no Baresch...
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rafal