Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic
In 2025, the National Library of the Czech Republic continued the systematic digitisation of the shelfmark series VI, XVI, XVII, and XXIII, as well as of the former manuscript collection of the monastery in Teplá. A total of 31 manuscripts were digitised, the vast majority of which date from the fifteenth century. The oldest items are Ambrose’s commentary on Psalm 118 from the second half of the twelfth century (shelfmark XXIII.D.134) and the Teplá antiphonary, whose core originated at the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century (Teplá MS D 20).
Alongside the most numerous theological miscellanies and liturgical manuscripts (e.g. the missal of the Cistercian nuns in Rosendaël, Teplá MS E 1, or the Czech Marian book of hours, XVII.J.9), legal texts (XVI.F.5, XXIII.D.164, XVI.E.21) and medical works (VI.F.7, XVI.F.2, XVII.G.9, XVII.J.28, XXIII.D.131) are also represented. Within shelfmark series XVI, consisting predominantly of German codices, a manuscript in Middle Dutch (XVI.F.23) is particularly noteworthy. The manuscripts from series XVII (ten in total) are predominantly Czech (along with XXIII.D.164). One of them (XVII.J.28) contains the only surviving Czech translation of the Latin didactic poem De viribus herbarum by Odo of Meung, as well as a previously unknown copy of medical advice by Zikmund Albík of Uničov to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, formerly known from a single manuscript.
List of Documents
- Iohannes Witte de Hesse: Itinerarius per diversas mundi partes; Pseudo-Iohannes Soldanus: Epistola ad Pium II. papam; Pseudo-Pius II. papa: Epistola ad Iohannem Soldanum (Prague, National Library of the Czech Republic, VI.E.21)
- Iacobus Canter Frisius: Rosa Rosensis (VI.F.2)
- Sermones (VI.E.21)
- Textus varii (VI.F.5)
- Textus astronomici, astrologici et medici (VI.F.7)
- Hugo de Sancto Caro: Sermones de evangeliis dominicalibus (VI.F.10)
- Textus varii (VI.F.11)
- Iacobus de Voragine: Sermones quadragesimales (VI.F.23)
- Orationes variae (magna ex parte pro defunctis) et officia (VI.G.4a)
- Johann von Buch, Richtsteig Landrechts. Heberegister des Klosters Segeberg 1444-1449; Johann Wismar, Rechnungsbuch des Klosters Segeberg 1480, 1484-86 (XVI.E.21)
- ‘Prager Wundarznei’ (XVI.F.2)
- ‘Troppauer Rechtsbuch’ [Municipal rights of Opava. Book of rights of the city of Opava] (XVI.F.5)
- Michael de Massa: ‘Vita Christi’ [erste ndl. Übersetzung ‘Tleven ons heren Ihesu Cristi’ früher ‘Bonaventura-Ludolphiaanse Leven van Jezus’] (XVI.F.23)
- Nový zákon [New Testament] (XVII.E.13)
- [The Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitutions of the Dominican Order, both texts adapted for nuns] (XVII.F.14)
- Expositio hymnorum, cum translatione Bohemica textus eorundem (XVII.F.20)
- [Henry Suso: Astronomical Clock of Eternal Wisdom; Pseudo-Augustine: The Handbook (Speculum)] (XVII.G.8)
- Lékařský sborník (Jádro) [Medical Compendium (Core)] (XVII.G.9)
- Žaltář [Psalter] (XVII.H.14)
- Modlitby a biblické překlady [Prayers and Bible Translations] (XVII.J.1)
- Mariánské hodinky [Marian Book of Hours] (XVII.J.9)
- Perikopy, modlitby [Pericopes, Prayers] (XVII.J.10)
- [Collection of medical texts, recipes and economic advice] (XVII.J.28)
- Textus medici (XXIII.D.131)
- Ambrosius Mediolanensis: Commentarius in psalmum CXVIII (XXIII.D.134)
- Ulmannus: ‘Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit’ (XXIII.D.135)
- [Meissen Law Book] (XXIII.D.164)
- Lectionarium (XXIII.E.44)
- Der Heiligen Leben, Redaktion (Teplá MS. D 17)
- Antiphonarium (Teplá MS. D 20)
- Missale ad usum sororum monasterii Cisterciensis in Rosendaël, pars hiemalis (Teplá MS. E 1)
