The article, based on sources from the Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv), the Archives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) and the National Library in Prague, casts a new light on the life, works and personality of the librarian Josef Adolf Hanslik (* 1785 Lišany, † 1859 Prague), father of the music critic and aesthetician Eduard Hanslick. The documents, showing his (unsuccessfull) attempts to become the head of the Viennese University Library, and the exceptions taken by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna against Hanslik’s still interesting main work, Geschichte und Beschreibung der Prager Universitätsbibliothek from 1851, suggest a politically orientated personality, taking part in forming the land-patriotic national awareness (“böhmisch”, i.e., in the frame of the Bohemian Lands, of both Czech and German nations), and due to his belonging to the Prague “intellectual alliance” of the pre-1848 Revolution period, looked upon by the Viennese state offices with mistrust. The third source linked to Hanslik’s personality, is Hanslik’s, until now unpublished, satiric writing Trompeten und Pauken, from 1830, discovered by the Czech musicologist Jitka Ludvová. Talking about a fictitious territory (without any doubt Bohemia and Prague), its author sharply criticised the political, social and moral situation of his time. Of special importance for the music history of Prague, are the extensive, politically pointed passages dedicated to the Prague Conservatoire. They give evidence of music knowledge of Josef Adolf Hanslik, whose personal qualities, abilities and interests without any doubt influenced the development of the personality of his son.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Prague has become the centre of strong Mozart cult. The study focuses on one of its prominent demonstrations, the creation of the Mozart’s monument in the Klementinum building. It illuminates the motivation for its erection that was clearly rooted in the opposition to the activities of the Mozart’s native city of Salzburg. Based on the study of historical sources, it refuses the often-repeated assumption that Prague was the first to honour Mozart with a memorial place. On the other hand, the study also stresses the unique nature of this Prague Mozart’s monument which lies in the fact that the monument presents the artist’s personality as mediated and publicised through his work.