Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

With one later exception, the digitised manuscripts from the collections of the Military History Institute come from the 17th–19th centuries and contain mainly various treatises on fortification construction and military unit training, but also notes on military events (in particular the Austrian–Prussian War of 1866, shelf marks IIR C 16172, IIR C 16486 and IIR G 431, as well as the Seven Years’ War, shelf mark IIR F 355) and a military dictionary. The treatment of the history of the second battalion of Austrian field hunters in 1808–1863 by Anton Mudroch (IIR F 527) is exceptional for its size.

In 2016, the National Library of Technology digitised five early printed books and one binder’s volume of them. The works were printed in the 16th–18th centuries mostly in present-day Germany, but also in Poland, Russia and France. Individual volumes contain treatises on mathematics, geometry and natural sciences, partly also applied in practice (shipbuilding, a collection presenting diverse devices and inventions).

The first part of the digitised manuscripts from the National Library of the CR comprises a total of 27 shelf marks coming both from its historical collections and from later acquisitions (i.a. the Thun Library in Děčín and the Prague Lobkowicz Library). These are codices from between the 13th century and the beginning of the 16th century, containing theological as well as preaching, moral-educational, liturgical, astronomical, medical, rhetorical and other texts. Most of them were written in German (shelf mark XVI) and Czech (shelf mark XVII), including e.g. the earliest extant copy of the work Život Krista Pána [The Life of Christ] (XVII A 9), the text O obnovení církve svaté [The Restoration of the Holy Church] (XVII E 31) by Luke of Prague, and translations by Řehoř Hrubý of Jelení (XVII C 19, XVII E 33).

The State Regional Archives Litoměřice – State District Archives have provided access to an extensive collection of Bukovina Annals, which were written by Vilém Žďárský in 1948–1965 based on earlier sources, literature and accounts. The ten volumes of the chronicle and its supplements contain abundant information on various aspects of the life in the Turnov region especially in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

From the collections of the Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region, one manuscript, containing German recipes written in 1744–1746, and 13 early printed books were digitised in 2016. The printed books mostly come from the 18th century, namely from Jindřichův Hradec printing workshops, run by Franz Anton Schönstein and Hynek Vojtěch Hilgartner. An exception is formed by two Prague printed books, one of which was printed in the printing workshop of Jiří Melantrich of Aventinum in 1567 (Knížka potěšitedlná všechněm těhotným a rodícím manželkám /A Book to Be Enjoyed by All Pregnant Women and Those Giving Birth/, S 104) and the other, also complemented by handwritten prayers, was printed in the Old Town Jesuit printing workshop in 1738 (Manuale Tironis Christiani et Parthenii, S 327).

Three manuscripts and two binder’s volumes of printed books were digitised from the collections of the Library of the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen in 2016. The manuscripts are sketch-books of Marie Eleonore Windisch-Grätz, Princess of Schwarzenberg (1796–1848), the wife of Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, from 1814–1829. The individual parts of both binder’s volumes of early printed books were printed in various Austrian and German printing houses in the first third of the 16th century; they comprise Latin and German theological works and sermons.

The digitised documents from the Slavonic Library come from the period between the 16th and 18th centuries. They include both manuscripts and printed books; apart from Old Church Slavonic, they are also written in Old Croatian. The most important works for cultural history are the Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed edition of all Bible books in Old Church Slavonic from 1581, and the first printed edition of an evangeliary in Ukraine (Lvov, 1636).

From the collections of the Town Museum and Gallery Polička, two important works related to the history of Czech book printing and Bible translation were made accessible in 2016: the second edition of the one-volume Bible of Kralice from 1613 and the first part of the Old Testament of the St Wenceslas Bible from 1715. The first of them is also interesting for its earlier fortunes – it belonged i.a. to the monastery at Karmel in Mladá Boleslav.

Sixteen early printed books or their binder’s volumes that have been digitised come from the collections of the Ethnographic Museum and Gallery in Česká Lípa. They were written between the 16th century and the turn of the 19th century and mostly include Bohemica. They from a part of the collection bequeathed to this institution by Bohumil Malotín. In a number of cases, they are unique copies. In terms of content, these include calendars (some even with handwritten comments), prayers and hymns, chapbooks, postils and other texts. The only exception among the Czech-language printed books is the mostly Latin collection Hymnodia Franciscana.

The digitisation of the collections in the National Museum Library has continued in 2016 with four manuscripts from the 14th century. The oldest of them (XV A 2) comes from its first third; in the Middle Ages, it was a part of the library of the Cistercian monastery in Zlatá Koruna, where it is likely to have been written. The remaining three illuminated codices were written in the second half of the 14th century; they belonged to the convent of Augustinian Canons in Roudnice nad Labem. All the manuscripts contain theological and homiletic texts.