Early Printed Books of the National Medical Library in Prague

The collection library of the Regional Museum in Olomouc has provided access to the hymnbook referred to as the Bzenec Hymnal according to its place of use (shelf mark K-24087). Most of this codex was written in the second half of the 17th century, perhaps in the 1660s, but the blank pages continued to be filled with other songs even in the 18th century and the manuscript also contains occasional records of contemporary events. The division of the manuscript corresponds to other hymnbooks: it begins with morning hymns, which are followed by hymns for movable feasts of the liturgical year, hymns for Sundays, holidays and other occasions, commune sanctorum, feasts of the saints and the Virgin Mary, and it is concluded by evening hymns.

In 2021, the National Technical Library provided access to eleven early printed books and their binder’s volumes. The oldest of them is shelf mark A 19, which contains two Nuremberg editions from 1538 and 1540 – Albrecht Dürer’s Unterweisung der Messung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheit and Jean Pèlerin’s Von der Kunst Perspectiva. Other printed books come from the 16th–18th centuries from the Czech lands, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. They mainly concern architecture and seafaring.

In 2021, the Museum of the Brno Region provided access to another two medieval manuscripts from the collections of the library of the Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad. Codex R 353 contains an incomplete Latin Bible from the first half of the 15th century with several Czech glosses. The collection of German texts R 360 was copied in 1424 and contains Henry Suso’s Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit, a translation of the apocryphal letters about St Jerome made by the bishop of Litomyšl and Olomouc John of Neumarkt, and a translation of the work Vitaspatrum, which mainly includes the lives and teachings of Old Christian hermits.

The Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region has provided access to an incunabulum of the Kutná Hora Bible, published by the printer Martin of Tišnov in 1489 (shelf mark S 2746). This incunabulum was printed in two editions. This is a mixed type of the first and second editions (also referred to as the third type), where the missing bifolios of the second edition were added from the remains of the first edition and, after the printed supply was exhausted, the missing leaves were filled in by hand. The printed book was supplemented with coloured initials and, in a few cases, with decorated borders.

In 2021, the Military History Institute Prague provided access to 28 manuscripts, mostly from the 19th century. In terms of content, the texts are quite varied, consisting of personal notes and memoirs (shelf mark IIR B 2233, IIR B 2325, IIR C 16910, IIR C 3749), short encomiastic poems and texts, works on various military operations and campaigns or on military construction, manuals especially on firearms and artillery (including a work on gunpowder by Carl Heinrich Riegel in IIR F 1627), treatises on cavalry exercises compiled by Franz Philipp von Lamberg and Ignaz Ludwig Paul von Lederer, and others. Historiographical works are represented e.g. by a copy of the Latin biography of Albrecht von Wallenstein by Václav Vojtěch Červenka of Věžnov (IIR F 526) and the history of the Austrian Dragoon Regiment Prinz Eugen von Savoyen by Friedrich La Croix de Laval (IIR F 546). Some of the writings are accompanied by illustrations. The pictorial component predominates in IIR B 2326 (depicting the facings and uniforms of Austrian soldiers) and in IIR B 3827 (depicting naval flags).

Another five medieval manuscripts from the collections of the National Museum Library were digitised in 2021. Most of them had passed through the library of the house of Augustinian canons in Roudnice nad Labem. The collections of ecclesiastical law XVII A 5 and XVII A 15 were at least partly written in Italy at the turn of the 14th century and in the first half of the 14th century. Another legal treatise, Casus longi in quinque libros decretalium (XVII A 9) by Bernard of Parma, dates from the same period. A copy of the work Historia satirica by Paul of Venice (XVI A 8) was made in Bohemia, probably in Prague, at the beginning of the 15th century; it was bequeathed to the house of Augustinian canons in Roudnice by Adam of Nežetice, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Prague, in 1414. The last digitised codex is a missal of the Archdiocese of Prague from the early 15th century (XVI A 9), used at St Andrew’s Altar in the parish church of St Bartholomew in Pilsen.

The Regional Museum in Teplice digitised two manuscripts from its collections in 2021. The earlier of them is a gradual (shelf mark Or I 2) with hymns for the Mass Ordinary and for fixed feasts, most of which were written in the Cistercian monastery in Osek in 1656. The Cistercian Order is also associated with the list of the dead from individual convents (mostly Bohemian) that covers the period of 1762–1943 and began to be recorded in St Marienstern monastery, Upper Lusatia (shelf mark R2020/28).

In 2021, the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most provided access to one manuscript – Liber vitae et mortis fratrum ordinis minorum conventualium in conventu Pontensi sancti Francisci defunctorum, which began to be recorded by Matthias Kollnberger (shelf mark 27/Ruk). The work mainly deals with the activities of the convent of the Conventual Franciscans in Most and its members in the years 1740–1862 and is supplemented with engravings and official documents.

Nineteen shelf marks from the collections of the Music Department of the National Library of the Czech Republic have been digitized. The earliest of them comes from the last quarter of the 18th century. Most of them were copied in the 19th century. A larger group is formed by handwritten copies of compositions by František Xaver Brixi (shelf mark 59 R 1236, 59 R 1237, 59 R 1240, 59 R 1247, 59 R 1250). Other manuscripts comprise handwritten copies of excerpts from W. A. Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, the score of Adalbert Gyrowetz’s opera Federico e Adolfo, the score of Joseph Drechsler’s theatrical play with songs Der Diamant des Geisterkönigs, as well as handwritten copies of liturgical texts and religious songs. Some of the manuscripts come from the collection of MUDr. Ludvík Hornov.

Muzeum Českého ráje v Turnově digitalizovalo v roce 2021 kuchařskou knihu z 18.-19. století (sign. R 11), která obsahuje české i německé recepty, zčásti uspořádané podle jednotlivých typů jídel nebo použitých surovin.