The article deals with the regulation of the use of Czech, German and classical languages in the administrative, school and Church spheres as it appears in the decrees published during Joseph II’s reign for the lands of the Bohemian crown. The author attempts to reconstruct the emperor’s vision of the usage of the different languages in the Czech lands, find the reasoning behind it, and identify the methods of this regulation. He also asks whether, in Joseph II’s case, one can speak about a "language policy" as a deliberate strategy to change the language situation in the Czech lands., Dmitrij Timofejev., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
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
This study examines the possibilities and limitations of centralizing reforms within the western part of the Habsburg monarchy, as illustrated by the problematic issue of ennoblement in the Czech lands. The administrative reforms of 1749 resulted in the administrative union of both state entities in a single whole of (all) so-called Hereditary Lands. They also led to the closure of separate offices at court representing the Czech and Austrian lands, replacing them with a single Directorium in publicis et cameralibus, which took over the ennoblement programme hitherto operated by those two offices. Despite the apparently centralizing tendency of the reforms, this did not extend to any unification of entitlements to ennoblement, which continued to be based on particular ranks and titles specific to either the Kingdom of Bohemia or the Archduchy of Austria. It was not until 1752 that, on the urging of Maria Theresa herself, a unified, legally binding system for dispensing preferment and privilege, including a unified scale of aristocratic titles for all the Hereditary Lands, was introduced. In practice, ennoblement rights in the two state entities remained differentiated as to specific titles up until the early 19th century, when the two systems were superseded by a new Austrian Imperial ranking. Thus one of the last relics of the conception of the Czech Crown Lands as an autonomous historical entity finally ceased to exist., Jiří Brňovják., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article focuses on early theatre criticism in Prague and Vienna at the end of the 18th century. It analyzes the argumentational forms and critical strategies. The 1790s are represented by three periodicals: Der Wahrheitsspiegel (Prague 1796-1798), Österreichische Monatsschrift (Prague - Vienna 1793-1794) and Der Theatralische Eulenspiegel (Prague 1797). The study is based on a close reading of six specific theatre critiques. It deals with epoch-typical critical postulates, with taste (Geschmack), impartiality (Unparteilichkeit) and the aesthetic concept of theatre as a real illusion (wahre Täuschung). This analysis of individual attitudes is also a contribution to the description and interpretation of theatre history and repertoire reforms., Alena Jakubcová jun., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
From the 1780s on, the court of the Princes of Schwarzenberg generally maintained four or five personal doctors. These privileged positions were frequently held by individuals who also practised as municipal or county physicians. In their castles in Bohemia the Schwarzenbergs also employed surgeons and apothecaries, and in line with the professionalization of medical care during the Enlightenment they attached great importance to the training of health workers. In the first three decades of the 19th century health care in the context of the Schwarzenberg primogeniture became even more specialized and the number of medical staff on the various Schwarzenberg estates increased. In addition to their own physicians, the Schwarzenbergs also entrusted their health needs to eminent medical experts drawn primarily from the Habsburg court and the University of Vienna and later, from the 1830s on, to many doctors working in the Czech Lands. This study considers the relationship between the high nobility as representatives of social elites on the one hand and the Enlightenment medicalization of society with its professionalization of health care on the other. It maps the structure of medical care within one aristocratic family and their estates and its transformation over a fifty‐year period. It also attempts to discover who the Schwarzenbergs’ doctors were and what socio‐cultural background they came from., Václav Grubhoffer., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This article examines the administration of rescue operations to save people from drowning and the distribution of rewards to rescuers in Bohemia during the 1780s and 1790s. Based on documented interrogations and official records, the article looks at the investigatory process, the conditions rescuers had to fulfil in order to apply for a reward from the Bohemian Gubernium, and the role of other actors in this process, such as witnesses and doctors. The study departs from the concept of biopolitics developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault and shows how the state authorities tried to foster mutual solidarity among town dwellers. While Enlightenment thinkers continued to stress the role of "love for human beings" (Menschenliebe), i.e. universal interpersonal solidarity, the elites held the view that the biggest motivation for anyone to save a person from drowning was monetary reward. The aim of the enlighteners, however, was to encourage people to embrace the ideal of "Menschenliebe" and to fully identify with it - hence their emphasis on cases of selfless acts, especially in newspapers and popular literature. Besides that, the article analyses the trend towards the medicalization of society in the Enlightenment period and changes in attitudes to death., Ondřej Hudeček., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy