Jan František Beckovský

January František Beckovský ( born August 18, 1658 Havlíčkův Brod, † December 26, 1722 in Prague) was a Czech writer, historian, translator and priest of the Order of Malta.

He attended high school in Deutschbrod and Brno. From 1680 he studied philosophy in Vienna. In 1688 he was ordained a priest. In the following years he managed the hospital on Anne Convent in Prague.

Works

He wrote mostly Czech, but also in Latin and German. He issued the oldest surviving Bohemian Herbarium. It consists of 117 leaves and about two hundred different kinds of dried plants in which he and the German and Czech lists alongside the Latin name. However, this book contains some errors, a sign that he was only an amateur botanist. He translated some thirty works, mostly CVs saint and religious writings.

• The Ambassador of old Bohemian events ( Poselkyně Starych příběhův Českých ). The reason to write this book, were inaccuracies and errors in the chronicle of Václav Hájek z Libočan he adjusted. He published the first part of 1526, the second remained incomplete and was never published. The work is written prokatholisch and patriotic.
• The sad turtle dove, a prayer book, was published under his German name variant John Beczkowskij in Prague. It was a template for another prayer book with the enhanced its typical Baroque Title The sad and sighing for her beloved turtle dove ... that was repeatedly placed in southern Germany.