Johannes von Saaz, Der Ackermann aus Böhmen (The farmhand from Bohemia)

"Der Ackermann aus Böhmen" (1401) is, with the exception of a few Latin verses, the only surviving work by the notary, scribe and school principal Johannes from Teplá (Saaz) (ca. 1350-1415) and is one of the most important German-language prose works of the late Middle Ages. It is the forensic dispute between death and its "plaintiff", i.e. the wailer and accuser, who is styled as a farmhand and challenges death to a dispute about the early loss of his wife. But he is not a simple farmer, his plough is his poetic feather. The final prayer for his wife contains the name John as an acrostic.

Despite autobiographical echoes and coping with the experience of loss, the work is more a fundamental discussion of the conditions of human existence. Death's defensive speeches often alternate ironically with the widower's grievances until the plaintiff is awarded the honour by divine arbitration, but death is awarded victory by judgement.

The farmhand copy in Cgm 579 on leaf 40ra-55ra that is often superior to other text evidence was perhaps written in Egerland by an Upper Palatine Bohemian scribe in a liquid Bastarda Gothic script and is only structured with red chapter headings and simple initials.

To the digitised copy