The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice: God Gave us a Gift of Language - 1914
In the Sixteenth Century, the religious movement influenced by Petr Cheleocky known as the Bohemian Brethern, was forced to relocate from Bohemia and settled in Mucha's home town of Ivancise. From their new base they began to print the first complete version of the Bible in Czech, a project which was subsequently completed in Kralice, the town after which it became named. The Kralice Bible is still a major icon of Czech national identity. In this scene the nobleman who was housing the Brethren, Zerotina, inspects the first pages of the printed text as a number of students gather around the printing press on the rightwhile to the left, a student is reading to a blind man.
The future is foretold by swallows circling the church tower before leaving from warmer climes - the Brethren too will soon be forced to move on. By the mid-eighteenth century they had populated many parts of Europe although their most famous settlements are Bethlehem in Pennsylvania and Salem in North Carolina.