Medieval Manuscripts from the Museum of the Brno Region

The digitisation of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov – the Strahov Library continued with a group of 18 modern manuscripts from the DB II shelf-mark section. Most of these volumes are of Czech origin and come from the period between the first half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In terms of content, most of them are legal texts and collections (DB II 9, DB II 10, DB II 11, DB II 13, DB II 15, DB II 16), including a Czech translation of the Institutiones of Emperor Justinian, copied in 1562 (DB II 14). An important work of the Czech literature of the early 17th century is Město duchovní jménem Rozkoš duše [The Spiritual City Called the Delight of the Soul] by Václav Porcius Vodňanský (DB II 4). Moreover, the digitised manuscripts comprise notes from the university of Prague, specifically from the lectures of Bernard Bolzano (DB II 19, DB II 20), further prayer books (DB II 22, DB II 23) and Czech sermons (DB II 5, DB II 7).

In 2024, the National Technical Library in Prague provided access to one manuscript and nine printed book from its collections. The manuscript (shelf mark C 1178, system number 615616) was probably written at the turn of the 18th century and contains a collection of alchemical recipes. The printed books come from between 1645 and the early 19th century; the oldest (shelf mark F 11, system number 606794) was printed in Paris, the others in Germany. Most of them deal with the military and with fortification architecture.

Two manuscripts from the collections of the North Bohemian Museum in Liberec were digitised in 2024. The earlier one is a theological treatise of Johann Chrysostomos Kretschmer (Inv. No. ST 2406) from 1667–1669. The later one is the chronicle of the village of Jítrava (Inv. No. ST 2405), which was written by the local stonemason Michael Linke in 1894–1900; apart from a short historical introduction, it mainly contains reports on contemporary or recently past events of the 19th century.

In 2024, the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most digitised five modern manuscripts. The oldest of them contains notes from the lectures delivered by Gottfried Hänel at the university of Prague in 1702–1703 (shelf mark 9/Ruk), a gradual copied in 1767 for the needs of the Dean’s Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Most (205/Ruk), a collection of various documents on the history of the Minorite monastery in Most in the 18th century (29/Ruk), and two prayer books.

Three manuscripts from the collections of the Museum and Gallery in Prostějov were digitised in 2024. The oldest of them is the guild book of the fishermen’s guild in Krnov (shelf mark 1651). It began to be written around 1618 and was kept, albeit inconsistently, until 1853. The codex under the shelf mark 1652 contains copies of records of the decisions of the major senate of the court of appeal in 1689, made for Count Ignác Karel of Šternberk. The smallest of the three is a puppet-theatre play from 1787 (shelf mark Br 101), whose author was Josef Jan Šarapatka, a composer active in Žamberk.

The oldest manuscript in the collections of the Library of the Latin School in Jáchymov has been digitised. It is a Hebrew Bible from 1384 (shelf mark LC 202), containing most of the books of the Old Testament. The scribe of the calligraphic manuscript was Eliezer ben Yitzhak. The codex, which was probably written in Southern Germany, was purchased in 1546 or 1547 by the headmaster of the Latin school and pastor in Jáchymov, Johannes Mathesius, who subsequently donated it to the library of the local school.

In 2024, the Museum of the Bohemian Paradise in Turnov provided access to a prayer book from the 18th century (shelf mark R 106). In addition to the usual prayers for Mass, confession and communion, the Czech-language manuscript contains an extensive section devoted to saints. At the beginning, it has an engraving of the miraculous statuette of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Svatá Hora near Příbram.

In 2023, Muzeum Brněnska digitised three more medieval manuscripts from the library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad. Two volumes (R 352 and R 354) contain parts of the Bible with accompanying texts. The majority of the contents of the codex R 383 consist of works dedicated to Marian devotion - De laudibus virginis Mariae by Augustine of Ancona and Laus Mariae by Conrad of Heimburg; in addition, the manuscript contains writings of other authors of the second half of the 14th century, Matouš from Krakov and Henry of Langenstein, sermons and other texts.

In 2023, the Regional Museum in Olomouc digitised a hymnal referred to after its scribe as the Hymnal of Jan Pinkava (shelf mark K-24071). The manuscript was written in 1732–1735 and contains songs for the religious holidays throughout the year and hymns for some other occasions. It is decorated with a large number of pen-and-ink initials. In the long passages of the codex, these are coloured and accompanied by floral or zoomorphic elements.

Twenty-six volumes from the collections of the Music Department of the National Library of the Czech Republic were digitised in 2023. Most of them come from the period between the turn of the 19th century and the first half of the 19th century and have been acquired by the National Library from the collection of Ludvík Hornov. These are scores of various works, composed i.a. by Jakub Jan Ryba, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, Vinzenz Maschek and Vojtěch Jírovec. A smaller part of the digitised group comes from the music collection of the Strachota family of schoolmasters and cantors from Panenský Týnec and Vrbno – it also included the oldest document, a collection of organ compositions i.a. by Josef Seger and František Xaver Brixi from 1773 (shelf mark 59 R 3876).