Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/78

 a distinguished member of the community of Herrenhut.

Among the historians who belonged to the community of the Brethren, Wenceslas Březan deserves a prominent place, though his works also have unfortunately been only partially preserved. Of Březan’s life little is known; and the Jesuit Balbinus, usually a somewhat generous adversary, has not disdained to attempt to sully his memory by repeating unworthy and untruthful tales concerning Březan. Though the dates cannot be settled with absolute certainty, it maybe roughly affirmed that Březan was born about the year 1560, and died about the year 1619. He was probably from his early youth in the service of the great Bohemian House of Rosenberg; and Peter Vok of Rosenberg, the last of that great line, conferred on him the title of ' archivist and historiographer of the House of Rosenberg.’ We have reports of numerous historical works by Březan, but many of them have been lost. His great work was entitled The Annals of the House of Rosenberg. The book consisted of five parts, two of which have been preserved and recently printed. Writing in 1830, Palacký says: ‘Wenceslas Březan, the last archivist of the Rosenberg family at Třeboň or Wittingau, was a genealogist and biographer to whom none other is equal. He collected all his facts principally from the inexhaustible treasures of his archives, which he had studied with indefatigable diligence. His historical narrative is superior to that of all his contemporaries as regards clearness, thoroughness, truthfulness and reliability, and nothing is more to be regretted than that his works have remained unprinted and generally unnoticed.’