Two Medieval Manuscripts from the National Museum Library

In 2018, the library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad, administered by the Museum of the Brno Region, digitised five manuscripts, four of which were medieval. The oldest of them is a breviary (R 598), which was commissioned by the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec Heidenreich in 1308. The Golden Legend by Blessed Jacobus da Varagin (R 350) comes from the first half of the 14th century as well. Another two manuscripts, containing a commentary on the Rule of St Benedict (R 348) and a part of a breviary (R 591), were written in the second half and at the end of the 14th century. Modern manuscripts are represented by the World Chronicle by Jan Nepomuk Klassing (R 356) from 1771, accompanied by numerous pen-and-ink drawings.

The Town Museum and Gallery Polička has provided access to a printed book from 1576 (K 355). It is Kancionál český, a Czech Hymnbook or a Book of Evangelical Spiritual Songs by Jakub Kunvaldský, with adjoined Nešpor český, a Czech Book of Vesper Prayers Consisting of the Psalms of David by the same author. The beginning and end of the printed book have not been preserved and have been complemented by hand; further manuscript additions include A Song about the Prophetess Sibylla and other excerpts at the beginning of the volume.

Most of the recently digitised documents from the National Library of Medicine in Prague comprise printed theses defended at the Faculty of Medicine of the Prague university between 1682 and 1749. The manuscripts are represented by a medical anthology from the 18th century (T 277), including recipes, descriptions of the medicinal effects of plants, a treatise on bloodletting and other texts, and by a veterinary anthology from the 17th–18th centuries (T 333).

The Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region provided access to six manuscripts and four early printed books in 2018. The manuscripts contain Czech- and German-language prayer books from the second half of the 18th century. A part of them are handwritten copies of printed books, with some even having their scribe or the place of their later use listed. The digitised printed books comprise collections of German prayers by Martin of Cochem and their Czech translations. The oldest of them comes from the printing workshop of Marie Barbora Svobodová from 1738, while the other three were editions were printed by Hynek (Ignác) Vojtěch Hilgartner in Jindřichův Hradec in the second half of the 18th century.

The National Library of the CR has provided access to some medieval manuscripts. The oldest of them comes from the 12th century, but most of them were not written until the late Middle Ages. In terms of content, the works include the Bible and its exegeses (those whose authors have been identified comprise e.g. the manuscript III.F.18 by Nicholas of Lyra or the concordance of the Gospels by Mikuláš Biskupec of Pelhřimov in III.F.5), but also patristic and medical works (the extensive compendium by Gilbert of England in III.H.20), preaching, legal and ancient literature (Ovid’s works in III.H.24a–III.H.24c). Some manuscripts are interesting not only for their content but also for their information on former owners: the owner of the codex III.G.1 was Vojtěch Raňkův of Ježov, who had probably acquired it during his work in Paris; the manuscript III.E.34 is one of the few manuscripts that have been preserved from the library of the Reček College (Collegium sanctissimae Mariae) of the Prague university.

Národní technická knihovna zpřístupnila v roce 2018 devět starých tisků. Nejstarším z nich je italský překlad Eukleidova díla, vytištěný v Benátkách v roce 1585 (A 232); z Basileje z roku 1678 pochází pojednání o trigonometrii Georga Friedricha Meyera s četnými dřevořezy (A 241). Ostatní tisky vznikly v 18. století, převážně v Německu a jeden další rovněž v Itálii. Po obsahové stránce jde o texty matematické, ale také o prezentace vynálezů, které měly sloužit k pobavení.

The Military History Institute in Prague provided access to seventeen manuscripts from the collections of its library in 2018. Most of them come from the 18th century and are written in German. These are chiefly manuals for marching and military exercises and texts on fortress architecture (the most extensive of them is the set of documents of Johannes Christoph Glaser, which were further reworked by Friedrich Ludwig Aster), also e.g. a handwritten copy of the printed book Grundsätze der Lagerkunst und Taktik by Frederick II with a planned supplement, and documents on military exercises of the Austrian army 1781–1804.

The ten recently digitised documents from the Ethnographic Museum and Gallery in Česká Lípa are dominated by manuscripts. The whole set is thematically varied and comprises i.a. the catalogue of the Capuchin library in Zákupy from 1778 (RK 134), the history of the Servite monastery Mountain of the Mother of God (Muttergottesberg) in Králíky (RK 135) and sheet-music manuscripts from the monastery of the Order of Hermits of St Augustine in Česká Lípa (RK 87, RK 117). The manuscript RK-A 2, containing the lives of saints, including St Procopius, comes from the same monastery. Early printed books are represented by Žaltář, totižto písně chval božských [The Psalter, or Songs in Praise of God], a unique book printed by Jiří the Younger Melantrich of Aventinum in 1581, and a part of the binder’s volume of works on the theory of painting and astronomy, whose textual units originated in Germany during the 16th century (accession number 60216).

The National Library of the CR – the Slavonic Library has provided access to another nine documents (manuscripts with one exception) from its collections. The codices come from Russia and Croatia from the 17th and 18th centuries, but the range of the languages represented is wider (Church Slavonic, Croatian, Italian, Latin and Serbian). The group is heterogeneous in terms of content as well – it comprises e.g. texts of theatrical plays, works on the life and rule of Peter the Great, written by Petr Krekshin, and a copy of the book on sibyls by Nikolai Spathari. The only printed book is Ulozhenie Tsaria Alekseia Mikhailovicha from 1649.

The National Museum Library (NML) digitised another three medieval manuscripts in 2018. The oldest of them is Glossa ordinaria (XVI A 3) from the second quarter of the 14th century, a part of a larger set that used to belong to Augustinian Canons in Roudnice nad Labem. The illuminated missal from the Prague diocese XVI A 12, also referred to as the Missal of the Priest Silvester, was made in the last third of the 14th century. The breviary XVI A 2 was written in the first third of the 15th century and probably came to the NML collections from the monastery of Augustinian Canons in Rokycany.