Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/18

vi part of church towers and united with the choir by a door, which are commonly used for the preservation of old useless church furniture and sometimes papers also, are by no means rare in Bohemia. Other manuscripts and leaves of parchment, among which the fragment in question lay, particularly a parchment Psalter and fragments of a parchment Astronomical manuscript, were also preserved by P. Hanka, and afterwards deposited in the Museum.

After the fortunate discoverer, who at first could scarcely have imagined the value and importance of his treasure, had decyphered the contents of the manuscript, and ascertained that only a small portion of the whole was before him, he spared no trouble either to discover the missing part, or at any rate to learn something about the previous fate of the manuscript from the inhabitants of Kralové dvur; but all his pains led only to the afflicting result, that the missing part had in all probability come to an untimely end by fire, through a sexton, who was also a locksmith, and frequently visited the chamber on account of the iron utensils lying there, and who was also by no means sparing in the use of the manuscripts.

Two years afterwards appeared the first oomplete edition of the manuscript, (which had been presented