European Digital Library of Written Cultural Heritage

The Manuscriptorium project is creating a virtual research environment providing access to all existing digital documents in the sphere of historic book resources (manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books, maps, charters and other types of documents). These historical resources, otherwise scattered in various digital libraries around the world, are now available under a single digital library interface. The service provides seamless access to more than 5 million digital images.
 

25/01/2012 - 13:53

The latest phase of the process of making available holdings of the National Library of the Czech Republic has focused on manuscripts and printed works frequently including unique 15th century broadsides – in the majority of cases these documents represent liturgical codices, prayer books, books of hours and religious education literature. Here, in addition to the predominant Latin, the language of the manuscripts is relatively frequently Czech or German.

09/01/2012 - 19:08

The majority of newly digitised medieval manuscripts from the holdings of the Moravian Regional Library in Brno come from the holdings of the library of the Franciscan Monastery in Moravská Třebová. These are examples of popular expository texts – the Morals on the Book of Job by Gregory I  and the Postil of Mikuláš z Lyry, complemented in two codices by further texts.

15/12/2011 - 17:26

Budapest University Library has made available a further 20 manuscripts from its holdings, which with 185 codices form the most notable collection of its kind on the territory of contemporary Hungary. Amongst the retrievable documents one can also find 13 items from the so-called Biblioteca Corviniana (Cod. Lat. 1 – 13), the noted extensive library of Matthias Corvinus, the extant volumes from which are today dispersed among numerous institutions throughout Europe and the United States. These are texts by classical authors, one of the manuscripts (Cod. Lat.

25/11/2011 - 13:56

These maps complement the collection of individual old sheet maps and plans from the Department of Manuscripts and Old Printed Books of the National Library of the Czech Republic, only selectively represented In recent years. This collection was created during the 20th century from compulsory copies, purchases, donations, exchanges, subsequently processed collections from the so-called old reserves, confiscated items and individual copies transferred from their original Library departments. This collection is now fully digitised, including maps of Moravia from the collection of the eminent Comenius scholar Prof. Šmaha and a complete first edition of Müller's Map of Bohemia.

24/11/2011 - 11:56

The newly digitised documents from the National Library are primarily 18th century copies from the holdings of the Music Department. These are principally works by František Xaver Brixi, with a smaller number by Johann Baptist Vanhal (Jan Křtitel Vaňhal). Two Croatian manuscripts from the holdings of the Slavonic Library are now available, incorporating works by Ivan Gundulić and Junij Palmotić.

15/11/2011 - 12:32

19 manuscripts from the holdings of the Military History Institute in Prague represent a homogeneous digital collection. Chronologically, they range from the first half of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. They chiefly include diary records of military operations or sieges, but also descriptions of military exercises, and theoretical works relating to artillery and the construction of fortifications, drawings of strongholds and rolls of officers.

01/11/2011 - 11:53

Four of the scarcest manuscripts from the holdings of the Research Library in Olomouc have been digitised: the two-part Olomouc Bible from the year 1417, mainly in the first edition of the Czech bible translation (M III 1/I, II), the so-called Missal of the Scribe Stephen, dating from around 1400, famous for its illumination (M III 6), and the summer part of the Gradual of the Premonstratensian Monastery in Louka dating from the year 1499, illuminated by Egidius Has, whose work in the South German tradition is enhanced by the inspiration of Italian Renaissance models. The Olomouc Bible and the Louka Gradual both contribute to the cultural heritage of the Czech Republic.

01/11/2011 - 11:10

Two historic works from the library holdings of the Museum of Western Bohemia in Pilsen have been digitised: the Lactifer Dictionary, printed in Pilsen by Mikuláš Bakalář in the year 1511, and a bundle of works principally by classical authors, printed in Leipzig by Jakob Tanner between 1508 and 1510, supplemented by numerous handwritten annotations. 

12/08/2011 - 14:37

This thematically homogeneous collection consists of 14 digitised maps from the holdings of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen. The respective maps date from the period 1781-1842 (the majority were created by Emanuel Recht in the 1830s) and they record Pilsen and the surrounding area.

12/08/2011 - 14:24

The majority of the newly available documents come from the holdings of the National Museum Library and of the Royal Canon of Premonstratensians at Strahov. The former are exclusively medieval codices, including works by authors of the Hussite period (postils of Mikuláš Biskupec of Pelhřimov and Petr Chelčický and brief medical texts by Zikmund Albík of Uničov).  Significant for the history of Czech literature is the so-called glossed psalter with Czech interlinear translations from the beginning of the 14th century, created at the Convent of St George at Prague Castle (XIV D 13). A German manuscript containing the text of the Buch der Natur by Konrad of Megenberg  dates from the year 1397.
Digitised items from the holdings of the Strahov Library  notably include the diaries of the Clementine Jesuit College covering the period 1691-1726, as well as    reports of Jesuit missionaries and the so-called Strahov manuscript of the Tovačovský Book. Digitisation of manuscripts from the holdings of the Regional Museum in Chrudim has also continued (a Latin gradual from the year 1530, from the workshop of Jan Táborský) and printed matter of  a professional medical and balneological nature held by the National Medical Library, Prague, and the Karlovy Vary Museum.