392

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

where he spent considerable time in studying the valuable documents contained in the archives of Venice and Rome. In the latter town he found some difficulty in obtaining access to the Hbrary and archives of the VatiCount Rudolph Liitzow, then Austrian ambascan. sador at Rome, who was himself a Bohemian, and to whom Palacky had been recommended, succeeded, however, in obtaining for him permission to examine at least some of the MSS. which he wished to see. Palacky has ^ himself left us an interesting account of the difficulties he encountered on the part of Monsignor Marini, prefect of the Vatican archives. They were caused, it was stated, principally by alleged indiscretions committed by Ranke, who some time previously had been allowed to study the archives of the Vatican. After Palacky's return to Bohemia, the task of continuing his great historical work absorbed him so completely that he ceased to edit the Journal. His quiet and studious life was, like that of other Bohemian scholars, interrupted by the revolutionary events of the year 1848. The movement in favour of the revival of Bohemian nationality had hitherto been an entirely literary one, and the Bohemians very naturally chose their most prominent writers as their political leaders. As Bohemia, with many other non-German parts of Austria, then formed part of the Germanic Confederation, prominent Bohemians, and among them Palacky, were invited to take part in the proceedings of the German National Palacky's Assembly that met at Frankfort in 1848. reply, which caused great sensation at the time, is still worth quoting, as it became the watchword of the Bohemian patriots. He wrote ; " I am not a German, but a ' In his (German) work, Zur Bohmischen Geschichtschriibung.