Medieval Manuscripts from the National Museum Library

The North Bohemian Museum in Liberec provided access to three modern codices from its collections in 2017. They contain extracts from judicial quaterni of the registers of landed property (tabulae terrae) from 1557–1600 (Inv. No. ST 1609), a copy of the work of Victorinus Cornelius O práviech, súdiech i dskách země České knihy devatery [Nine Books on the Laws, Courts and the Land Registers of the Kingdom of Bohemia] made in Hradec Králové in 1609 (Inv. No. ST 1607), and a collection of copies of documents and accounts of the family of the counts of Colloredo-Waldsee (Inv. No. ST 1621).

The Military History Institute Prague has digitised another 30 manuscripts from its collections, mostly from the 18th century. In terms of content, these mainly include an army training manual, but also cartography and theoretical works on fortifications are represented; a commentary on firearms in shelf mark IIR C 15860 is exceptional for the number of drawings. Most of the digitised volumes come from the library of the Thun-Hohenstein family in Děčín and from the library of the dukes of Saxony and Teschen.

The National Museum Library digitised three manuscripts from its collections in 2017. Two of them, coming from the 14th century, were part of the library of the monastery of the Augustinian Canons in Roudnice nad Labem in the Middle Ages – one is a set of works by Saint Ambrose, which is of Italian (probably Bolognese) origin (XVI A 14), and the other is a commentary on the Book of Job, completed in 1354 (XVI A 15). The last manuscript, the Latin Bible, was copied for Master Ondřej in 1440 (XVI A 1).

The National Library of Technology digitised ten printed books and their binder’s volumes in 2017. The works were printed in the 18th century – mostly in Germany, but also in Poland and Switzerland; the earliest digitised printed book is a part of the work Elementa matheseos universae by Christian Wolff, printed in Geneva in 1735. Besides mathematics, also natural-science treatises as well as practical guides (astronomy, geometry, surveying, accounting, etc.) are represented.

Another 22 manuscripts, mostly from the beginning of the 19th century, have been digitised from the collections of the Music Department of the National Library. All of these documents form part of the set of the 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.

The Museum of the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) in Turnov has digitised the Bible printed by Jacques Sacon in Lyon in 1513 (Inv. No. HST 3089). Its text with indices, prologues and other accompanying texts is decorated with numerous woodcuts and initials, which are mostly coloured. An unknown user has also added in hand a list of periscopes and an alphabetical index of the incipits of the Psalms.

The Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen has provided access to its coloured atlas of towns in the area of the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France with their coloured engravings, published in Amsterdam in 1657.

From the collections of the Ethnographic Museum and Gallery in Česká Lípa, 33 early printed books were digitised in 2017. Some of them became part of the holdings of this institution with the collection of a remarkable collector, Bohumil Malotín. In terms of content, it is a varied set of entertaining, educational and moral-educational literature, prayers, songs and other texts coming mostly from the 18th century, even including some unique items.

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.