he paper quantitatively analyses a sample of 300 Czech prayer books and other popular religious handwritten material (not including songbooks) from the 18th and 19th centuries. The author maintains that most of the material consisted of (partial) transcriptions of popular printed books and their widespread popularity was influenced by the growth of literacy and the individualization of piety. Their use was by no means limited to the milieu of the secret non-Catholics which were proscribed until 1781; indeed the majority of Catholic writings were not fully orthodox. The character and decoration of the writings in question were not directly related to the confessional nature of their originators and/or users; in fact the general rules of early modern popular culture played a much more important role and in many cases it is difficult to determine whether the source is catholic, protestant or sectarian. Prayer books fully reflected official forms of religion relatively late i.e. from the tum of the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of church domination over popular piety. However, even at this time the process did not result in absolutes: religious writings substituted the non-existence of baroque literature the printing of which was prohibited by the enlightened censorship prevalent at the time. Only a change in religious forms and new opportunities for the printing of pre-enlightenment books in the mid-19th century led to a decline in handwritten prayer books.
Marian devotion has represented until today crucial aspect of Christian, especially Catholic, spirituality. Its extraordinary flourishing took plače in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Pietas Mariana became an imprescindible component of Baroque religiousness. The vigour of Baroque Marian devotion brought about not only the veneration of statues and pictures, but also the reintroduction of pilgrimages and the building of Marian pilgrimage sites throughout the land. One of the most influential Catholic orders that contributed in an important degree to development and spreading of Marian devotion was the Society of Jesus. Aside of their educational and pastora! activities, the Jesuits served as custodians of important Marian pilgrimage sites, as was also the case of the residence in Golčův Jeníkov, where they remained in the years 1657-1773. Throughout this time, they constructed Marian pilgrimage site of regional importance where religious brotherhood had been established and where Loretan devotion had been spread. The everyday life of the residence brought about many activities, among them the organization of festivals along the lines of Baroque ostentatiousness and regular radius of pilgrimages.