BALBÍN (Balbinus), Bohuslav. - Bohemian Jesuit scholar, b. of a noble family at Hradec Králové on 3 Nov. 1621, entered the Society in 1636, d. at Prague on 29 Nov. 1688. Assigned to rural missions and then to the teaching of rhetoric, he was removed from it because of satirical poems that were too biting, and thereupon devoted himself to the study of the national antiquities of Bohemia.
He had prepared the way for this with three monographs on the great Marian sanctuaries: Diva Wartensis (Prague 1655), Diva Turzanensis (Olomouc 1658), Diva Montis Sancti (Prague 1663). Besides various historical monographs, his capital works are the Epitome historica rerum Bohemicarum (2 vols., ibid. 1673-77), and the Miscellanea Historica regni Bohemiae (10 vols., ibid. 1678-79, and left incomplete).
This immense compilation ranges from natural history and ethnography (B. thereby earned the title of «Plinius Bohemia», but this part is the most outdated of his work) to hagiography (IV, Hagiographicus seu Bohemia sancta), to genealogy, etc. Some volumes (V. Paracchialis et curialis; VI, Archiepiscopalis; VIII, Epistolaris...) are editions of ancient documents, valuable, though not always made with the due critical care. One of the parts of the Miscellanea that remained unpublished was published by the Premonstratensian R. Ungar under the title Bohemia docta (3 vols., Prague 1776-80).
B. was also an ardent Czech patriot and this earned him no small difficulties. His Dissertatio apologetica pro lingua slavonica, praecipue bohemica, published only in 1775, caused him to be counted among the «awakeners» of national consciousness. His historical work and his unpublished writings have been the subject of many recent studies; however, a good overall work is still lacking.
Bibliography4 works
911; E. Lamalle, DHG, VI, coll. 316-19; W. Bobek, B. B. (Sbornik filos. fakulty, 9), Bratislava 1932; K. Krofta, O Balbinovi dějepici, Prague 1938.