Medieval Manuscripts from the National Museum Library

The digitisation of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov - the Strahov Library continued with manuscripts deposited under the shelf numbers DB II to DB IV. The content is a varied mixture of Latin, German and Czech codices, with an exceptional presence of French. The earliest two manuscripts date from the third quarter of the 16th century and contain sermons by John Mystopolous ( DB IV 12, DB IV 13). Most of the codices were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, however, and a large group of them are prayer books; in addition to these, legal works are also represented ( DB IV 3, DB IV 11, DB IV 15, DB IV 16), sermons, speeches and their collections (DB IV 10, DB IV 18), a breviary from the monastery of St. Michael in Hildesheim (DB III 2), a collection of poems (DB II 25) and church hymns (DB II 28), a play (DB III 1), a set of economic regulations from the Opočno estate (DB IV 8) or a catalogue of persons of the Czech Premonstratensian clergy (DB II 40).

In 2025, the Regional Museum in Mikulov digitized eight more modern manuscripts. A homogeneous group among them are the catalogues of the Mikulov Dietrichstein Library and its various parts or units that were included in this library (signatures MIK 6394, MIK 6478/2, MIK 6479, MIK 6480). In addition, there are various texts on genealogy, law and grammar, the oldest of which is volume MIK 2630 with various notes on the teaching of Latin.

Museum of Prague digitised four manuscripts in 2024. The oldest of them was written at the end of the 14th century (signature H 008975) and contains a set of letters dedicated to St Jerome, an interpretation of the Pater noster prayer and an incomplete copy of Guido de Columnis' Historia destructionis Troiae. The others date from the 16th century. At the beginning of the century a missal was copied for the Church of St. Mary before Týn (sign HD 001272), a book of invitations for the Church of St. Vitus, made in the workshop of Jan Táborský from Klokotská Hora (sign H 009261), and a gradual dedicated to the Church of St. Lawrence under Petřín (HD 001270) was written in 1581-1582.

In 2024, the Royal Canonry of the Premonstratensians at Strahov – the Strahov Library enabled the digitisation of the first group of the manuscripts of the collector and mercantilist economist Jan Kryštof Bořek (shelf marks DB I 1–7 and DC I 1–6) from its collections. This is the third redaction of the collection of his documents, which was created from the end of the 1710s (the prefaces to some volumes are dated 1718 and 1719) until the end of the 1720s. The individual volumes contain various reports concerning both the past of the Czech lands and Bořek’s present – they often comprise copies of official documents related to his official and economic activities.

The library of the Premonstratensian Canonry in Nová Říše provided access to another five manuscripts in 2024. Three of them are medieval – two of those come from the Czech lands and the latter one (shelf mark NŘ 14) contains various exegeses, probably by the Hussite preacher Václav of Dráchov; the third medieval codex is a collection of prayers and meditative texts written in the Archdiocese of Cologne (NŘ 69). The modern manuscripts comprise a coloured armorial (NR 88) and the treatise Tristes annuae desertorum Societatis Jesu by the Jesuit János Nádasi (NR 55).

The digitisation of manuscripts from the Military Historical Institute in Prague continued in 2024 with another 28 volumes, which mostly date from the 19th century and were written mainly in the Habsburg Monarchy. The most extensive part consists of the lists and overviews of the deployment of Austrian military units (e.g. shelf marks IIR A 490/1–2 and IIR B 7184/1–2), the treatment of the history of some of them (e.g. IIR C 3482, IIR D 810, IIR F 471, IIR F 532 and IIR F 573) and the lists of their officers (e.g. IIR B 1434 and IIR F 849). The manuscripts also comprise military-training manuals, ceremonial speeches and daily reports.

In 2024, the Regional Museum in Olomouc digitised a manuscript missal of the Olomouc diocese from the last third of the 15th century (shelf mark K-24059). The codex has simply decorated initials. The Canon of the Mass is preceded by a pasted broadside containing a coloured woodcut, probably from southern Germany from after the middle of the 15th century.

The first part of the manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic digitised in 2024 comprises 20 shelf marks, including codices written not only in Latin but also in German (shelf mark XVI) and Czech (a Czech translation of the works of Albertanus of Brescia – shelf mark XVII D 15; Kořeček’s New Testament – shelf mark XVII D 30). In terms of content, it is a set of miscellaneous codices, mostly liturgical manuscripts (Cistercian collection – VI E 17, breviaries – VI E 4a and VI E 4b) and sermons (VI E 6, VII B 13, VII C 16 and VII D 4).

The Royal Collegiate Chapter of Saints Peter and Paul has provided access to an important source on the history of the reconstruction and completion of the Vyšehrad Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul at the turn of the 20th century. The manuscript Ms 001/2024 contains records of income and expenditure related to the reconstruction, but it also provides information on the work carried out and its progress, as well as the associated festivities.

In 2024, the Olomouc Research Library digitised the manuscript M I 11, which dates to the first half of the 15th century. It contains the ascetic-mystical treatise Stimulus amoris , whose text is known from several redactions and was translated into vernacular languages as well.The earliest German translation comes from the 14th century, and the Olomouc manuscript is one of only three known complete copies. Its binding, decorated with blind stamping and metal ornaments, is also medieval; the front lifted paste down is formed by a leaf with a pen-and-ink drawing of the Resurrection of Christ.