Manuscripts from the Collections of the Cistercian Abbey in Vyšší Brod

In 2017, the first two manuscripts from the library of the monastery in Vyšší Brod were digitised. This monastery was founded by Vok of Rožmberk in 1259 and its library still contains works from its entire development, including the codices that were brought by the first monks from the mother monastery in Wilhering, Austria. Information on the content of the library at the end of the 13th century is provided by the incomplete list of books that is recorded in one of the Vyšší Brod codices and that is one of the oldest preserved in the Czech lands. Despite the number of manuscripts covering the entire existence of the monastery, which ranks the Vyšší Brod collection among exceptional ones in Bohemia, the medieval as well as later history of the library has only been devoted limited attention in scientific literature.
From the monastic library, access has been provided to two manuscripts, shelf marks XXXVII and 8b. The first one is an illuminated prayer book from the Franco-Flemish area or Burgundy, written in the first half of the 15th century. The second codex is mainly known to German Studies scholars. It is the so-called Hohenfurter Liederbuch (Vyšší Brod Songbook), which was written around the middle or after the middle of the 15th century, contains 81 German spiritual songs and is one of the most important works of medieval German literature deposited in the Czech Republic.