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11
Oct

Sheet Music from the National Library of the Czech Republic

Twenty-six volumes from the collections of the Music Department of the National Library of the Czech Republic were digitised in 2023. Most of them come from the period between the turn of the 19th century and the first half of the 19th century and have been acquired by the National Library from the collection of Ludvík Hornov. These are scores of various works, composed i.a. by Jakub Jan Ryba, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, Vinzenz Maschek and Vojtěch Jírovec. A smaller part of the digitised group comes from the music collection of the Strachota family of schoolmasters and cantors from Panenský Týnec and Vrbno – it also included the oldest document, a collection of organ compositions i.a. by Josef Seger and František Xaver Brixi from 1773 (shelf mark 59 R 3876).

11
Oct

Medieval Manuscripts from the Premonstratensian Canonry in Nová Říše

In 2023, the library of the Premonstratensian Canonry in Nová Říše digitised four manuscripts from the 15th century. A codex of Czech origin is an incompletely preserved antiphonary acquired in 1414 for the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec (shelf mark NR 81). The other manuscripts come from Western Europe. They comprise the richly illuminated Speculum humanae salvationis from the first third of the 15th century (NR 80), a short mystical text (NR 75) and the book of hours written and illuminated in Flanders in 1480 for Jan van der Scaghe and his wife Anne de Memere (NR 90).

11
Oct

Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

Twenty-five codices have been digitised from the collections of the Department of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books of the National Library of the Czech Republic. They come from several language or provenance groups. The first consists of Central European Latin manuscripts (from the Czech lands as well as Austria and Germany) from the 14th and 15th centuries. The manuscripts mostly contain preaching works (the authors include e.g. Milíč of Kroměříž / Johannes Milicius de Cremsier – shelf mark VI.D.3 and Jacobus de Voragine – VI.D.7) and various writings of the Church Fathers; legal writings are represented by the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, and hagiographic literature by one of the copies of the Golden Legend (Legenda aurea). Two volumes include German-language texts: Rechtssumme by the Dominican Berthold, also known as Berthold of Freiburg (XVI.C.41), and a collection containing, among others, Buch der Liebkosung by Johannes von Neumarkt / Noviforensis (a translation of the pseudo-Augustinian Liber soliloquiorum). A larger group is represented by Czech-language manuscripts of the 15th century. These are mainly legal, moral-educational and meditative texts, with the exception being a collection of hymns of Holy Week antiphonary and missal (XVII.F.3). The last group comprises five volumes deposited under the shelf mark XXIII. These are books from the former Prague Lobkowicz library and most of them were part of the library of the Premonstratensian monastery in Weissenau in the Middle Ages (e.g. a commentary on the Book of Psalms – XXIII.E.48; the collection of sermons by Gaufridus Babio and other authors – XXIII.E.21 – this codex also includes an incompletely preserved catalogue of the Weissenau library from the 13th century). A manuscript of Czech origin is a collection of the regulations of the Cistercian Order, made for the monastery at Pomuk (XXIII.E.25).

11
Oct

Modern Manuscripts from the Library of the Latin School in Jáchymov

Two manuscripts from the collections of the famous Latin school in Jáchymov were digitised in 2023. The older one is a hymnal (shelf mark LC 2), compiled and mostly also copied by Nikolaus Herman, a teacher at the Jáchymov school. The codex was completed in 1558 and was later expanded with several additions. The second manuscript (LC 77) was written in the 18th century and contains notes from lessons based on the works of Aristotle.

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