With the hindsight of over a century since the publication of the last edition of the Rosenberg book the author comes back to the idea of a new edition, which could not be brought about without a high-standard description of all preserved manuscripts. The present study is based on the author's study of Rosenberg book manuscripts, which is first presented in the light of previous older research, which highlighted four different ways to consider an edition of the Rosenberg book. The next section focuses on individual groups of manuscripts, which are characterized in greater detail in the light of the period in which they were written, attempting to date them more precisely on the basis of paleographic and codicological analysis. By identifying the composition it also attempts to determine the circle of users of individual legal colelctions. The study is concluded by a summary of the development trends that are evident in the Rosenberg book manuscript tradition and a final view of the future, which opens up new perspectives for further research.
The Rosenberg Book, a unique source of the Bohemian land law written in the 14th century, lacked until now a full and comprehensive catalogue of all the extant manuscript copies. As the paper contains a physical and codicological description of 10 the known 40 manuscripts of the Rosenberg Book, it presents to the readers the first part of the catalogue. In the introduction to the paper the catalogue is supplemented with basic information about the existing records of the Rosenberg Book manuscripts, brief characteristics of its manuscript tradition, an the guidelines for the manuscript description itself.