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16
May

Historiographical texts from the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov

In 2017, twenty modern manuscripts from the collections of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov were digitised (some of them are deposited in the National Archives, in the collection Premonstráti – klášter Strahov, Praha). Almost without exception, these are historiographical sources and diaries that are related to the history of the monasteries in Doksany and at Strahov, but also to other institutions (the Norbertinum College, the church of St Gallus in the Old Town of Prague, the convent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns, the Benedictine Monastery of St John under the Cliff, the monastery of the Minims in the Old Town of Prague), orders (the history of Augustinian monasteries written by J. F. Hammerschmid) and events (the siege of Prague in 1744).

20
Apr

Lilienfeld library

The Cistercian abbey Lilienfeld was founded in 1202 by the Babenberg duke Leopold VI. The construction of the medieval abbey was finished in 1263. Lilienfeld was a centre for scholarly traditions in the Middle Ages, later a strong connection with Vienna University was maintained. The monastery library contains 39000 prints, 119 incunabula and 226 medieval manuscripts, including the collection of medieval and early modern codices from the library at Stift Lilienfeld, containing religious, liturgical, devotional, and patristic texts, as well as texts on other subjects. Famous is the concordantiae caritatis codex a compiled work of abbot Ulrich von Lilienfeld, who lived in the 14th century. It is the most voluminous typological collection oft the late medieval times. To be maintained also are the works of monk Christanus von Lilienfeld (d. before 1332) a liturgical poet of hymns, rhymed offices, sequences and compilator of several religious and liturgical works. Its wealth and glory was not sufficient to prevent the dissolution of the monastery under Emperor Joseph II in 1789. After its restoration in 1790 as a substitute for loss in the course of the abolition of 1789 a bundle of 49 manuscripts from the Lower Austrian Benedictine monastery Mariazell in Österreich was awarded to Lilienfeld.

13
Apr

An Illumination Depicting Silver-Ore Mining and Processing from the Collections of the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region

The Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region has provided access to an excised illumination that it acquired in an auction in 2009. It has been digitised by the company AiP Beroun s.r.o. The sheet of a size of ca 64.5 x 44 cm depicts silver-ore mining and processing in Kutná Hora. It was painted shortly before 1500. Besides its artistic qualities, it is an important source on the method of ore mining and processing, which has analogies in other paintings from both Kutná Hora and the region of the Ore Mountains (Krušné Hory).

20
Mar

Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

Most of the recently digitised manuscripts from the National Library of the CR are medieval codices containing Czech texts. In terms of their content, these are predominantly theological, ascetic and morally instructive works translated or adapted from Latin originals, whose authors include e.g. Thomas à Kempis, Albertanus of Brescia, Henry Suso and others. The manuscripts further comprise sets of prayers, legends, dictionaries and medical compilations. Texts in Latin are only represented by a set philosophical treatises written in Prague at the beginning of the 15th century (XIV.F.20) and two codices from the Prague Lobkowicz Library, whose previous owner was the Premonstratensian monastery of Weissenau.

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