Blog

Thirty-seven documents from the Music Department of the National Library of the Czech Republic were digitised in 2024. Most of them come from the collection of the Strachota family of cantors from Panenský Týnec, a smaller part from a similar collection of the Hübner family from Dlouhý Most. The handwritten copies mostly come from the last quarter of the 18th century and the first third of the 19th century. The composers include František Xaver Brixi, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, Vinzenz Maschek, Jiří Ignác Linek and Václav Pichl. In addition to scores, the digitised documents also comprise theoretical manuals and textbooks.

The very first digitised manuscript from the Hussite Museum in Tábor is a volume from the first half of the 15th century (shelf mark V-M 017), mainly containing parts of various collections of sermons of Jacob of Mies (Jacobellus de Misa). Another short text, written at the beginning of the codex, is associated with the elected bishop of the Taborites, Mikuláš (Biskupec) of Pelhřimov, whereas the treatise De quadruplici sensu sacrae scripturae is sometimes attributed to John Hus.

The Town Museum and Gallery Polička has provided access to an extensive collection of handwritten copies of Protestant printed books accompanied by church songs. The individual works were copied between 1814 and 1817. Most of them are copies of the writings and sermons of the Protestant pastor Havel Phaëthon Žalanský, printed in the 1610s.

In 2024, the National Museum Library provided access to four medieval manuscripts of Czech origin. Illuminated codices are represented by two missals of the Prague diocese, XVI B 12 from around 1330 and XIV A 1 from the beginning of the 15th century. The manuscript XVII E 2 from the turn of the 15th century contains the travelogue of Odoric of Pordenone and the treatise of Guillaume (William) Durand Rationale divinorum officiorum, whereas XVIII A 40 from 1398 includes Postilla studencium sancte universitatis Pragensis, the Latin version of the Postil of the Students of the Prague University by Conrad Waldhauser.