HANKA, WENCESLAUS (1791-1861), Bohemian philolo gist, was born at Horeniowes, Bohemia, on June io, 1791. In 1817 Hanka alleged that he had discovered some ancient Bohemian manuscript poems (the Koniginhof ms.) of the 13th and 14th century in the church tower of the village of Kralodwor, or Koniginhof. These were published in 1818, under the title Kralodworsky Rukopis, with a German translation by Swoboda. Dobrowsky pronounced The Judgment of Libussa, another manu script found by Hanka, an "obvious fraud," and, though Dob rowsky afterwards retracted, the ms. is usually regarded as a forgery. The originals were presented by the discoverer to the Bohemian museum at Prague, of which he was appointed librarian in 1818. In 1848 Hanka, who was an ardent Panslavist, took part in the Slavonic congress; he was the founder of the political society Slovanska Lipa. He was elected to the imperial diet at Vienna, but declined to take his seat. In the winter of 1848 he became lecturer and in 1849 professor of Slavonic languages in the University of Prague, where he died on Jan. 12, 1861.
His works include: Hankowy Pjsne (Prague, 1815), a vol ume of poems; Starobyla Skladani (1817-26), in 5 vols.--a collection of old Bohemian poems, chiefly from unpublished manuscripts; editions of various texts; and a Czech grammar.