The declared aim of enlightened administrative reforms was to provide security and aid the whole population, i.e., all social classes. Executive powers of the newly introduced police institutions covered - and defined - the whole public sphere and measures such as census or obligation to have a passport applied, at least in theory, to persons from all walks of life. This article examines how and to what extent were these ambitions applied in practice and whether these measures had an equalising effect on the society. The author concludes that unequal, in this case preferential, administrative treatment of especially the aristocracy was still widespread at the beginning of the nineteenth century. On the one hand, persons of a higher social status - who often held public offices - were supposed to embody the new civil virtues and set an example. On the other hand, however, it was feared that any public punishment or police treatment of such persons would undermine public authority and social order in general., Pavel Himl., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This article deals with the representation of literary culture in the Bohemian lands in late 18th and early 19th century travelogues as an influential literary genre of the late Enlightenment period. Against the background of their authors’ (mostly North and Central German travellers’) views on the Habsburg monarchy, the Bohemian lands and Prague in particular, as well as their education and art, the article seeks to analyse the variety of perspectives and the clash of external and domestic perspectives, as well as their description strategies. It draws attention both to the ideologisation and interconnection of the travelogue discourse and to the reactions of domestic authors to the travellers’ generalizing criticisms and their forms. To summarize, the article argues that the traditional classification of travelogues as predominantly pro- or anti-Slavic does not exactly hit the mark in this period, for travelogues do reflect the discussion on Czech literary culture in the Bohemian lands in statu(re-)nascendi in the context of local history and the enlightenment of the common folk., Dalibor Dobiáš., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The Black Death plague constituted a major disruption of the ordinary pace of life of the society in early modern period. As such it attracted interest and drew attention. The Black Death menace caused panic and fear, and therefore various measures and actions which were supposed to prevent the outbreak of the plague or at least considerably limit its consequences were defined and carried out. Such practices were shaped by contemporary ideologies and mentalities and reflected everyday experience. The study of various means of dealing with the Black Death menace may be like looking in a mirror in which the curves of the quotidian lifestyle of the period are reflected. The present paper which analyses the last Black Death plague of 1713-1714 in the environment of a southBohemian town offers one such view. The mechanisms which the inhabitants of the regional capital Písek formulated and applied in the attempt to confront the iimpending Black Death menace, are specifically examined. The bearing of these mechanisms on contemporary devoutness is also problematized at the level of socalled semifolk discourse., Zdeněk Duda., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The scholarly attention paid to Anna Katharina SweertsSporck has so far focused on the phase of her youth when she was engaged in translating books chosen by her father count Franz Anton Sporck for publishing. The article explores her interest in the book culture in the later stage of her life after her forced entrance into marriage in 1712. Anna Katharina initiated a large program of publishing and spreading devotional literature. The project was realized in cooperation with the Servite friar Wilhelm M. Löhrer and it aimed to cultivate internal, affective piety as a newly appraised type of religiosity which was increasingly popular across the confessional boundaries in the eighteenth century., Veronika Čapská., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy