This study deals with previously unknown manuscripts that the authors have identified and reassembled in an as yet unorganized section of the Jakub Deml fonds in the Museum of Czech Literature. These manuscripts, fragments and variants of some seventy books and dozens of unpublished texts make a significant contribution to our understanding of the genetics and meaning of the work as a whole. They alter our idea of its genre composition and testify to the complex, non-linear chronology of the work. The authors identify three periods in which Deml’s manuscripts have different functions: the first period involves manuscripts and to a limited extent publishing (1896–1911); the second period independent publishing (1912–1941); the third period is the second manuscript period (1941–1961), when manuscripts became the main medium. Subsequently the study comments on the possibilities of a critical edition of the entire work.