Monastic Libraries
of the Canons Regular of St Augustine
Manuscripts and Incunabula
Bibliography
Libraries
About the Project

Třeboň (Czech Republic)

The house of the Canons Regular of St Augustine in Třeboň was founded in 1367 by the brothers Peter, Jošt, Oldřich, and John of the powerful South Bohemian Rožmberk family. This house was the only one of the Czech houses of the order to escape plundering during the Hussite Wars, and its existence came to an end only during the secularisation reforms of Emperor Joseph II, when it was dissolved in 1785. The Třeboň house is closely associated with Kříž of Telč (1434–1504), who spent the final part of his life there and, through his lifelong work as a scribe and collector, significantly shaped the library’s collection – his hand appears in more than fifty manuscripts.

Although the library suffered some losses, it remains one of the most extensive collections of the Czech Middle Ages, with 287 manuscripts and 92 volumes containing incunabula identified. The books, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are mostly paper codices without decoration. In terms of content, sermon collections predominate; the second-largest group consists of works by the Church Fathers, followed by meditative and moral-theological writings and biblical texts. Systematic theology, exegetical literature, and the natural sciences are also relatively well represented.

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

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. 185–269

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