The town of Znojmo has put on display, at the exhibition Faces of Znojmo, the Town Rights Book from 1523 to 1525, a 23-kilogram codex that is otherwise kept in the archive's depository.
Znojmo put on display in October 2026, at the exhibition Faces of Znojmo, the Town Rights Book, a codex more than five hundred years old that weighs 23 kilograms. The book can be seen until Saturday 24 October 2026, after which it returns to the depository of the Státní okresní archiv Znojmo.[1]
The exhibition
Vladimíra Durajková, director of the Jihomoravské muzeum ve Znojmě, told Novinky that the codex is on display under exceptional security measures after thirty years and that the archive made its display possible on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Znojmo's elevation to a royal town. The book lies under security glass, and this part of the exhibition admits a group of at most ten people at a time, who must leave their luggage beforehand. The book may not be photographed. According to the article, it will be on view again in ten years at the earliest.[1]
The codex
The Latin title of the work is Liber municipalis inclitae civitatis Znoymensis. The book was made between 1523 and 1525, is written in Latin and German, and was declared a cultural monument in December 1986. It measures 57 × 42 centimetres and has 408 parchment leaves. The notary Štěpán of Vyškov had legal texts concerning Znojmo entered in it, ranging from court procedures to property and customary rights. The painted decoration, including gold leaf, was done by Wolfgang Frölich of Olomouc; the goldsmith Jiří Teufel added silver fittings to the wooden boards covered in red velvet.[1]
The model for the codex was an older legal book of the town of Brno, and it in turn became the model for similar writings in other Moravian towns. It contains the oldest depiction of Znojmo. The king confirmed the validity of the book, so for generations it was used in interpreting and exercising the law.[1]
Digitisation
The digitised codex is available on the website of the Moravský zemský archiv in Brno.[1]
Related articles: Znojmo
Chronology
- — The town of Znojmo put the Book of Town Rights on display for a few days, a volume more than five hundred years old that weighs 23 kilograms and is otherwise kept in a vault. iROZHLAS Novinky.cz