Borovany (Czech Republic)

The house of the Canons Regular of St Augustine in Borovany was the youngest foundation in Bohemia. It was established in 1460 by the merchant and burgher Peter of Linda, and its existence came to an end during the secularisation reforms of Emperor Joseph II, when it was dissolved in 1785. Throughout its entire history, it maintained close ties with its mother house in nearby Třeboň. Although it was a less prominent foundation, the study of its library helps to complete the picture of medieval book culture in South Bohemia.

The Borovany library was relatively small, but it is well preserved: sixty manuscripts and twenty-nine volumes containing incunabula have been identified. All the books can be dated to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and they are mostly paper volumes without illumination. In terms of content, sermons clearly predominate, accounting for more than one third of the surviving corpus; the second-largest group consists of manuscripts containing biblical texts. Other more substantially represented categories include legal writings, meditative and moral-theological literature, works of the Church Fathers, and penitential literature. No liturgical books have been identified as originating from the Borovany library, although they were undoubtedly part of its holdings.

A comprehensive study of this library has been published, along with a detailed catalogue of all its manuscripts and incunabula:

• Michal DRAGOUN – Adéla EBERSONOVÁ – Lucie DOLEŽALOVÁ, Středověké knihovny augustiniánských kanonií v Třeboni a Borovanech. I. Rukopisy a inkunábule; II. Rukopisy Kříže z Telče; III. Rejstříky [Medieval Libraries of Augustinian Houses in Třeboň and Borovany. I. Manuscripts and Incunables; II. Manuscripts of Crux de Telcz; III. Indices]. Dolní Břežany: Scriptorium, 2021. 1666 pp.

  A preview of the book is available here: https://www.academia.edu/61546003

  The book can be purchased in print or electronic form here: http://www.scriptorium.cz/index.html

Research on this library has also been published here:

• Adéla EBERSONOVÁ. Středověké rukopisné knihovny řeholních kanovníků sv. Augustina v Čechách [Medieval Libraries of the Canons Regular of St Augustine in Bohemia]. PhD thesis. Praha: Charles University, Faculty of Arts, 2020, pp. 270–304

  The full text of the thesis is available here: https://dspace.cuni.cz/handle/20.500.11956/124141