The library of the Order of St Augustine in the Lesser Town of Prague, comprising more than 18,000 volumes, is an extraordinary book set of significant scientific and historical value. Nevertheless, a scientific study that would cover the entire history of the library was not available until now. This article provides a brief outline of the history of the monastic library at St Thomas, mentioning some remarkable figures that have contributed to its prosperity. The introductory part brings information on the binding rules governing the librarian practice in the monastic libraries of the Order of Saint Augustine in the Middle Ages. Because of the long time span, this treatise has been divided into two parts - the medieval and modern history of the library. Particular attention is paid to two periods - the 14th and 18th centuries, during which some members of the Order held leading positions at the university in Prague and, through their pastoral, preaching and educational activities, they were actively involved in the social, cultural and spiritual edification of broad social classes., Veronika Sladká., Obsahuje anglický abstrakt a shrnutí., and Obsahuje bibliografii
This study focuses on the early modern history of the monastic library of the Order of St Augustine at St Thomas in Prague. On the basis of archival sources (monastic chronicles, the catalogue of the members of the Order) and research into provenances in extant collections, this paper primarily aims to map the development of the Augustinian library in the 16th and 17th centuries. Provenance research has discovered that the monastic library was mainly used for monastic studies and for preaching and pastoral activities of the Augustinians. The research into book provenances has revealed numerous personal ties between the Lesser Town Augustinians and people at the court of Rudolph II. The results of the archival and provenance research have not confirmed the hypothesis of the complete looting of the library at the end of the Thirty Years’ War, but neither have they clearly proved the true extent of the losses suffered by the library. The research has shown the primary role of the library within the Order of St Augustine in the Czech lands and has indicated the position of the library in a broader social and cultural context., Veronika Sladká., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article draws on the list of separate manuscripts and manuscripts forming part of binders’ volumes coming from the library of the Domažlice Augustinians, a component of the first volume of the Soupis rukopisů Studijní a vědecké knihovny Plzeňského kraje v Plzni [A Compendium of the Manuscripts from the Education and Research Library of the Pilsener Region in Pilsen (Plzeň 2006)]. Since the first and at the same time last description of the library comes from as early as 1950, when the book collection was taken over by the State Education Library in Pilsen, we attempted to study the development of the Augustinian book collection on the basis of indirect sources, such as mainly books of accounts and ownership notes in extant printed books and manuscripts. From the original ca 4,000 volumes, only 272 volumes have been preserved in the Education and Research Library of the Pilsener Region (ERLPR) to this day; two separate manuscripts and 16 manuscripts forming part of binders’ volumes from the 17th-19th centuries have been described in the above-mentioned compendium; two manuscripts that were bound to other manuscripts come from a nearby convent in Pivoň. A noteworthy piece among the literary texts preserved in Prague archives is a manuscript fragment of a Czech play containing a dialogue between two merchants taking place at the Pilsen market, which comes from the second half of the 18th century, or the attempt of the Pivoň Augustinian Bruno Knez to write and even publish the history of his convent from 1753, which may be considered as the first printed monastic monograph from West Bohemia. and Jaromír Linda.