The Memoirs constitute a work by a self-educated farmer, village administrator (rychtář) and scribe, and folk philosopher, who conveyed his life experiences for his descendants. František Vavák (1746 – 1816) lived through wars, religious patents and economic reforms, abolishment of serfdom or corvée under the Austrian Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790), and corvée partial reinstatement under Leopold II (1790-1792). He describes his feelings of receiving freedom, and his disappointments when fate took away from the peasants once again a part of their human dignity. Vavák describes famines, floods, and good times followed by bad harvests as they happened in his region of the Poděbrady imperial estate. Not only nature, but happenings of international reach had grave economic impacts on the lives of the local farmers who had to pay taxes, quarter armies, etc. Side by side with descriptions of weather and harvests, we read about births and deaths in the

villages and among the aristocrats.

Chapter 1782 will be sent out to all registered participants in advance.

The memoir was originally written by Cyrillo-Methoděská Knihtiskšrna V. Kotrba and translated by Dr. Míla Sasková-Pierce and Layne Pierce. The work was edited by Olga Pierce. The translation was commissioned by John Kotouc, Omaha, Nebraska 2017.

The Czech original can be read in electronic format on different sites, one of them is being digitized by the Czech National Library .

English translation is accessible on the site of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International at https://cgsi.org

Mila is one of the coordinators of the Nebraska Czechs of Lincoln Reading Circle. She also coordinates the club’s Czech Conversation Club and is one of our two state delegates to the Nebraska Czechs, Inc. Mila is the Professor of Russian and Czech Emerita, and former Head of the Less Commonly taught Languages Section. 

Dr. Míla Šašková-Pierce has been at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln since 1989. She has published articles on learning processes; American Czechs’ cultural history; Russian, Ukrainian, Slovak, and Czech languages in the United States. At present, she is translating a 18th century Czech chronicle into English, with Layne Pierce. She has received the prestigious Gratias Agit Prize from the government of the Czech Republic for the Czech cultural activities of the Komensky Club at UNL and in Nebraska. Since October, 2017, she has served the Czech Republic as an Honorary Consul for the State of Nebraska.

English translation is accessible on the site of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International at https://cgsi.org

A young man from a privileged family, Jan Mydlář, is about to graduate from medical school when a sudden shift of fate changes his life forever. He becomes stuck in the most detested profession for the rest of his life—an executioner. Master Jan Mydlář finds himself in the middle of historical events of Bohemia. The religious and political turmoil in the Habsburg empire reaches its climax in the beginning of the 17th century.

When Protestant leaders throw imperial Catholic governors out of the window of their offices at the Prague Castle, a civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Bohemia breaks out. The civil war explodes into a European conflict that lasts thirty years and leaves much of Europe in ruins. In the 1621, the White Mountain Battle at Prague, Protestant rebels are defeated by Catholic forces, and Master Jan is to execute 27

rebel leaders, most of whom are his fellow Protestants and countrymen. 

In “The Memoirs of a Prague Executioner,” Jan Mydlář describes how he went from a medical graduate to an executioner, gives an account of medieval crime and punishment, and explains the manners and values of late 16th and early 17th century society. The book deals with documented crimes of the time in a similar way as the work of François Gayot de Pitaval. The book contains graphic descriptions of medieval torture. 

Source: Google Books