British Library Slavonic and East European Collections
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The British Library Slavonic and East European Section acquires
material across the spectrum of the humanities and social
sciences. It is responsible for obtaining and making available
material published in the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe, and for material in the languages of those countries
published anywhere in the world.
This page provides an overview of the Czech Collections,
illustrated by specific examples.
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The official emblem of the
Czech Republic 
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Contents
An overview of the Czech
Collections | Catalogues, printed guides
and other resources |
Czech material elsewhere in the British Library
Further information
The Lusatian Collections
Collections
The exact size of the Czech holdings is not known, since, like
other country/language holdings, they have no separate catalogue
and are dispersed within the rest of the collections. There are
approximately 14,000 titles in Czech in the current catalogue (which
covers items acquired since 1975). In the following text, codes
which appear in brackets after references [I.B.51405] indicate
British Library shelfmarks.
The Library's collection of books of Czech provenance and of books
in the Czech language is among the most important collections outside
the Czech Republic and, with regard to continuity, probably the
major collection of this material outside its country of origin.
Books relating to Czech lands were represented in the Library's
collections quite early but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth
century that systematic acquisition of books in the Czech language
began under the directorship of Anthony Panizzi, the Keeper of Printed
Books.
The Bible was translated very early into Czech (1380) and the British Library
has the first complete Bible printed in Prague in 1488
[I.B.51405] as well as the first illustrated Bible
printed in the mining town of Kutna Hora in 1489 [I.B.51804].
Around 100 editions of the Bible or its parts are held including
the early volumes issued by the great Czech Renaissance printer
J.Melantrich in the years 1549-1577, the famous six volume Kralice
Bible [C.114.n.18] printed in secret by the
Unity of the Czech Brethren (1579-1594) and clandestine Protestant
editions printed for the Czechs abroad after the defeat of Reformation
in the Czech Lands. Presses that flourished in Bohemian and Moravian
towns in the sixteenth century, the "Golden Age" of Czech printing,
are represented in the British Library collections also by their
secular output. From the early press of P. Severyn comes the great
Kozmograffia Czeska (1554) [L.23.dd.2]
and from Melantrich, who gave the Czech book its specific character,
there is, among many others, his celebrated Herbarz (1562)
[986.g.17] with large woodcut illustrations. Ivancice
kancional (1564) [C.36.g.12], Unity of Brethren's
hymn book with music, beautifully printed from moveable type, demonstrates
the peak of the art of Czech 16th-century printing embodied in imprints
coming from this secret press. Apart from printing in Latin (using
Roman types) and Czech and German (in the Fraktur and the Schwabacher)
printing in Cyrillic was also carried out in Prague. The Library
has Knigi pervyj Tsarstv (1518) part of the Bible translated
into Belarusian and printed by F. Skorina (Skaryna) [C.36.f.4].
The book production of the 17th and 18th centuries was determined
by the Counter-Reformation and concentrated in a smaller number
of establishments under the control of the Jesuits. A selection
of postillas, hymn-books, textbooks and homiletic literature from
this period is enhanced by large, presentation volumes incorporating
engraved plates and title pages. Among examples in the British Library
are Althann's Imago principum Bohemiae (1673) [9314.f.14],
Balbin's Epitome historica rerum Bohemicarum (1677) (175.k.8),
Hammerschmid's Prodromus gloriae Pragenae (1723) [157.h.6]
and Ramhofsky's Trogj popsanj (1743) [9930.i.6
and 9930.i.7] published in Czech and German
to celebrate the coronation of the Empress Maria Theresa. The home
production was augmented by the output of exiled Protestants, who
continued to have their works published abroad. The Library has,
for example, a good collection of the works of the educationalist
J.A.Comenius published in Amsterdam, Leipzig, London and elsewhere
and is also the proud owner of the only surviving copy of Comenius'
treatise Conatuum pansophicorum dilucidatio printed in
Lesno (Poland) in 1638.
The awakening of Czech national consciousness at the end of the
18th century as well as new discoveries in science and scholarly
research heralded the birth of the first learned societies. A regular
flow of their publications has been received and the library now
has complete or nearly complete runs of their serials as well as
works by eminent scholars and writers of the period.
From the early 20th century there is a comprehensive collection
of the first and early editions of 1920s and 1930s writers whose
books often incorporate the best Czech avant-garde book design led
by K.Teige. Thanks to copyright deposit, the British Library holds
the most comprehensive collection of monographs and periodicals
issued in England by Czechoslovak exiles during the Second World
War and through donations and purchases it has also been possible
to build up a collection of Czech exile material published abroad
between 1948 and 1989. There are also some 400 titles of samizdat
publications from 1970s and 1980s of which a printed catalogue was
issued in 1989 with a second edition in preparation. Official publications
start with early sixteenth century laws and although the pre 1900
period is covered fairly well the coverage is more comprehensive
for the post 1918 years and includes official gazettes, parliamentary
proceedings, law codes and bulletins of various government ministries
as well as statistical material. Post 1945 government publications
have been acquired systematically through international exchange
agreements.
Current acquisitions represent a whole range of humanities and
social sciences subjects and are carried out both by purchases and
exchanges with Czech libraries. The average intake of monographs
is now around 600 titles per annum and there are some 360 current
periodicals taken.
See the page
Lusatian (Sorbian) Collections for information on holdings of
Lusatian material in the British Library and an overview of Lusatian
history.
Catalogues and printed guides
- Czechoslovak collections in the British Library (London:
British Library, 1989) [YA.1995.a.21571]
- P. Hellyer and D. Pavlik, Czech and Slovak samizdat: a catalogue
of British Library holdings (London: British Library, 2003)
[YC.2005.a.13821]
Other resources
Czech material elsewhere in the British
Library
Further information
For further information on the Czech collections please contact Susan
Halstead:
Slavonic and East European Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
e-mail: slavonic@bl.uk
