The article looks at Novi ecclesiastico-scholastici Annales (…), a periodical which is a significant resource in book culture research. The authors focus mainly on book distribution and propagation in Protestant communities during the last decade of the 18th century.
Although Basel book printing had a major influence on the development of humanistic studies in the 16th century, its import into the Czech lands has not been studied so far. This study explores books printed by a famous printer Johann Froben (ca. 1460–1527), and their representation in selected Czech and Moravian libraries. Using methods of provenance research, I have identified specimens that arrived in our territory not long after their printing, paying a special attention to the titles created by people from the circle of the University of Basel. My research has shown that although Czech students rarely attended Basel University until the mid-16th century, works by Basel University scholars from Froben printing house were available in Bohemia and Moravia as early as in the second and third decade of the 16th century. Furthermore, the books printed by Froben penetrated much better into the Catholic regions of Bohemia and Moravia, more open to modern humanistic studies.
An essential source for the knowledge of the trade in printed books in the 15th century is the fragment of the German-written ledger of the Speyer publisher Peter Drach discovered in 1957 and made available for publication by the incunabulist Ferdinand Geldner (Dillingen, Studienbibliothek, Ms. XV 488). Important passages related to the Czech lands, including a list of Drach’s book-selling warehouses, have been reprinted and interpreted by Professor Ivan Hlaváček, who, however, has noted that the persons mentioned should be identified more precisely by means of local research. The author has prepared a new edition of the list of Bohemian and Moravian warehouses, in which he has slightly corrected some of Geldner’s readings and, above all, deciphered the name of Drach’s sales representative in Kutná Hora. The study provides a more detailed identification of the people in charge of the regional sales of the printed books imported by Drach’s Bohemian-Moravian commercial agent Johann Schmidhofer.
This study observes the process whereby the Czech cultural scene was redefined during the first few months of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In an attempt to protect Czech culture and to preserve the autonomy of Czech institutions as proclaimed by the German occupiers, society deliberately undertook centralization and self-regulatory measures. The National Partnership (Národní souručenství), which 97% of the male population joined during spring 1939, was initiated as a part of its internal policy by the Cultural Council, which had had programmatic continuity since November 1938. Under the „new conditions“ it was meant to become the autonomous, proactive working and advisory centre for the National Partnership´s cultural and educational work. Although it had taken part in the organization of such spontaneous demonstrations as the second burial of Karel Hynek Mácha, it was soon arranging a number of promotional events in an attempt to centralize, control and regulate the cultural scene. In its cultural and political discourse it highlighted the topoi of the good Czech book, which became a symbol of resistance and a means for preserving national identity. The most successful promotional event used by the Cultural Council to take control of the entire spectrum of artistic and cultural life whithin the Protectorate was the December Czech Book Month organized in towns and rural areas. The preparations were strictly centralized and controlled, and it was only possible to exhibit books previously listed by the Cultural Council. „A good Czech book“ became a cult object, on the basis of which Protectorate society was newly defined, legitimizing it in the face of overbearing German culture and bolstering its resistance. The event also resulted in economic assistance to the graphic and book industries, while redefining the Czech literary scene and the totalitarization of Czech society.
The history of Olomouc book printing remains mostly unexplored. Literature often brings distorted information, which must first be verified by studying sources. An example may be the Olomouc printer Vít Jindřich Ettel († 1669), about whom some researchers have accumulated a large amount of unverified or misleading information. Nevertheless, numerous archival sources from which it is possible to reconstruct the life and activities of this book printer are available as well. Attention should, however, also be paid to his wife, Anna Alžběta Ettelová, who, after her husband’s death, administered the local printing house alone for three years (until January 1673). Multiple archival sources make it possible to study her activities in further detail and to learn more not only about the customers of the printing house but also about the book trade in Moravia at that time.
The article reveals new facts from the life of the graphic artist and printer Jan Filipowicz, who in 1757–1766 ran a company comprising printing and engraving houses and a bookshop. Despite the fact that Filipowicz was a popular book illustrator in the eastern part of Poland, so far we have had very little information about his professional activities and private life. Drawing on documents from the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv (Центральний Державний Історичний Архів Украіни у Львові) — Filipowicz’s will and two posthumously compiled versions of his property inventory — and of the basis of contemporary Polish and Ukrainian literature, the author has managed to establish and put in order many facts concerning the life of the typographer and the operation of his company.
In the study the author focuses on various aspects of bookselling in the late 18th century. The author seeks to describe the book market environment and the booksellers’ community in Bratislava at that time. She therefore documents communication channels between booksellers in Bratislava and their colleagues in Germany (mainly in Leipzig, Halle, and Berlin).
The article deals with the union catalogue of incunabula, which began to be created during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In the 1950s and 1960s, the long-term head of the manuscript department of the present-day National Library Emma Urbánková was trying to complete it, but it was eventually not published in print. It has recently been made available in digital form.
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