Medieval Libraries of Augustinian Canonries in Třeboň and Borovany. II., Manuscripts of Crux de Telcz
Abstract
This publication presents the first detailed and systematic catalogue of manuscripts and incunables owned by two Augustinian canon houses in Southern Bohemia, Třeboň (Wittingau, founded in 1367) and its smaller nearby daughter foundation, Borovany (Forbes, founded in 1455) during the Middle Ages (until ca. 1500). With 293 surviving manuscript volumes, the medieval library of the Třeboň house is the largest extant medieval monastic library in the Czech lands.
Its survival is attributed primarily to the fact that Třeboň was protected by the influential lords of Rožmberk (Rosenberg), and thus it was never destroyed during the Hussite Wars. Some of its volumes were given over to Borovany, from which 58 manuscripts have survived.
Both libraries were united in the early modern period, and it is likely that their contents were not kept entirely separate, which is why items originating in both collections have been catalogued here. While most of the manuscripts and incunables are now preserved in the National Library in Prague, some are kept in the State Archives in Třeboň, and several items are held in the Library of the National Museum in Prague, the Strahov Monastery Library, the Vatican Library, in the Wrocław University Library, the Metropolitan Chapter Library of St.
Vitus Cathedral, the South Bohemian Museum in České Budějovice, the Cistercian abbey of Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurt), and the library of Knights of the Cross with the Red Star in Prague. The holdings of the medieval library in Třeboň are further documented by two medieval catalogues and two early modern book lists, which are all edited here, and their entries are, wherever possible, associated with surviving manuscripts and prints.
Other evidence concerning the original shelfmark system, possession marks, provenance and binding is also discussed in detail. Also discussed is the significant evidence of book donation to both libraries: in fact, gifts formed a larger part of manuscript acquisition than copying at the canonries, and indeed no scribal activity is documented for Borovany.
With all evidence considered, we estimate that the original library at Třeboň held over 670 manuscripts codices, while Borovany possessed over 170. The second volume of the present catalogue is dedicated to manuscripts revealing the hand of one particular canon of Třeboň, Crux de Telcz (1434-1504).
Crux was a peculiar personality and an avid scribe, and his hand is found in approximately 20% of the surviving Třeboň manuscripts. When he entered the canonry in 1478, he brought with him at least 28 codices which he either copied, purchased, or acquired by various means during his career as a teacher (in Telč, Soběslav, Žďár and Roudnice), as a university student in Prague, in church administration (at the Prague castle), and as a preacher (in Plzeň, Planá, Nepomuk and Horšovský Týn).
The manuscripts reflect his wide-ranging interests, including religious polemics, secular poetry, and medicine or computus. While in Třeboň, Crux continued copying but primarily corrected and glossed local manuscripts.
He probably also compiled several volumes and arranged for their binding. In total, his hand is found in 20 more Třeboň codices.
The catalogue of items in which he left his mark also includes four incunables, three charters, fragment of a cartulary, and two individual smaller leaves featuring his hand. Crux's manuscripts are described here in particular detail because they provide particularly valuable evidence: some remain unedited; others attest to unique variants; while a few are entirely unknown elsewhere.
Their impact on the overall content of the Třeboň library is substantial. The contents of the Třeboň library are analysed in detail with respect to both the formal features of the manuscripts and incunables, and to the thematic groupings of the texts contained in them.
Special study is dedicated to musical manuscripts, especially to those by Crux de Telcz, since they have not been analysed before.