The main aim of this article is to present a new interpretation of the decoration of the lateral facade of the Augustinian Church of St Thomas in the Lesser Town of Prague, which was created during the reconstruction of the church by its architect Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer in the first third of the 18th century. Drawing on recently discovered sources, it provides a new interpretation of the emblematic decoration of the portal of the lateral facade, both in the context of the painted decoration of the church interior and in relation to the social and theological conditions of the time. In particular, it proposes an interpretation of the four metopes in the entablature of the Doric order, for which the author or commissioner of the Baroque rebuilding of the church probably found inspiration in the emblematic album Devises et Emblèmes Anciennes & Modernes by the late 17th-century French writer and emblematist Daniel de La Feuille, on the basis of which the symbolism of these four metopes can be interpreted. The meaning of these four metopes is then related in the context of the entire decoration of the lateral facade of the temple also within the symbolism of the columnar orders, in this particular case the use of the Doric order. As it appears, the entire decoration of the lateral facade was systematically and purposefully chosen by the architect and contains extraordinary Christological symbolism that may be hidden to the modern observer at first glance.
a1_This study aims to present the physician Johann Melitsch (1763–1837) as a courageous reformer who presented a specific alternative to the étatist model of healthcare reforms implemented by the Habsburg monarchy in the 18th century. As obstetrics was the focus of Melitsch’s reform activities, the paper also contributes to the broader issue of the professionalisation of obstetrics at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1780s, Joseph II decided to use the assets of the secularised monasteries and hospitals to form a state complex of various health and social care facilities in the capitals of the Habsburg “provinces”. Where conditions and proximity to the university allowed, the first real “clinics”, i.e. hospitals linked to the teaching of medicine (and therefore science), were established: this was the case, for example, in Vienna and Prague. General hospitals formed the core of these complexes; maternity hospitals were also built, primarily for unmarried mothers, to prevent infanticide, but also as a source of female bodies for young medical students, who otherwise generally did not have the opportunity to learn about pregnancy and childbirth. At the same time, a young doctor who had just finished medical school in Prague, the twenty-fouryear- old Johann Melitsch, the son of a cabinet-maker, decided to undertake another project: a Privatentbindungsanstalt, ie. private outpatient maternity clinic. It was designed for married but poor women and also offered the opportunity of midwifery practice to medical students. Thanks to a family inheritance and his wife’s dowry, he was indeed able to found such an institution. And with donations from wealthy patrons from the nobility, he was able to provide small financial rewards or medicines to his patients. His assistants were students. and a2_Melitsch later extended his outpatient care, which was also improved by the “district doctors”, to sick women and children in general and thus offered a counterpart to the “stationary” type of state general hospital. In 1793, he was finally appointed professor at the Prague Faculty of Medicine – but only after the intervention of Emperor Francis I himself, who also granted this institution a “public right”. In 1795 Melitsch drew up a proposal – also probably the first in the Habsburg monarchy – for health insurance for low-income segments of the population. However, this system was never put into practice. In this predominantly Catholic monarchy, where hospitals had hitherto operated mainly on a church or municipal basis and where there was a clear tendency in Melitsch’s time to create a purely state-run health service, this was an exceptional case. The paper is also a contribution to the broader issue of the professionalisation of midwifery at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Besides that, Melitsch is considered to be the first doctor in the Czech lands to perform a successful caesarean section in which both mother and child survived.
Soubory zvířecích kostí a zubů datované do 8. až 14. století byly shromážděny při archeologických výzkumech na několika místech Prahy (Pražský hrad, Malá Strana a Staré Město). Získaný osteologický materiál představuje odpad vznikající převážně při úpravě a konzumaci masa. Jeho detailní vyhodnocení se zaměřením na druhové složení, úmrtní věk a pohlaví zvířat přináší bližší informace nejen o složení stravy a kvalitě masa, ale i využívání dalších živočišných produktů. Porovnáním více souborů na prostorové a časové úrovni jsme se pokusili lépe porozumět trendům v hospodaření se zvířaty a spotřebě jejich produktů v prostoru středověké Prahy. and Assemblages of animal bones and teeth dated to the 8th–14th century AD were collected during archaeological excavations at several Prague locations (Prague Castle, Lesser Town and Old Town). The acquired osteological material is waste resulting mainly from the butchering and consumption of meat. A detailed evaluation of this material with a focus on the taxonomic representation, the slaughter age and the sex of the animals provides more detailed information on both the composition of the diet and the quality of meat, but also the use of other animal products. By means of a comparison of multiple assemblages on the spatial and temporal level, we attempted to gain a better understanding of the trends in animal husbandry and the consumption of their products in medieval Prague.