Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

The North Bohemian Museum in Liberec has provided access to two volumes containing a combination of printed and handwritten texts. The older binder’s volume, Inv. No. ST 1345, contains printed sermons of Bartholomäus Wagner from 1607, which were complemented on pastedowns and the folios attached in the first quarter of the 17th century by concepts of sermons and other notes, mostly in the hand of Valentin Frümald. The volume Inv. No. ST 702 contains the printed history of Frýdlant and Liberec by Johann Carl Rohn from 1763, which was complemented on the 50 introductory pages by chronicle records, accounting entries and a spiritual reflection of Karel Voigt of Chrastava.

In 2020, the Town Museum and Gallery Polička provided access to the printed book by Martin of Cochem Velká štěpná zahrada [The Big Tree Garden], printed in Brno by Václav Lenhart in the workshop of the heirs of Jakub Maxmilián Svoboda in 1751–1752 (shelf mark K 450). This particular edition of the reprinted work has not been recorded in catalogues.

The Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region digitised 15 modern manuscripts in 2020. The oldest of them is an incomplete prayer book from 1541 (shelf mark RK 055). Most of the others come from the 18th century and contain Czech- and German-language prayers, usually accompanied by simple decoration. The manuscript of an invitatorium with psalms and hymns for the Feast of the Nativity (shelf mark RK 050) is partly notated. A manuscript that differs from the others in content comprises a collection of German culinary and medicinal recipes (shelf mark RK 146), which was complemented by information on book titles and prices at the turn of the 19th century.

Two early printed books from the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen were digitised in 2020. The Paris edition of Masses for the dead from 1682 (shelf mark 505 A 006) has its binding decorated with a gilded armorial binding stamp of the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Plasy Evžen Tyttl. The printed book 505 D 006 from 1670 is also interesting for its contemporary binding, made for Pope Clement X.

In 2020, the Regional Museum in Teplice provided access to four modern manuscripts. The oldest of them is a copy of the Revised Land Ordinance and of other related legal texts that was made in 1670 and was later part of the library of the Cistercian monastery in Osek. Works from the 18th century include a collection of culinary and medicinal recipes (MS 3) and a collection of songs for Adalbert Schöpke (MS 47). A memorial book of the shooting fellowship from Teplice (MS 94) was written at the turn of the 19th century.

The National Museum Library has digitised another five medieval manuscripts from its collections, all of which come from the library of the Augustinian canonry in Roudnice nad Labem. The illuminated codex containing an extensive confession guide by Astesanus of Asti and other works to be used for confession (XVII A 4) was made in Paris in 1344; the commentaries by Bernardus de Montemirato on papal decretals and other legal texts (XVII A 16) were copied in the first third of the 14th century, most likely in Bologna; a commentary on the Decretum of Gratian by Guido de Baysio from the first half of the 14th century (XVII A 1) is likely to be of South European origin as well. Works coming from the second half of the 14th century include a patristic homiliary (XVI A 7) and a collection comprising commentaries on the Biblical prologues and provincial statutes of the archbishop of Prague Arnošt of Pardubice from 1349 (XVI A 11).

The Museum of the Brno Region provided access to five medieval manuscripts from the collections of the library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad in 2020. The earliest of them is a parchment manuscript containing the lives of saints from the turn of the 14th century, most likely of German origin (R 582). The other codices come from the last quarter of the 14th century from the area of the medieval Czech state: two of them contain mostly sermons (the most extensive part of R 413 is a postil by Konrad Waldhauser; R 379 includes i.a. sermons by Antonius Azaro of Parma); only the work R 408 comprises a commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Nicholas of Gorran and R 381 contains the treatise on vices and virtues by William Perault.

Three early printed books and one manuscript from the collections of the Regional Museum in Louny have been digitised. The earliest document is a binder’s volume of two German printed books on alchemy from around 1535, one of which was printed in Augsburg and the other in Frankfurt am Main. Another German-language book is a manual on fabric dyeing from 1724. The last printed book is written in Italian; it deals with the events of 1685 associated with the war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The manuscript collection of texts concerning medicine comes from the turn of the 19th century; it contains mainly recipes, but also descriptions of diseases.

Three manuscripts from the collections of the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most were digitised in 2020. The oldest of them (shelf mark 1/Ruk) comes from the last third of the 14th century; it comprises the treatise Mariale by the Italian Franciscan Servasanctus of Faenza and a collection of sermons; in the Middle Ages, it was part of the library of the Cistercian monastery in Osek. The second manuscript (shelf mark 201/Ruk) includes records of the guild of tailors in Most from 1568–1828. The last one (shelf mark 26/Ruk) contains the chronicle of the Czech province of the Franciscan Order, which was compiled by Mathias Kollnberger in 1741.

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.