Dítě a dětství v koronerových svitcích. Příspěvek ke každodennímu životu středověkých dětí ve městě a na venkově

We encounter children already on the pages of the earliest Bohemian legends, later chronicles, books of exempla and miracles, municipal books and sources of a literary character. However, they provide mainly isolated data, which do not allow the creation of a compact image of the world of medieval children. Moreover, a specific problem is the orientation of the written sources on the elites and their lifestyle. The everyday life of the urban populace and their children can be followed only with the appearance of municipal sources from the High Middle Ages, not to mention the rural milieu. The possibilities of domestic research can be expanded by foreign sources. The study first introduces the testimonial potential of the Coroners’ Rolls, an exceptional source from the English milieu, which allows a view into the life of urban and rural families. In the second part, the text deals with the problem of the utility of the source for foreign (non-English) research and the pitfalls connected with the comparison of diverse source bases. The final brief analysis of selected domestic municipal books outlines the possibilities, which research on medieval childhood offers the study of these as-yet not very exploited documents.