DOKONALÝ JEDNATEL (1794) A JEHO NĚMECKÁ PŘEDLOHA.

The article deals with a historical example of linguistic-cultural transfer. In 1794, a Czech commented sample collection of letters was published: Dokonalý Jednatel, aneb Zemský Advokát [roughly: “The Perfect Salesman, or the Country Lawyer”]. It is an early contribution to linguistic-stylistic education in the context of the Czech National Revival. This work went through several editions and apparently had some influence on the linguistic education of broader classes. The title page of Dokonalý Jednatel states that it was translated from German into Czech by Josef Tandler. It has not been known, however, which German work had served as a template for this translation up until the present. The German-language template is identified in the article. The linguistic and cultural-historical contexts for Jednatel and its German original are also outlined. In addition, the original work and its translation are contrasted, addressing the following aspects: terminology; syntactical complexity; stylistic change in the Enlightenment period; formal textual design; typography and graphematics; punctuation. It is demonstrated that Tandler retained many features of the original, yet made use of Czech means of expression in an independent and creative way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]