In the present text I have attempted to describe the profession of elementary school teacher and the changes it underwent in the last quarter of the 18th century. At that time, the education of the majority of children between the ages of six and twelve or thirteen was mostly in the hands of village schoolmasters, and these are my primary focus. Following the reform of the education system by Maria Teresa, teachers in Bohemia and Moravia were trained predominantly in what were known as preparanda at the Normal School in Prague. Their training differed from that of their predecessors in that their knowledge was now tested in examinations, with greater emphasis on teaching methods and closer supervision. Drawing on lists of teacher training graduates and other sources, I have analysed how many graduated every year and under what conditions, what textbooks they later used in the classroom, and the official view of pedagogy at that time. From those lists I was able to conclude that graduates who only spoke Czech ended up teaching only in small Czech-medium village schools. By looking at certain individual teachers more closely (such as the composer Jakub Jan Ryba, the pastor Tomáš Juren and several members of the Vlach family of teachers from Boleslav), my aim was to describe in outline the career of these "Czech" village schoolmasters, their motivation, level of knowledge, and deduce what they probably taught. From 1787 on, they were subject to inspection by regional school commissioners. I focussed on the first sixteen of these (one for each region), noting in particular how they were selected, their duties and aims. For it is they who were the guarantors of the new school system and the disseminators of the new thinking.As a result of the reforms, mandatory training and more exacting standards, elementary school teachers were able to improve their social standing and prestige., Michal Kneblík., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article analyses Czech-Byzantine contacts in the 1160s. The author focuses on a reconstruction of the mainly diplomatic confrontation in Hungary, capped by a peaceful dynastic marriage. From the perspective of the history of everydayness, however, the most distinctive is the figure of the Moravian Boguta, "A Roman who knew Czech", mentioned in both basic sources. Those are the treatises of the canon of Prague Vincentius and an official in Constantinople John Kinnamos. The comparison presented of the two leads to a closer specification of the chronology of the Bohemian campaign of 1164. Kinnamos´s little known text in Czech historiography moreover offers an interesting view of the Byzantines on Bohemia and Vladislaus II. and Martin Šorm.
As servants of their church community, teachers had to spend much of their time on activities that today we might consider secondary - tasks relating to their ancillary duties as cantor, organist or verger. But in rural communities the teachers, alongside the priests, were often the only educated men in the parish and played a not inconsiderable role in the early stages of the national revival movement. The school reforms passed in 18th century Hungary opened the way for teachers - even those in elementary schools - to improve their social standing and prestige, on condition they fulfilled certain expectations as formulated in the basic reform programme, Ratio educationis (1777). Our paper examines the new types of school (normal, preparatory) that offered teachers better chances of social advancement and public acceptance. Drawing on case studies of teachers in several schools, it documents how they managed to meet the demands made on them while still pursuing and realizing their own ambitions., Eva Kowalská., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article considers the writings of the sculptor Andreas Schweigl (1735-1812) and the painters Ignaz Chambrez (1758-1842) and Josef Heřman Agapit Gallaš (1756-1840). Around the year 1800, these three Moravian artists recorded their thoughts and insights in a number of texts that variously combined the traditional literary genre of artist’s biography with artistic topography, art criticism and a historical interpretation of early Moravian art and culture. Since all three were in some way connected with the new system of art education, the aim of this study is to examine whether and in what way standardized education affected not only their professional careers, but also their thinking. For all three, that thinking was rooted in a historical interpretation of the early art and culture of Moravia. All three discuss the function of art, artistic ideals, and to some extent the concept of the creative genius, as well as reflecting, directly or indirectly, on the theme of decadence as one stage in the cyclical view of history, in line with the paradigm of the age. The author sets out to compare their texts and in general terms show 1) how artists themselves viewed the importance of art education at the end of the 18 century; 2) how they responded to the changing role of the artist in society; and 3) how they defined artistic ideals and the artist’s social purpose. It is the wider implications of these changes in the artist’s social status, and in the function of art in Moravia and Central Europe generally, that form the primary focus of this study., Pavel Suchánek., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy