What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 16 February 2023.

If you read yesterday’s post, you might have an idea of where we’re heading already: Vnislav was the fourth of the seven legendary princes between Přemysl and Bořivoj.

While the sequence suggests that Vnislav’s name relates to Wednesday, the context isn’t entirely clear. It’s possible that there was a Slavic god of commerce called Vnislav – and a more famous god of commerce was Mercury (think mercredi, think miércoles).

We can deduce that Vnislav’s dad was Vojen. Kosmas claims that Vnislav took over after Vojen’s death; however, Dalimil says that Vojen gave Bohemia to Vnislav during his lifetime (and that Vnislav died soon after).

Dalimil actually calls Vnislav ‘Unislav’, too, which is giving me massive Hugely Successful Yugoslavian Company Whose Main Trade We Still Can’t Work Out Fifty Years Later vibes.