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
The 700th birth anniversary of King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV has been designated as one of UNESCO´s important world anniversaries for 2016-2017. The Czech Academy of Sciences recreates the period of Charles IV at the exhibiton entitled Seven Towers. Charles IV through the eyes of academics (1316-2016) at the Science and Art Gallery. The visitors have an oppportunity to see the unique gold ducats with a picture of Charles IV. For this first time the most valuable archaeological discoveries of glass goblets are exhibited. Everyday items used by residents of the medieval city are also on display. The exhibition also shows a rare treasure of coins, which was hidden in the Emmaus monastery about 1370, as well as copies of the Constitutive Act of the Charles University, Charles´s Code Maiestas Carolina or late-medieval transcript of Charles´ Golden Bull. Personality of Charles IV is documented by commemorative coins, medals and seals bearing his image. Part of the exhibition is also a faithful copy of the statue of Charles IV from the Old Town Bridge Tower, the last sculptural portrait of the monarch before his death. and Marina Hužvárová.
Postava baronky Sidonie Nádherné (1885–1950), mecenášky umění a přítelkyně literátů Karla Krause a Rainera Marii Rilka, jež byla spjata se zámkem ve Vrchotových Janovicích, vzbuzovala sice zájem literárních badatelů a historiků, donedávna však zůstávala ve stínu zejména obou slavných mužů. Spisovatelka a publicistka Alena Wagnerová podle recenzentky přináší nový pohled v tom, že žánr kulturněhistorické biografie propojuje s přístupem umírněného feminismu a svou hrdinku činí vskutku hlavním objektem zájmu. Její kniha, původně vydaná německy pod titulem Das Leben der Sidonie Nádherný: Eine Biographie (Hamburg 2003), je zároveň sondou do života společnosti, když prostřednictvím životního příběhu Sidonie Nádherné zachycuje dobové tendence, tužby a souvislosti., Sidonie Nádherná (1885–1950), a baroness and patroness of the arts and a love interest of the great writers Karl Kraus and Rainer Maria Rilke, has been closely linked to the manor house in Vrchotovy Janovice (Janowitz), central Bohemia. Though she has attracted the interest of scholars of literature and historians, she has until recently remained in the shadow of her two famous admirers. In the work under review (the Czech translation of Das Leben der Sidonie Nádherný. Eine Biographie, Hamburg, 2003), the writer Alena Wagnerová provides, according to the reviewer, a new view, combining the genre of cultural-historical biography with moderate feminism, truly making her protagonist the centre of interest. Her book is also a probe into a society, and by means of the life story of Sidonie Nádherná she depicts the trends, hopes, and context of the period., and [autor recenze] Milena Lenderová.