The thesis deals with the book collection of the Capuchin monastery in Sušice. It conducts a survey of the history of the collection and elaborates its characteristics in terms of content and language. It carries out provenance research in the collection and looks into the reading culture of the rural monastery. The structure of the work is built on four pillars, each of them expressed in an individual chapter. The first part deals with the historical circumstances related to the arrival of the Capuchin Order in Bohemia and the founding of the monastery in Sušice. These events led to the creation of the monastic library. The second point is a summary discussion about the monastic library, its content and impact on the book culture in Sušice. The third pillar is built upon information on the development and fate of the library in the 20th century. The present status and recent functions of this historical collection is described here in detail. The final part deals with the topic of reading. The conclusion summarizes the results reached.

Die Büchersammlung des Göttinger Universitätsprofessors und reformierten Pastors Lüder Kulenkamp (1724-1794) bildet mit über 9.000 Handschriften, Abschriften, Inkunabeln und Drucken ab 1501 die viertgrößte private Gelehrtenbibliothek Göttingens im 18. Jahrhundert. Die Sammlung ist ausschließlich über den 1796 gedruckten Auktionskatalog sowie zwei, mit Käufer- und Preisangaben versehene durchschossene Exemplare dokumentiert. Über inhaltliche Aussagen hinaus, die den hybriden Charakter der Sammlung als Arbeitsinstrument und bibliophile Kollektion zugleich offenlegen, versucht die Arbeit, unter Einbeziehung von Marginalien und handschriftlichen Einträgen Kulenkamps sowie von in Vorlesungen benutzten bzw. in eigenen Publikationen zitierten Titeln, ein Bild des gelehrten Büchersammlers und -lesers an seinem Standort und zu seiner Zeit zu vermitteln. Die durchschossenen Exemplare des Versteigerungskatalogs bilden quellenorientiert die Basis für bibliothekarisch motivierte Käufe seitens der Bodleian Library, der herzoglichen Bibliothek Gotha und der Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen sowie für privat motivierte Käufe seitens Studenten, Buchantiquariaten und akademischen Sammlern, die das Erstellen gesellschaftlicher und individueller Rezeptions- und Leserbiographien ermöglichen. Der in Bibliotheken gelangte Bestand der Büchersammlung wird darüberhinaus im Sinne einer Provenienzaufarbeitung per Autopsie erschlossen. / The private library of the university professor and reformed pastor Lüder Kulenkamp (1724-1794) forms with over 9.000 manuscripts, transcripts, incunables and printed books the fourth largest private book collection in Göttingen during the eighteenth century. The collection is documented by an auction catalogue printed in 1796, of which two interfoliated copies have been located that provide useful information about buyers and prices. The dissertation delves into each of the titles within Kulenkamp’s library, while pointing out the hybrid character of the collection, which was both an instrument for teaching and research and the result of the owner’s bibliophilia. A careful consideration of Kulenkamp’s marginalia and handwritten notes, his course announcements and the titles of the books he refers to in his writings provides a lively picture of how an erudite book collector and reader might have looked like in his place and time. The interfoliated exemplars of the auction catalogue were the basis for Kulenkamp’s books being the subject of library acquisitions that were decided for at the Bodleian Library, the Herzogliche Bibliothek Gotha and the Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen as well as for private acquisitions by students, book antiquarians and academic collectors. They are of great interest for the development of public and private book circulation and the shaping of readers’ biographies. In compliance with the requirements of provenance-research, all books of the collection of which we know they had been acquired by public libraries have been looked into by autopsy.

The dissertation looks into the book culture, book production and readership in the kingdom of Bohemia in early humanism. It explores the conditions of rise and reception of book printing in the kingdom of Bohemia. The mind-set of the Utraquist society, resistant to the influence from abroad, international isolation of the Utraquist Bohemia and the previous insignificant manuscript production proved to be the factors which failed to encourage the arrival of book printing in the country. The initial advancement of book printing was hesitant and could not to keep up with the more developed trade abroad. The Czech printing production related to the efforts of reformation to further enhance the moral status of the society soon turned to disseminating literature in the vernacular, yet often they were translated literature. The early Czech printed production however was affected by low quality and quantity of prints and was not of the significance declared by the previous generations of researchers. Personalities of the Catholic society were more inclusive about new ideas from abroad. In the contemporary society the Catholics were therefore the first ones to embrace book printing and also they were quicker in reception of humanism. The early humanist literature in Bohemia is related to the personality of...

(in English) The master thesis describes formation and activities of the Geographical Library of the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague (http//www.natur.cuni.cz/geografie/knihovna/). The thesis deals with the formation of the library in the 1880s and outlines its development to the present. The focus of this work is to describe the current situation and outline the anticipated direction of the library's development in the coming years. Emphasis is placed on the growing importance of the Geographical Library as one of the most distinctive information institutes of the Faculty of Science, as well as the gradual introduction and use of new technologies and finally on cooperation with other information and academic institutions. In addition, all the program units (that are in use in the library) of the automated library system Aleph 500 are described. The author also focuses on the description of services, divided into basic and complementary, which the Geographical Library provides for professionals and general public. This work also provides information on projects, in which library participates, especially the Czech Geographical Bibliography Online. In the future, Geographical Library intends to pursue the digitalization and preservation of the library collection as well as...

This thesis is an examination of the circulation networks and the patterns of collection of Italian printed books in France in the sixteenth century. Although the cultural relations between the Italian and French territory have been studied, a systematic survey to assess the impact of books on the shaping of the French Renaissance has never been attempted. The first section of this study examines the trade routes and networks which facilitated the circulation of Italian printed books across the French territory. Because of the nature of the French early modern book trade, focused primarily on two major centres (Paris and Lyon), a geographical division has been adopted in investigating this phenomenon. Chapter one explores the trade networks existing in sixteenth-century Lyon, from the powerful Compagnie des Libraires to the activity of the libraires italianisants in the second half of the century. Chapter two examines the importance of Italian editions in Paris. Chapter three is devoted to the circulation of Italian books in the provinces and the impact of large regional centres and trade routes on the availability of books locally. Chapter four investigates private networks and their importance in making specific texts available to French readers. The second section of this study investigates the status and importance of Italian printed books within French Renaissance libraries. Chapter five looks into the development of the French Royal library and the role played by Italian items in defining its identity as an institution. Chapter six examines the presence of Italian books in French aristocratic and courtly collections. Chapter seven is devoted to the libraries of the French literary milieu, analysing the extent to which Italian books were cherished as literary exemplars, particularly with regard to vernacular texts. Chapter eight examines the presence of Italian books in professional collections, with particular attention here given to texts in Latin and other scholarly languages imported from Italy. The conclusion draws all of these strands together, looking at the specific role played by Italian culture, through the printed book, on the development of the French Renaissance. A catalogue of about 2,400 Italian printed books with early modern French provenance is included as an appendix volume. This data provides the evidential basis for this study.

On conserve un nombre inhabituellement élevé de manuscrits ayant appartenu à la bibliothèque du chapitre cathédral de Lyon au IXe siècle, dont bon nombre ont été personnellement utilisés ou produits par le principal acteur de la vie intellectuelle lyonnaise de l’époque, le diacre Florus (floruit v. 825–855). Comme on connaît par ailleurs plusieurs grandes compilations rassemblées également par lui, Florus représente pour nous une double occasion particulièrement rare d’étudier la bibliothèque d’une école cathédrale carolingienne et les méthodes de travail d’un intellectuel de ce temps. Les comparaisons et les nombreux recoupements que permet cette situation étayent et alimentent notre connaissance des livres qu’on utilisait et qui circulaient à l’époque, mais aussi des hommes qui les lisaient et les échangeaient, et des conditions dans lesquelles le travail de Florus a pu passer dans la tradition manuscrite des Pères (première partie). Ces analyses nous peignent Florus un homme de son temps, formé dans un certain milieu à de certaines méthodes, mais que son expérience et ses goûts poussèrent à faire évoluer, tout au long de sa carrière, ses propres méthodes au service de ses propres projets (seconde partie). Un travail d’historiographie est aussi proposé, qui n’avait pas encore été entrepris, et qui fait apparaître les voies de la redécouverte de Florus au cours du XVIIe siècle, puis au XXe. La place de Florus et de sa bibliothèque d’usage, dans l’histoire intellectuelle et dans l’histoire de la transmission des textes antiques, en ressort mieux circonscrite et qualifiée plus précisément, en même temps que se dévoile le cours de sa propre évolution intellectuelle. / An unusual amount of manuscripts that belonged to the Cathedral library of Lyons in the IXth century has been preserved, among which a number were firsthand used or produced by its prominent intellectual figure, the deacon Florus (floruit ca. 825—855). As we also know several large compilations that were gathered by the very same, Florus represents a rare double opportunity to investigate both a Carolingian cathedral library and the work methods of a Carolingian scholar. Numerous comparisons and crosscheckings can strengthen and supply informations regarding the books that were used and circulated at the time, but also regarding the men that read and circulated them, and clarify how Florus’s work on the Fathers has spread in the manuscript tradition (first part). Such analyses depict Florus as a man of his time, who was educated in a certain environment and to use certain methods; but who was then driven, all along his career, by his own experience and taste, to evolve his own methods in the pursuing of his own projects (second part). A historiography study is also held, which was never undertaken before, and reveals the how and why of Florus’s rediscovery in the XVIIth century, and then again in the XXth. Florus’s part and his work library’s, in the intellectual history and in the history of ancient texts transmission, is thus better circumscribed and more precisely described, as is unvailed the course of his own intellectual evolution.

La Bibliothèque universelle des romans (1775-1789, 224 vol.) est une collection littéraire périodique à vocation vulgarisatrice, apparue sous l’initiative du marquis de Paulmy dont la bibliothèque personnelle (actuelle Arsenal) fournit le matériau de départ, et que celui-ci dirigea des commencements à l’année 1779. L’étude du traitement réservé à la littérature médiévale dans cette importante collection soulève plus généralement la question de sa réception à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et de la place qu’occupent la BUR et ses rédacteurs dans l’histoire des études littéraires. Notre travail a consisté d’abord à identifier les collaborateurs du périodique, leur rôle respectif et leurs sources. Le passage d’un réservoir précis de textes à une bibliothèque romanesque imprimée passe dans la BUR par la pratique de l’extrait, technique dont nous nous sommes attachés à montrer qu’elle aboutissait, de recherches en essais, à la formation d’un véritable genre critique. De ce corpus d’extraits émerge en effet, sous la plume des rédacteurs de la BUR, l’élaboration d’une histoire littéraire dont il s’agit de présenter ici les résultats. / The Bibliothèque universelle des romans (1775-1789, 224 vol.) is a literary periodical collection with a non-scientific claim, initiated by the marquis de Paulmy whose personal library (now the Arsenal Library) provided the first material. Paulmy managed it from the beginning until 1779. The way this important collection deals with medieval literature raises the general question of its reception at the end of the 18th century, and the role occupied by the BUR and its authors in the history of literary studies. Our work primarily consists in identifying the contributors, their relative part in the laboratory of the Arsenal, and their source materials. The transition from a specific corpus of texts to a printed library of novels requires, in the BUR, the practice of extracting, an approach, as we try to show, that results –from research to testing– in the creation of a real critical genre. From this corpus of extracts emerges indeed, under the pen of the BUR’s authors, the formulation of a literary history that we intend to present in this work.

(in English): This study focuses on the faculty libraries of the Charles University in Prague. More precisely, it deals with their collections of manuscripts, old and rare books. The introductory chapters are dedicated to theoretical basis of protection and preservation of historical documents. The main body of the thesis is created by an analysis of historical collections in particular libraries. This analysis is based on a questionnaire survey, on study of sources and on a research carried out during an actual visit to these libraries. Each chapter includes a brief history of the faculty library, the origin of the collection, and other important features such as the size of the collection, its thematic focus and especially the details of the way it is stored and available to readers. Another important focus of this study is to express the needs, the aims and experience of these faculty libraries. A more detailed study is dedicated to the library of The Protestant Theological Faculty. It includes a report about my research into the actual physical condition of the collection. The concluding and summarizing part of this thesis consists of thematically structured chapters, diagrams and tables which try to give an overall perspective on the situation. It tries to define the common grounds and...

CASTLE LIBRARY OF OTTO JR. OF NOSTITZ IN JAWOR The library of Otto Jr. of Nostitz was founded in the beginning of the 1650's in the Lower Silesian castle Jawor. It consists approximately of 5 000 volumes and its structure as well as its history makes it unique and elevates the Jawor library among the most interesting book collections of early modern Europe. Shortly after death of its founder, the library was bought by Otto's brother Johann Hartwig of Nostitz and moved to the newly built palace in Malá Strana in Prague where it laid the foundations of the new family library of the house of Nostitz. The library is placed in two rooms on the second floor till today. The thesis tries to introduce the personality of the founder of the Jawor library Otto Jr. of Nostitz, his tastes in the book purchase as well as the topical structure of his book collection and its future fates. Notwithstanding, the main point of the doctor thesis is to present the issues of the thorough provenance research of the oldest part of the library. The terminus ante quem for the year of edition of the books relevant for the provenance research marks out the death of Otto Jr. in the year 1665. The most recent and complete catalogue of the Nostitz library in the present use dates back to the 19th century and shows remarkable leaks and...