Early Printed Books from the National Technical Library

The Czech Pharmaceutical Museum in Kuks (a centre of Charles University in Prague – the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové) digitised two manuscripts in 2023. The older of them is a copy of the 17th-century work Miracula chimici seu chrisosophiae by Johann Baptist Großschedel von Aicha (shelf mark HK-SR-5). The second manuscript is the register of the General Pharmaceutical Council in Prague (shelf mark sign. HGL, inv. č. 5, kn. 2), which contains records mostly from the years 1823–1826, complemented until the end of the 19th century; these primarily include a list of pharmacies and their owners or operators, as well as a list of the pharmacists who graduated from Charles-Ferdinand University.

In 2023, the Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region provided access to ten manuscripts, chiefly from the last third of the 18th century and the first third of the 19th century. Most of them are Czech and German prayer books, with the exceptions being the Passion from 1713–1714 (shelf mark Rk 148), probably a copy of two printed books by Václav Karel Holan Rovenský, and a set of Marian and other hymns from 1827 (shelf mark Rk 29).

In 2023, the Regional Museum in Teplice digitised a codex containing notes from the lectures of Jeroným Besnecker (1678–1749), a later abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Osek, which he delivered on Aristotle’s treatises on logic, the works De anima and Metaphysics at the Archbishop’s Seminary in Prague in Prague in 1709–1710 (shelf mark Or II 24).

Two modern manuscripts from the collections of the Museum and Gallery in Prostějov were digitised in 2023. The older one dates back to the end of the 17th century and contains copies of official documents from the years 1623–1684 (shelf mark 1644). Not long after its creation, it was certainly deposited in the library of Count Ignác Karel of Šternberk, for whom it had probably been intended from the beginning. The second digitised codex is a prayer book from the late 18th or early 19th century (shelf mark 393/154).

Four volumes from the collections of the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most were digitised in 2023. The oldest of them (shelf mark 3/Ruk) is a set of sermons from the end of the 15th century. According to the focus of some of the texts, it is likely to have been written by Franciscans in Bohemia. The manuscript 25/Ruk was compiled in 1731 by Antonín Hirschmann, chaplain at the convent of the Order of St Mary Magdalene in Zahražany, for local purposes and contains texts for some ceremonies. From the last third of the 18th century, there is a German-language set of regulations for Saxon military exercises from 1766 and reports on exercises from 1752–1769 (shelf mark 120/Ruk). The latest book is a sample book containing drawings of toys made by Franz Köhler & Sohn from around 1870 (shelf mark 581/RK).

In 2023, the Regional Museum in Louny provided access to a homogeneous collection of four prayer books from the years 1800–1837. The oldest of them (shelf mark S 6460) is written German, the others in Czech. Two of them (shelf marks S 6229 and S 6458) were written by Václav Bulánek, a teacher in Kralovice, who also copied a similar manuscript, which is now deposited in the Prácheň Museum in Písek under the shelf mark L 157 950. All of these codices are decorated with simple hand-coloured pen-and-ink drawings.

In 2023, three volumes were digitised from the collections of the Nostic Library, administered by the National Museum Library. The oldest of them is an illuminated Bible of Bolognese origin from the end of the 13th century (shelf mark Ms f 15). The binder’s volume from the turn of the 15th century placed under the shelf mark Ms c 39 contains the provincial statutes of the archdiocese of Gniezno from 1420, the incomplete Legend of the Three Kings by John of Hildesheim, and the first review of the Chronicle of Bohemia by Přibík Pulkava of Radenín. The last digitised codex is a martial arts manual (Fechtbuch) from 1618 (shelf mark Ms b 3).

In 2023, the National Technical Library provided access to one manuscript and a set of seven German-language printed books from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The manuscript (shelf mark C 1175) dates from about 1761, bears the title Clavis artis and contains alchemical instructions attributed to Zoroaster. Under the shelf mark B 100, there is a set of engravings accompanying three text volumes of Der praktische Baubeamte, printed in Vienna in approximately 1797–1798. The other printed books come mainly from Germany and deal with various branches of industry and trade.

Two modern manuscripts from the collections of the Town Museum and Gallery Polička were digitised in 2023. The older of the two contains Poručenství dvanácti patriarchů [Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs] and the story of Joseph and Asenath; the codex was written in the 17th century, probably as a copy of a printed book (shelf mark K 30). The collection K 74 was written in the 1830s and contains a number of copies of 17th-century Czech Protestant printed books.

In 2023, the Museum of Bohemian Paradise in Turnov provided access to two short modern Czech-language manuscripts. The earlier one is a set of medical recipes and household advice dated 1760 (shelf mark R 12), whereas the later one comprises 19th-century incantations against thieves and for their release (R 15).