The 18th century sees the triumph of a cultural technique so self-evident to us that we hardly think that it might have a history at all: numbering. This technique assigns a number to an object or a subject - whether a house, a page in a book, a regiment, a tone pitch, a painting, a horse-drawn carriage or a policeman - in order to positively identify this object or subject. The article presents a hitherto nearly undiscovered research field by clarifying some of the basic terminology and draws on examples from all over Europe, focussing on the numbering of - mostly vagrant - people on one side, on spaces such as houses, rooms or even hospital beds on the other side. At the end some of the research questions to be asked about this topic in the future are presented., Anton Tantner ; translated by Brita Pohl., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The author examines the clientele of the Bratislava booksellers Anton Löwe and Philip Ulrich Mahler in the context of the Hungarian book trade from 1770 to 1800. By analysing the extant correspondence of Michal Institoris Mošovský, a protestant pastor in Bratislava, she was able to partially identify one segment of their customer base - protestant clergymen. For many years these members of the petty intelligentsia purchased from the Bratislava booksellers, in particular imported works by the German pietists and Enlightenment theologians. The author also investigated the social and geographical limits of the distribution process, some of the contact and distribution networks, and the identity of key figures., Petronela Križanová., 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
This text considers the early creative output of Ignác Cornova, in particular his lesserknown odes and his war poetry. It draws on contemporary research of the latter third of the 18th century focussing on the dynamic social change of the period, the transformation of the media, the emergence of a modern ‘public’, and changing perceptions of artistic as opposed to educational output. One of the difficulties of conceptualizing this period is the existence of two opposing trends – the older ‘Baroque’ tradition and the more ‘modern’ currents of the future national movement. Our text largely obviates this dichotomy by proposing a framework in which Cornova’s oeuvre is seen as evidence of an idiosyncratic cultural situation with its own features and markers. The aim of our study is to place Cornova’s early works within the literary context of his time – a context hard to appreciate today. We are not looking for the ‘future’ Cornova in those beginnings, nor the ‘embryos’ of his later development. Rather, we hope to rehabilitate the literary context in the Czech lands in the 1770s and 1780s as it veered between late Baroque odes, war reportage, and enlightenment patriotism. Alongside Cornova we consider now forgotten figures such as Vojtěch Koťara, Michael Denis, Johann Joseph Eberle and Václav Thám. The result is not a group biography, but rather a problem analysis of one segment of a period that defies unequivocal definition.
This article is a response to Daniela Tinková’s study Enlightenment as ‘vernacularization of knowledge’. In the first part we comment on the positive aspects of Tinková’s conception of the history of the Enlightenment, but also on the lack of clarity concerning the nature of knowledge as both a component of cultural transfer and the outcome of that process. The second part changes perspective, focussing on ‘the transfer of Enlightenment’ and the ‘radiation’ of Enlightenment from the Czech Lands to surrounding regions of the Habsburg monarchy, especially Galicia. For this reason the Czech Lands assumed a regional hegemony in many areas of administration and economic and intellectual life. We also attempt to explain the motivations for accepting ‘Enlightenment knowledge’ while relativizing the power asymmetries in these processes.
This article discusses the Enlightenment concept of theatre as formulated in the work of the Viennese playwright Paul Weidmann, who was active in the reign of Joseph II (1765-90). In Weidmann’s conception, theatre has two main functions: one is to provide a theoretical basis (the idea of a national theatre; theatre as a school of moral educational); the second is to delineate a socio-historical context. The themes explored by Weidmann are civil war and wars of religion, and the question of how to level social differences - problems that still very much beset the modern world. In the face of current religious, political and economic conflicts, Weidmann’s stage plays still carry a powerful message., Joanna Giel., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article tries to characterise the spiritual life of a group of members of the Czech Reformed exile community in Husinec near Strzelin in Silesia at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. It starts with a detailed analysis of a unique manuscript miscellany written there by certain senior Bureš in 1833 and containing Czech translations of various German texts, mostly sermons (especially of the famous Pietistic preacher Ludwig Hofacker), but also travel diaries of Herrnhut missionaries in North America and Greenland from the 1770s, translated by a certain J. S., probably the former local teacher Jan Sovák. It identifies both the scribe and the translator as diaspora sympathizers of the Herrnhut Unitas, striving to supply for themselves and other members of their community spiritual texts suitable for reading aloud during their worship. As a possible model for the miscellany, the article identifies Gemeinnachrichten, the German manuscript periodical of the Unitas, which also combined sermons with missionary reports and diaries and was accessible to a limited extent to diaspora sympathizers. Finally, the article characterizes the spiritual life of the Husinec diaspora as rather eclectic, but capable of active reception of various Pietistic spiritual impulses, partly, but not exclusively emanating from the Unitas. This seems to support the thesis that Early Modern Czech non-Catholic exile played an important role in the Czech-German literary, cultural and religious relations., Alena A. Fidlerová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Was Ignác Cornova’s contribution to Czech-language literature only that of a historian? In the 1770s and 1780s he also happened to be the most acclaimed poet in Bohemia. Of the many reactions to Cornova’s work from German and Czech writers, this study focuses on Nábožné písně pro katolického měšťana a sedláka k veřejným a domácím službám božím (Religious Songs for the Catholic Townsman and Countryman for Use in Public and Domestic Divine Service, 1791) by Václav Stach, with a verse dedication to Cornova. It emphasises that under the Habsburg monarchy the genre of religious songs and hymns was also a platform for forming a new readership and literary public, providing a vehicle for writers such as Michael Denis, Ignaz Cornova, Johann Peter Hofmann and Václav Stach himself for creative experimentation and a mutually beneficial communication of their work to the public. In this context, our study examines the conceptual and aesthetic links between Stach and the poetic models of Ignác Cornova.
Despite the state borders, and the different socioeconomical and cultural contexts, productions of Italian opera in Prague and Dresden become considerably interconnected due the activity of the impresario Giuseppe Bustelli. During his directorship (1764-1777 in Prague, 1765-1777 in Dresden) and even in the next decade, more than 50% of the repertoire was shared. Furthermore, some of the artists performed in both cities, and the same or similar adaptations of operas were used. The main difference in repertoire consisted in opera seria productions in Prague until 1777, whereas in Dresden only opera buffa was staged since 1765. Analyses of selected works reveal some of both similar and different performing strategies and their aesthetical, practical as well as political connections., Marc Niubo., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy