This paper presents a detailed analysis of the development of the postal network in the territory of Moravia during the period of its most significant expansion, based on hitherto largely unused archival material, chiefly from the Postal Museum in Prague and the Moravian Archive in Brno. Using these key sources, chronological lists were reconstructed of postmasters in each post office, allowing us to determine the exact period in which each official served. This data on periods of service made it possible to compile a list of the postal routes set up by individual offices in the period under consideration and trace changes that occurred due to military conflict or for logistical reasons. Attention was also given to the hitherto neglected network of letter collection points in Moravia, which grew rapidly towards the end of the 18th century. The study represents a paradigm shift in research into the Moravian postal network. Besides already known postal routes, we also reconstructed routes whose existence had only been deduced from the records of one or two stations, and others that had escaped the attention of researchers altogether. With regard to letter collection points, the study considers the issue of which "mother" stations they were attached to. More generally, the study deepens our knowledge of the structure of the communications network in Moravia in the second half of the 18th century and provides a more precise picture of how it was connected with centres beyond the country’s borders. These results will provide potential future researchers into the Moravian postal service with a solid factual platform in which to anchor and contextualize their findings on specific post offices, stations or entire routes. The study can thus be seen as a contribution to economic and social history, as well as to that of communications., Vojtěch Klíma., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article maps a numerically limited and religiously and socially discriminated group of pre‐tolerance and tolerance non‐Catholics, thus a group of persons of restricted education, which was except some rare examples limited to the basic level. In this regard, the text offers a more compendious analysis of one confessional and social group that was most of the time just a restricted recipient of the enlightened ideas and education spread by so‐called "plebeian" intelligence and most of all by new protestant preachers. This group showed however a great ability to absorb, transform, create and spread within their community the adopted and own thoughts, the fact that significantly contributed to their emancipation in the following period., Eva Hajdinová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The study presents an empirical analysis of the risky practice of illegal marriage and baptism among Huguenots in 18th century France, drawing on contemporary pamphlets to trace the problematic evolution of French Calvinist inheritance law - a process that played a decisive part in efforts to relegalize Calvinism in the kingdom. Agitators for the reformed church pursued two main lines of argument: Calvinist pastors, both within the country and in exile, made increasingly active use of Enlightenment philosophical discourse that condemned religious intolerance. At the same time, especially from the 1760s on, pamphleteers emphasized the social and economic importance of the Huguenot upper class. Together, these arguments helped overcome received ideas about the risk of an anti‐state "protestant conspiracy" organized by the exile community ("conjuration de l’étranger Huguenot"), which was in turn linked to the financial power of the Huguenot banking families that had been a leitmotif of criticism since the 16th century. Instead, a positive image of the Calvinists’ social contribution was presented, stressing their usefulness and loyalty to state and sovereign. Among their supporters at court were the lawyers and ministers de Breuil and de Malesherbes, who eventually succeeded in pushing through reforms., Eva Hajdinová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Theatrical activities of Václav Mihule (1758 - after 1808) are documented at his various positions in 19 European cities. Born in Prague Mihule left his home at a young age. His earliest experience was as an actor (1781-89), traveling to distant places such as Warszawa (1781), St. Peterburg (1784-86), Königsberg (1787-88), Mainz and Frankfurt a. M. (1788-89). His first Prague ensemble (1789) was a collaboration with Jean Butteau, the company played at ThunPalace Theatre at the Lesser Town of Prague. Later he directed the ensemble Vlastenské divadlo (Patriotic Theatre) in the Theatre U Hybernů (in summer in Karlovy Vary) and the German company at the Nostitz Theatre. After his abrupt departure from Prague in mid 1793 he became a theatre director in Augsburg (1793-94), in Nürnberg, Ansbach, Erlangen, Ulm and Nördlingen (1794-97), Stuttgart (1797), Wiener Neustadt (1797/98), Olomouc (1800-02), Opava (1802-04), Prešov (1805) a Košice (1804-08). He seems to have ended his career in Košice, where he may have died. In the time from 21. 12. 1796 till 13. 9. 1797 he led on lease the Court Theatre Company of Friedrich Eugen II. of Württemberg in Stuttgart. It was in Stuttgart for the first time, when the Court Theatre was rented to a theatre entrepreneur. The Duke tryed in this way to keep the theatre running in the bad economic situation in the course of the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797). For the director Mihule was the offered contract for 6 years - after experience with various theaters in the cities - an extraordinary occasion to achieve a firmly established place of work with above standard conditions. It is possible to describe and characterize the Stuttgart period of the entrepreneur Mihule on the basis of archive documents and account books (aspect of organization) and periodicals (theatre repertory). Some features of the abilities of actors an, Alena Jakubcová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This study examines changes in narrative approaches in Czech, Moravian and (German-written) Silesian belles lettres from 1770-1790. In its examination of historical poetics and changes in narrative methods, it draws on the structuralist studies of Lubomír Doležal (his "narrative text transformation" model) and Daniela Hodrová (fictive novel vs. reality novel). Instead of the idea that prose evolves in relation to a fixed "linguistic substrate" in an immanent, autonomous way, the author inclines to the notion of a plurality of poetic codes on various linguistic levels (from stylistic registers, "narrative methods" and narrative structures to individual genres and the comprehensive aesthetic that shapes entire epochs). The study starts with an outline the socio-historical background to the emergence of literary periodicals in the Czech Lands in the early 1770s and their authors’ publishing strategies. It then considers the transformational impact these periodicals had on the literary prose of the day. The third part examines how the belles lettres of literary periodicals reacted to impulses from Enlightenment poetics such as the sentimentalism of Laurence Sterne and the Sturm und Drang movement, with illustrative interpretations of the novellas Der Philosoph in der Suppe (The Philosopher in the Soup) by Johann Ferdinand Opitz, Die neue Sapfo (The New Sappho) by Christian Heinrich Spiess and Der sonderbare Kupler (The Peculiar Pimp) by Josef Herbst and Josef Kirpal., Václav Smyčka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The paper examines origin and professional background of the scribes of the 18th century Bohemian manuscripts and follows the changes in the social structure of their readers, using the information from several hundred handwritten books and documents. Received data show that the number of scribes is rising immensely in the last decades of the 18th century. The most distinct growth might be observed within the number of scribes working in the rural areas. In the first half of the 18th century the most productive group of scribes are monks. In the last quarter of the century this role goes to teachers and parish priests. Their production, however, often has commercial or official character. Besides in the late period of the century strongly increases representation of craftsmen and farmers among the scribes. Also growth of the number of readers living in the countryside, especially women, might be observed. These changes seem to be the results of educational, administrative and Church reforms performed by Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the late 18th century., Dmitrij Timofejev., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article looks at how emotion is represented in Bohemian folk chronicles, i.e. texts of a historiographic character, written by autodidacts - mostly peasants and artisans. At the core of our analysis is the most famous work of this kind, Paměti Františka Jana Vaváka z let 1770-1816 (Memoirs of František Jan Vavák 1770-1816). Other writings from the turn of the 19th century (e.g. those of Václav Jan Mašek, Jan Petr, Ondřej Lukavský) are also considered. Our initial question is: How, and in which contexts, did Czech-speaking authors of the late 18th and early 19th century, having no opportunity to get acquainted with contemporary philosophical theories, express affects? The study shows that the emotions, especially joy and grief, are expressed in a way recommended by early modern rhetoricians (e.g. Cypriano de Soarez or Bernard Lamy): particular figures are associated with particular affects. Though the principle is the same, the figures used by autodidacts differ from those recommended by the rhetoric manuals. Being unable to read Latin, German or French rhetorics, the authors had probably grasped the principles of how to represent affect from their reading, but adapted them according to their own talent and vision. As might be expected given the rural origin and values of the authors, joy is expressed mostly in the context of weather favourable for the harvest, while grief is realised in the context of rising prices and natural disasters., Dmitrij Timofejev., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
In the 18th century there were disputes over appointments to the vacant canonries in the Olomouc chapter. One of the reforms of Maria Theresa was the Chapter Statutes, which she approved in 1772 and which came into force on 1 st January 1773. The new statutes confirmed both the privilege of the free election of bishops by canons and the practice of appointing only aristocrats as canons, including so-called domicelars (non-resident Canons). The Chapter of Olomouc gained the status of an exclusively aristocratic chapter at a time when this privilege (because of secularization and other factors) was beginning to disappear. While the requirement that aspirants should have right of abode (inkolat) favoured the landed nobility, the requirement that they be of aristocratic origin favoured "only" the higher nobility, regardless of their origin or suitability for the office - a circumstance that later met with considerable criticism. The Chapter also received a new canonical seal from Maria Theresa, which its canons use to this day. Maria Theresa’s successor, Josef II, intervened again in the Chapter Statutes, limiting the influence of the Holy See over the appointment of canons and thereby enhancing the Sovereign’s influence in the Chapter., Jitka Jonová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Emotions and passions, especially the negative ones, played a major role in Seneca’s writing: the anger became the object of his philosophical treatise De ira and prevailed also in his tragedies. Seneca was probably the most important model for jesuit playwrigts which implies the question how these authors worked with his conception of anger and rage as destructive emotions, in which measure they took it over or changed it. Jesuit playwrights are represented here by Karel Kolčava whose plays are the only ones published as collected works during his life. In addition, there are (also published) Kolčava’s didactic letters, which gives us the opportunity to compare his theoretical view of anger with the Seneca’s one in the first part of the article. The realization of these conceptions is then observed on a few examples taken from the respective plays of both authors. Finally a special attention is paid to female characters in rage who are so important in Seneca’s tragedies and who can be found in Kolčava’s plays although women were not welcome on the jesuit stage even as characters., Eva Pauerová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article deals with school reports on gains and properties of schools and their masters (the so called "fassiones" in Latin). It focuses on the part of archive of Bohemian Gubernium containing school reports from 1775 to 1792. Previous Czech historians as Josef Hanzal or Jan Šafránek examined these reports especially with the use of quantitative methods, but the goal of this study is to show that more points of view are possible and available. More details about the problems of schools and teachers, content of school instruction, and employed books and tables could also be found in this kind of source., Michal Kneblík., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy