Czech Religious Broadside Ballads in Slovak Manuscript Hymnals of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

This chapter by Peter Ruščin is focused on the influence of Czech religious broadside ballads on Slovak religious songs during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Ruščin shows that Czech broadside ballads significantly affected the development of Slovak hymnography during this period. This transfer between shared genres of different countries was enabled by the similarities of the two languages, Slovak and Czech, allowing the publication by printing houses of broadside ballads in both languages. Such a transference can be especially seen in the nation’s shared privileging of Marian pilgrimage sites and in the cult of some saints, especially St. John of Nepomuk. Czech broadside ballads published by Slovak printing houses were eventually adopted by other media, such as manuscripts and printed hymn books, to the extent that some of the broadside ballads became an established part of the official Catholic hymnographic repertoire in Slovakia.