Jiří Melantrich of Aventino

This fact made Melantrich one of the most important symbols of this language during the period of the Czech National Revival in the 19th century.

Melantrich himself established a small printing workshop in Prague, which gradually became a company of European significance.

During his lifetime, Melantrich was known as a person educated in the spirit of Renaissance Humanism, a Lutheran, who tolerated Roman Catholicism.

From 1576, he collaborated with Daniel Adam of Veleslavín, an important Czech writer, who took over the printing workshop after Melantrich's death.

His supposed encounter with another Czech intellectual, Zikmund Hrubý of Jelení, who worked in the printing workshop of Johann Froben in Basel, has not been proved.

Melantrich joined the company of the Catholic Bartoloměj Netolický, and was thus allowed to publish more books.

In 1556 he published Melantrich's Bible, in 1562 the Czech edition of Mattioli's herbarium and in 1563 he printed the German version, translated by Georg Handsch.

The religious situation in the Czech lands was somewhat difficult in that time, and it was finished in 1618 by the Second Defenestration of Prague.

Jiří Melantrich came of age in 1584, but quickly sunk into debt, and when he died in 1586, the workshop was taken over by Daniel Adam, as the main creditor.