Musical Manuscripts of the Prague Conservatory

The Museum of the Brno Region Muzeum has provided access to another four medieval manuscripts from the library of the Benedictine monastery in Rajhrad in 2015. The missals R 397 and R 398 as well as the exegesis of the New Testament and Biblical prologues R 18 were created in the second half of the 14th century, the Czech New Testament complemented by other texts R 390 was written in the first half of the 15th century. With the exception of the New Testament, all the manuscripts are decorated to varying degrees.

The newly digitised items from the collections of the Music Department of the National Library of the CR comprise 32 manuscripts and printed items. They mostly include handwritten copies of short scores from the collection of Josef Cyril Strachota, composed by W. A. Mozart, V. Pichl, F. X. Pokorný and J. L. Oehlschlägel. A longer manuscript is placed under the shelf mark XVI H 8 – it contains compositions collected by Franz Eduard Tuna, partly his own works. The printed items come from the 16th and 17th centuries and include collections of polyphonic compositions.

More than four dozen digitised medieval manuscripts can be subdivided into several smaller thematically homogeneous groups. The first includes Czech-language Biblical manuscripts (six volumes under the shelf mark XVII, all from the 15th century). Liturgical manuscripts are represented by codices from St George’s Benedictine Monastery at Prague Castle (the manuscript XII D 11 was written upon the order of the abbess Kunigunde at the beginning of the 14th century; others comprise e.g. XII E 1, XIII C 1b, XIV D 21), but also from other monasteries (XIII C 11 from the Convent of the Poor Clares in Český Krumlov; Břevnov breviaries VI G 11 and XII A 22). Hagiographic literature is mainly represented by several manuscripts of Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (XII D 19, XII E 14 and XIII B 11). Collections of sermons are likewise numerous – both by Czech authors (Tomášek of Strakonice, XII E 7a) and e.g. written on the commission of Czech monasteries (sermons of Bertrand de Turre in the manuscript XII D 6, which was ordered by the Chotěšov provost Petr I.). Most of the other codices contain theological literature, but one can also find works on grammar, law, natural sciences, a collection of liturgical formulae by Pietro della Vigna, etc.

The Slavonic Library has digitised several manuscripts and printed books from the 16th–18th centuries varied in both their language and content. Besides Old Church Slavonic, the languages include Polish, Croatian and Italian. One can find not only theological texts but also poems or an accounting book of an unknown Jew from Dubrovnik.

The National Medical Library, Prague, has made one manuscript and three early printed books or their binder’s volumes from its collections accessible. The manuscript T 361, written in the 17th/18th centuries, contains a copy of an unpreserved printed book Equine Medicine (Koňská lékařství). All printed books are written in German. Two binder’s volumes include medical works printed in northern Poland and Germany in the 17th century; the last volume was printed in Brno in 1776.

The Research Library in Olomouc has enriched its group of digitised manuscripts by another two. They were both made in the second half of the 15th century: the Cistercian missal M II 82 is written on parchment and decorated with drawn figural and ornamental initials; the New Testament M I 240 is made of paper.

The Town Museum and Gallery Polička digitised in 2015 the hymnal Evangelical Spiritual Songs, printed in the printing house of the Unity of the Brethren in Ivančice in 1572. Apart from its textual content, the book is also interesting for its illuminations: the vacant space of some folios has been complemented by scenes with figures, flowers or floral motifs; bigger initials and decorative page frames are coloured and gilded.

Two manuscripts from the collections of the National Museum Library have been digitised. Homiliary XIII A 4 comes from around 1360 and it used to be a part of the Augustinian canonry in Roudnice nad Labem. Antiphonary XIII A 7 is of German origin; it was written by Johann Sendelwecken in 1412.

An interfoliated copy of the printed Kalendář historický [Historical Calendar] by Daniel Adam of Veleslavín from 1590 (shelf mark 503 A 005) from the collections of the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen has been made accessible. On the folios attached, historical notes were first written in 1592–1594 by the alderman in Kadaň Adam Bavorovec of Hagenbrück, at the beginning of the 18th century by an unknown burger of Písek, and there are also several later records.

The Library of the Military History Institute in Prague has provided access to another 21 manuscripts from its collection, coming from between the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 20th century. The earliest part is mainly represented by theoretical treatises on military science and fortification technology. The chronicle from the military school in Hranice in Moravia (IIR G 413) comes from the turn of the 20th century. A more homogeneous group is formed by diaries and personal memoirs of the First World War (IIR C 13301, IIR D 3323, IIR F 642).