Studia Jagellonica Lipsiensia’s seventeenth book addresses the important Czech castle Křivoklát (the book uses the German name, Pürglitz): its history, archaeology, and surroundings. However, this volume provides not only a thorough look at the castle itself, but places it in context in the region through a series of focused studies of the surroundings, written sources concerning the castle and related sites, and, perhaps most importantly, the development and use of the surrounding forest and hunting grounds.

This book is by far the most ambitious publication on Křivoklát to date. It is divided into three sections, moving from the castle itself to the European context. The first part is devoted to the fabric of the castle, taking into account the natural features of the landscape. These essays, arranged in roughly chronological order, address the different sections and phases of the building of the castle, each of which assesses previous literature and archaeological work on Křivoklát. The most notable contribution of this section is the inclusion of archaeological evidence from excavations conducted in 2004–06, the results of which were never published. This pushes the date of the earliest parts of the castle to the tenth century. Of particular interest is Jan Vesely’s assessment of the late fourteenth-century renovations executed under King Wenzel IV (r. 1363–1419), and Jiří Fajt and Markus Hörsch’s study of the history, decoration, and use of the castle’s chapel. In keeping with the interest in placing Křivoklát in its context, the authors examine the nearby residence of Zbečno, which was destroyed (although the village of the same name remains), and the ways in which the two residences interacted with each other and the surrounding forest and village.

The forest itself is the focus of the two remaining sections. Often dismissed as merely the setting of the monument or an event of interest to historians, here the hunting grounds of the castle are integrated into the history and life of the castle in terms of daily activity and the regional economy, even as the authors examine the political, recreational, and representative functions of hunting. Part 2 addresses Křivoklát’s forest under royal patronage, with studies of its produce, economic importance for the estate and the king, and relationship with the minor nobility of the region. Here Vladislav Razím and Alena Nachtmannová’s history of the forest and the castle is especially valuable. Part 3 places the hunting forest in the European context with studies of the role of hunting under the Podiebrad dynasty and Emperor Friedrich II, and a comparative study of the forests around Nuremberg.

The attention by the authors to the role Křivoklát played within the region, the relationship of the castle with its forest, and the general role of forests in the Middle Ages and Renaissance makes this volume a primary resource not only for the study of Křivoklát itself, but also the phenomenon of the hunt and the social and economic role of hunting forests from the tenth through the sixteenth centuries.