Medieval Manuscripts from the National Museum Library

Vědecká knihovna v Olomouci v roce 2024 digitalizovala rukopis M I 11, který pochází z první poloviny 15. století. Jeho obsahem je asketicko-mystický traktát Stimulus amoris, jehož znění je známo z několika redakcí a bylo přeloženo i do vernakulárních jazyků. Nejstarší německý překlad pochází ze 14. století a jedním ze tří známých kompletních exemplářů je právě olomoucký rukopis. Jeho vazba zdobená slepotiskem a kováními je také středověká a jako výlep předního přídeští slouží list s perokresbou Kristova zmrtvýchvstání.

(Muzeum Jindřichohradecka v roce 2024 zpřístupnilo tematicky homogenní kolekci sedmi jazykově českých a německých modlitebních knížek z druhé poloviny 18. a první poloviny 19. století. U jazykově německých kodexů jde o opisy hojně tištěných sbírek, které sestavil kněz řádu kapucínů Martin z Cochemu. Rukopisy jsou zčásti vyzdobeny kolorovanými kresbami s rostlinnými nebo architektonickými motivy, do některých byly také vevázány drobné rytiny.)

The books digitized during 2024 from the Slavonic Library date from the 17th and 18th centuries. They originated from regions in present-day Dalmatia, Eastern Europe and Northern Russia. The oldest volume digitized in 2024 was a Cyrillic liturgical book for Lent (Tripesnec alternatively Triodion or Triod, 1608) and is of East European origin (shelf mark T 9774). The marginalia in this book reveal that it was originally located in Subcarpathia, specifically in the village of Velykyi Bereznyi (Ukraine). The following is a copy of the religious poem Mandaljena pokornica (The Penitent Magdalene, 1714) by Ivan Bunić-Vučić (1591–1658), a Croatian Baroque politician and poet (shelf mark T 4161). The 18th century is represented by a story about King Apollonius of Tyre (Povest’ ob Apollonii, korole Tirskom). This is from the A. D. Grigorev’s collection of North Russian manuscripts (shelf mark A 10).

Three modern manuscripts from the collections of the Regional Museum in Teplice were digitised in 2024. The oldest of them (shelf mark MS 21) contains diplomatic reports of the Venetian envoy to Mantua from part of 1629. The manuscript R 2022/36 records church ceremonies for various occasions and was written in the first quarter of the 18th century for Benedict Simon Littwerig, the abbot of the Osek monastery, the vicar general of Bohemian Cistercian monasteries and visitor. The codex MS 29 contains the impressions of Franz Wenzel Tobisch of his journey from Naples to Teplice, which he undertook in 1819–1820 as a tutor to Edmund of Clary-Aldringen.

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.

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.

In 2024, the Museum of the Brno Region digitised four more medieval manuscripts from the library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad. In terms of the time of their creation and their content, they form a homogeneous whole – all the codices date from the first half of the 15th century and contain mostly collections of sermons, supplemented by other, shorter texts (e.g. a treatise against Communion under both kinds in R 368). Some manuscripts also include Czech and German glosses.