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.
The paper reconstructs the fate of a codex from the library of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and Bohemia, which is in the possession of the National Library in Prague now. From the middle of the 16th century, it was deposited at Uhrovec Castle in Slovakia, which belonged to the Zay family; at the end of the 17th century, it was moved to Bohemia – first to the library of the de Suys family at Kounice Castle, later to the castle of the Thuns in Choltice, from where it was donated to the Capuchin monastery in Prague-Hradčany in the 1720s. and Obsahuje obrazovou přílohu
This paper focuses on Utraquist priest Jan Gaudencius (+ c. 1455), from whose quite extensive library only a parchment Bible copied in 1418 has been preserved. From 1431, when he began to work in Litoměřice, he started using in to note down chronicle records, not only on important events, but also on the weather. Gaudencius and other users of the Bible continued this in the Western Bohemian town of Žlutice.
This study draws attention to new facts coming out of the scribal colophons of a manuscript miscellany held by the St. James Parsonage Library in Brno and it completes curriculum vitae of Martin of Tišnov who used to be known as a scribe of manuscripts and the author of two Latin panegyrics. He is documented as a parson in Sebranice in the Blansko region at least in the years 1475-1483. He was in connection with the important family of noblemen of Boskovice for a long time. For the time being, however, we are not sure if he can be identified with the printer Martin of Tišnov who edited a Czech Bible in Kutná Hora in 1489 an who also edited the two earliest Prague prints in 1478.