Abstract
Until recently, scholars viewed manuscripts as an obsolete medium that was replaced by the printed book and played only a marginal role in the dissemination of texts after the invention of the printing press. Research in recent years has attempted to break down the artificial boundary in the approach to manuscript and print culture and to bring the two worlds more closely together.
Recent research on manuscripts in Czech noble libraries of the early modern period, which contained hundreds of manuscript books at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, contributes to this. The aim of this paper is primarily to shed light on how the owners of the libraries acquired the manuscripts, what their motivation was for acquiring the codices, and whether these books were the object of individual collecting or personal representation, or whether they were collected for the sake of the texts.
In addition to basic research, the concept of a shared book culture of manuscripts and prints can be pursued in applied research. In particular, mention will be made of the recently completed project Knihověda.cz: a portal to the history of Czech book culture up to 1800 (https://www.knihoveda.cz/), the concept of which was also based on the idea of bringing research on manuscript and printed books closer together.