(in English): The diploma thesis opens a new perspective on Jan Werich - famous Czech writer, playwright and actor. Its goal is to describe part played by books in formation of character, life and work of this eminent personality of Czech culture and social impact of his work. An important part of this work is the reconstruction of contents of Jan Werich's personal library. The thesis is based on analysis of Werich's literary work, analysis of collection of personal documents in Literary archive of The Museum of Czech Literature, study of documents in the archive of Theatre ABC and Prague City Archives. It is also based on testimonies of some close Werich's friends and on reader's survey "The books of Jan Werich". First chapter is concerned with Jan Werich's personal library. It describes the search for destiny of this library, on its probable current situation and on various sources for the reconstruction of its contents. It also contains information on Werich's work with a book, mostly on lending and borrowing books and on property marking of documents. The main part of first chapter is the reconstruction of contents of Jan Werich's personal library; its bibliogprahy forms an appendix to this work. Second chapter deals with social impact of Werich's artwork in several fields - presence of books...

Ausgehend von der Unzulänglichkeit, die Lesen als Forschungsgegenstand für jene gesellschaftlichen Fragestellungen hat, die über die Didaktik des Lesenlernens hinausreichen, versucht die vorliegende Arbeit einen anderen Zugang zu der Thematik. Nicht die Frage, was, wie, warum und wieviel Menschen lesen, ist hier Forschungsinteresse, vielmehr wird invertiert gefragt, wie Gesellschaftssysteme 'Lesen' definieren, welchen Personen dabei die Rolle des Lesers zugeschrieben wird und welche Motivationen eine solche Differenzierung auslösen und unterstützen. Theoretische Grundlage hierfür ist die Systemtheorie der Bielefelder Schule nach Niklas Luhmann. Anhand der redaktionellen Beiträge der Fachzeitschriften 'Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel' sowie 'Buch und Bibliothek [Bücherei und Bildung]' wird die Theorie explizit am Beispiel des Buchhandels und des öffentlichen Bibliothekswesen dargestellt. Bei der Analyse zeigt sich, daß Lesekultur als Produkt eines Traditionssystems wesentlich vom Buchhandel instrumentalisiert wird. Nach innen zur Identitäts- und Marktsicherung sowie nach außen zur Einwerbung staatlicher Sonderkonzessionen, besonders im Kartellrecht. Das Öffentliche Bibliothekswesen indes thematisiert trotz seiner Nähe zum Buchhandel Lesekultur in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren so gut wie gar nicht und nutzt andere Persuasionsmedien zur Systemstabilisierung. Erst provoziert durch empfindliche Etatkürzungen während der Rezession zu Beginn der 1980er Jahre koppelt sich auch das Öffentliche Bibliothekswesen wieder an die Lesekultur als Persuasionmedium zur Einwerbung staatlicher Leistungen. / Taking as its starting point the short-comings of reading as a topic of research for social questions that reach beyond the didactic of learning to read, the present dissertation attempts to approach this subject from another vantage point. The focus of interest is not how many people read what subject matter, in what fashion, and why, but rather its opposite: How do social systems define 'reading', what persons are assigned the role of 'reader' and what are the motivations that this social distinction engenders or promotes. The theoretical foundation for the study is based on the Bielefeld school of systems theory as expounded by Niklas Luhmann. Through an analysis of editorial articles appearing over a period of forty years in the journals 'Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel' and 'Buch und Bibliothek [Bücherei und Bildung]', the theoretical model is demonstrated by examples drawn from book-trade and the public library system. In the process it becomes apparent that the culture of reading as a product of a traditional system is fundamentally instrumentalized by the book-trade: inwards for the purpose of identity and market protection, outwards for the purpose of soliciting special national concessions, in particular in the area of antitrust law. In spite of its proximity to book-trade, the public library system all but failed to address reading culture in the decades of 1960s and 1970s and made use of other persuasive media as a means of system stabilization. Only after considerable budgetary cuts during the recession at the start of the 1980s did the public library system couple itself to the culture of reading as a medium of persuasion for soliciting state benefits.

This dissertation examines the medieval libraries of the order of Regular Canons of St. Augustine in Bohemia. The research is concentrated on manuscripts that were written before the end of the 15th century, together with handwritten parts bound together with old prints and fragments removed from manuscripts. The aim of the study is to fill gaps in existing research and provide a systematic overview of the libraries of canonries in Bohemia, namely Roudnice, Jaroměř, Karlov in Prague, Sadská, Rokycany, Třeboň, and Borovany. The research of these libraries is based mainly on preserved manuscripts. Their affiliation to the libraries can be identified with certainty thanks to ownership remarks, in some cases also by typical shelf marks or notes about the content of manuscripts, possibly by other circumstances connected with the history of the books. In addition, there are contemporary sources of the history of some libraries (library catalogues, inventories, records of gifts and testaments, notes about payments for manuscripts, records of the purchase of the books, or reports of the sale of manuscripts in exile). There is one chapter dedicated to each canonry, including a bibliographic overview, a brief summary of the history of the canonry and a detailed survey of the history of its library. The core...