Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

The digitisation of manuscripts from the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov (the Strahov Library) continued in 2020 with another 34 volumes, predominantly deposited under the shelf mark DA III. Most of the codices are of Czech origin and come from the 15th–19th centuries. The oldest manuscript (DA III 24), which was copied by Matěj Čech from Týn nad Vltavou in 1442 and 1444, contains the confessional manual by Thomas of Chobham and the popular theological work of Hugh Ripelin of Strasburg Compendium theologicae veritatis. The collection of Latin sermons by Jan Mystopol with Czech insertions (DA III 16) comes from the second third of the 16th century; sketches of sermons were written by Antonín Jeroným Dvořák of Bor around the middle of the 18th century and complemented slightly later by anonymous drafts of sermons at Strahov (DA III 35); sermons are also written in the binder’s volume DA III 41, with their author mostly being the Strahov Premonstratensian Bohumír Jan Dlabač. Historiographical works are significantly represented, including an autograph of the first part of the work Flori Austrio-Bohemici by Georgius Crugerius in DA III 15, a set of works on the history of the monastery in Kladruby in DA III 14, extracts from the annual reports of Jesuit colleges for 1758–1763 in DA III 32 and DA III 33, extracts on the history of Litoměřice in DA III 38, and handmade copies of the collection of Tomáš Antonín Putzlacher in DA III 44 and DA III 48. The manuscript DA III 36 includes, besides a treatise on the Premonstratensian convent in Dolní Kounice, also an excerpt from the travelogue of the Franciscan Remedius Prutký. Numerous volumes contain notes from lectures: the earliest come from the Jesuit college in Vienna (DA III 5), most of the lectures were held in the 18th and 19th centuries mainly in the Archbishop’s Seminary in Prague and at the Prague university. Other digitised shelf marks include two manuscripts on alchemy (DD V 34 and DG IV 40), the first of which comes from the last quarter of the 16th century and contains i.a. descriptions of experiments associated with the name of Edward Kelly.

The continued digitisation of the codices from the National Library of the Czech Republic mainly focused on the medieval parts of the shelf marks IV and V. In terms of content, they are dominated by theological works; the Biblical exegesis is represented e.g. by commentaries by Nicholas of Lyra (IV.G.17, V.B.19, V.C.6, V.C.14), Robert Holcot (V.B.12) and Haimo of Auxerre (V.C.9, V.C.19); several volumes contain various commentaries on the key theological handbook of the Middle Ages, the Sentences of Peter Lombard (IV.H.21, IV.H.23, V.A.22, V.A.26). The codices further comprise works on philosophy (commentaries on Aristotle’s writings, copied or taught at the Prague university) or those used in pastoral and confessional practice (confessional works, summae confessorum, by Thomas of Chobham and Bartholomew of San Concordio). Natural sciences are the subject of e.g. the book on medicine from the turn of the 14th century that belonged to the master of the Prague university Jan Ondřej called Šindel (meaning ‘Shingle’, IV.F.20), volumes on astronomy (IV.G.10 and V.A.11) and a poem on the medicinal effects of plants Macer Floridus, accompanied by a commentary (IV.G.9). Several volumes include liturgical and preaching texts as well. Historiographic works are represented by the chronicle of an unknown monk of Erfurt (IV.H.25); a manuscript from the monastery in Zlatá Koruna contains a popular collection of hagiographies, Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (XIII.C.15). The collection of texts by the Humanist Bohuslaus of Lobkowicz and Hassenstein (I.D.3) comes from the turn of the 16th century. Apart from the manuscripts, the digitised works also comprise five fragments from the 14th and 15th centuries, including i.a. instruments of notaries public, concerning legal and property issues (XXIV.A.57, XXIV.A.226), and fragments of judicial acts of the Prague consistory (XXIV.A.6). A separate group is formed by eight manuscripts from the 17th–19th centuries from the collections of the Slavonic Library. They are mostly written in Church Slavonic, but also in Croatian, Italian and Latin. Besides liturgical and religious texts, they include biographies and writings on heraldry as well.

The National Library of Medicine in Prague digitised six volumes in 2019. A half of them are Czech-written manuscript medical collections or their parts, mostly coming from the second half of the 18th century. They predominantly contain medical recipes, but also texts on bloodletting and on the effects of celestial bodies on human life. Three printed books contain a Latin treatise on arthritis and gout from 1653, the instructions of the archiepiscopal consistory for midwives from 1770 (both printed in Prague), and depictions of surgeries and surgical instruments, printed in Berlin in 1844.

Three early printed books from the collections of the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen were digitised in 2019. The earliest of them is a collection of works on law printed by Jean Barbier in Paris in 1506 (shelf mark 503 B 004); the others include an edition of the apologetic work Graecarum affectionum curatio by Theodoret of Cyrus, published by Hieronymus Commelinus in Heidelberg in 1592 (shelf mark 503 E 003), and an edition of the complete works of Seneca, prepared by Joost Lips (Justus Lipsius) and printed by Jan Moretus in Antwerp in 1605 (shelf mark 505 A 005).

The Czech Pharmaceutical Museum in Kuks (a centre of Charles University in Prague - the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové) has provided access to a German herbarium of medical-pharmaceutical focus from the end of the 17th century or the beginning of the 18th century (shelf mark HK-SR-1). The work, referred to by its anonymous author as Lustgärtlein, has not been preserved in its entirety: it includes 108 coloured depictions of plants, a textual part, which provides descriptions of the plants and their medical use, and indices. Latin and German medical recipes were later added on the blank pages of the volume.

The North Bohemian Museum in Liberec digitised four manuscripts and one early printed book in 2019. Three of the manuscripts contain sheet music – works by composers active in Česká Kamenice around the middle of the 19th century, Franz Hanke and Anton Fleck; the last manuscript is a textbook of mathematics and a book of recipes for making colours from 1745–1747. The early printed book XXV Lieder für Kinder und Kinderfreunde from 1792 contains songs by Franz Anton Spielmann with music by Vincenc Mašek and František X. Dušek.

The set of thirty digitised music manuscripts from the National Library of the CR comes from the so-called Mozart Memorial, which was established in the National Library in 1837 as the very first Mozarteum in the world. It contains a representative selection of Mozart’s work, especially historically important copies and the first printed editions. Most of the volumes digitised in 2019 come from the turn of the 19th century; they contain handwritten copies of scores (mostly of Mozart’s concerts) and of the librettos of the operas La clemenza di Tito and Idomeneo.

In 2019, the Military History Institute Prague provided access to another 36 manuscripts, most of which come from the 18th century and are written in German. A homogeneous group is formed by several treatises by Johann Andreas von Traitteur on the military events in the Rhineland at the end of the 18th century; other works include especially texts on military exercises, Austrian, Saxon and Prussian military orders, theoretical works on fortification engineering, and historical-military reports on various conflicts (e.g. the Austro-Turkish War in 1787–1791 in IIR F 373 and the campaign in Italy in 1797 in IIR F 469). French texts are represented e.g. by the work on the Fortress of Arad in Romania by Jean Baptiste d'Estienne de Vauguez (IIR D 780), three volumes on military theory (IIR F 252/1–3), and a binder’s volume containing texts concerning fortifications (IIR B 2335).

Most of the eight digitised manuscripts from the Library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad were written in the Czech lands in the Middle Ages. They mostly comprise liturgical codices (the missals R 389, R 399; the breviaries R 393, R 581) and preaching codices (the postil by Antonio de Azaro da Parma with other texts, including a Czech prayer, in R 402; the homiliary R 404). The codex R 638 was partly written in German, mostly in the second half of the 14th century; it is decorated with numerous simple figural pen-and-ink drawings. The last of the digitised manuscripts comes from a different period – it is a copy of the decree issued by Rudolf II for the bishop of Olomouc Stanislav Pavlovský (R 662).

The Regional Museum in Louny digitised four early printed books or their collective volumes in 2019. The binder’s volume of Czech and Slovak educational texts and prayers S 6199 also contains some uniquely preserved printed books; it was formerly the property of the priest, writer and translator Juraj Ribay. The other books comprise a German cookbook from 1566 (S 4625), a German medical book with a herbarium from 1577 (S 4626), and an extensive guide to hunting and forestry from 1783 (S 5014).