Department of Neo-Latin Studies

Research Focus

The Department of Neo-Latin Studies focuses on the research of Latin culture, especially learning and literature, of early modern era, in the context of multilingual literary and book output of Czech provenance and central-European learning. The department further concentrates on registering and digital processing of literary works of Czech provenance. The research of Latin literary production in the Czech Lands from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century is also carried out in individual research projects according to the focus of individual department members who interpret, analyze and publish Neo-Latin works belonging to different genres. Current research topics: humanistic poetry, humanistic literature, travel diaries, historia litteraria concept, school drama, public speaking, sermons, historiography, memorials, scholarly correspondence, etc. The results are presented in monographs, scientific studies on specific genres and authors, editions and analyses of individual works.

Current Projects

Team Projects

EARLY MODERN BOHEMIA LITTERARIA. GENRE DIFFERENTIATION OF NEO-LATIN LITERATURE (1500–1750) (GA22-00477S, 2022–2024, PI: PhDr. Josef Förster, Ph.D.)

The essence of the interdisciplinary project of specialists in Neo-Latin literature and culture of the early modern era in Bohemia is to synthesize the current scientific research in the field that has developed dynamically here especially in the last thirty years. The main output will be a representative synthetic monograph (volume I up to 1620, volume II after 1620) mapping the individual genre areas of Neo-Latin art literature in the Czech Kingdom from the end of the 15th century to the mid-18th century according to the classical trichotomic classification of literary species (poetry, prose, drama). Introductory chapters and partial studies on individual genre areas will present recent scientific results and interpretative approaches on specific textual material and will provide access to some hardly accessible, yet unpublished or uninterpreted literary texts. A comprehensive academic monograph summarizing the essential genres of Neo-Latin literature is still lacking in Bohemia.

IN PREPARATION

• Martin Svatoš, Bohuslav Balbín SJ, Qvaesita oratoria (edition with a translation and an introductory study).
• Kateřina Bobková-Valentová – Josef Förster – Magdaléna Jacková (eds.), Early Modern Exemplary drama, Leiden: Brill.
• Josef Förster, Tři tragédie doby barokní (kritická edice s překladem, komentářem a úvodní studií) [Three tragedies of the Baroque period (critical edition with translation, commentary and introductory study)]
• Forms of Humanism in the Literature of the Czech Lands (1469–1622) – with participation of Marta Vaculínová a Vojtěch Pelc
• Antologie novolatinské literatury v Českém království 1500–1750 [Anthology of Neo-Latin Literature in the Czech Lands 1500-1750].

Databases

Bohuslai Balbini Bohemia docta

Clavis nigra

Dictionary of Czech and Slovak book printers

Fontes rerum Regni Bohemiae

Hymnorum thesaurus Bohemicus

J. P. Cerroni Database

Knihopis Digital

LIMUP: Database of contents of Utraquist liturgical manuscripts from the 15th-16th century

Repertory of incunabula in Czech

Involvement in the Strategy AV21

Detailed information is available at the webpage dedicated to the Strategy AV21.

Since 2020

• Catholic Intellectual as a Member of the European Community II: Jiří Bartholdus Pontanus as a Book Collector and Member of the Network of European Scholars and Publishers (Coordinator: Mgr. Marta Vaculínová, Ph.D., 2024)
• The Catholic Intellectual as a Member of the European Community: The Interconnection of Music and Poetry in the Work of Jiří Bartholdus Pontanus of Braitenberg (Coordinator: Mgr. Marta Vaculínová, Ph.D., 2023)
• Scholarly correspondence: a republic of scholars between the ideal of a united Europe and the practices of a hierarchical society (Coordinators: Mgr. Marta Vaculínová, Ph.D. with Vladimír Urbánek, 2022)
• Christian Culture and Education in the Czech Lands from the Middle Ages to Comenius (Coordinator: Mgr. Ondřej Podavka, Ph.D., 2020)

Educational Activities

The Department cooperates with the Institute for Greek and Latin Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, Prague, in organising the PhD study programme Medieval Latin and Neo-Latin Studies. For more information, click here.

Completed Projects and Selected Important Publications

PROJECTS

JAN MAREK MARCI FROM KRONLAND IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CZECH PHILOSOPHIC BAROQUE 1595–1667 (2020–2022; Czech Science Foundation - GAČR). Principal investigator: Doc. Mgr. Karel Černý, Ph.D., First Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University. Participants from the Department of the Neo-Latin Studies: Mgr. Zdeněk Žalud, Ph.D.

EUROPA HUMANISTICA II. EDITING AND TRANSLATING ANCIENT CLASSICS IN THE CZECH LANDS AT THE TURN OF THE 16TH CENTURY (GAČR 19-04340S, 2019–2021, principal investigator: Mgr. Marta Vaculínová, Ph.D.).

KAREL ŠKRÉTA (1610–1674) AND THE UNIVERSITY THESES PRINTS IN THE CZECH LANDS (2019–2021; Czech Science Foundation - GAČR). Principal investigator: PhDr. Petra Zelenková, Ph.D., The National Gallery in Prague. Participants from the Department of the Neo-Latin Studies: Mgr. Vojtěch Pelc.

THE NEW TESTAMENT 1601: THE PEAK OF BIBLICAL WORK OF THE UNITY OF BRETHERN (2018–2020; Czech Science Foundation - GAČR). Principal investigator: PhDr. Robert Dittmann, Ph.D., The Charles University, Faculty of Arts. Participants from the Department of the Neo-Latin Studies: Mgr. Vojtěch Pelc.

FORMS OF HUMANISM IN THE LITERATURE OF THE CZECH LANDS 1469–1622 (2016-2020; Czech Science Foundation - GAČR). Principal investigator: PhDr. Lucie Storchová, Ph.D., Institute of Philosophy of the CAS. Participants from the Department of the Neo-Latin Studies of the Centre for Classical Studies: Mgr. Marta Vaculínová, Ph.D., and Mgr. Vojtěch Pelc.

JOHANN PETER CERRONI AND THE HISTORIA LITTERARIA OF HIS AGE I (GA ČR P406/12/2254, 2012–2018, principal investigator: PhDr. Martin Svatoš, CSc.)

BOOKS (since 2020)

• Johann Peter Cerroni, Spisovatelé Království českého – Scriptores Regni Bohemiae, díl IV. (G) [Johann Peter Cerroni. Writers of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Volume IV.: G.], edited, with textual commentary and notes Josef Förster – Lucie Jakubcová – Vojtěch Pelc – Ondřej Podavka – Daniel Polakovič – Václav Pumprla – Martin Svatoš – Marta Vaculínová – Jiří Žůrek; with editorial cooperation by Karel Hádek; from Latin trans. Josef Förster – Vojtěch Pelc – Ondřej Podavka – Martin Svatoš – Jiří Žůrek, Praha: Filosofia 2024, 217 pp. ISBN 978-80-7007-784-9.
• Lucie Storchová (ed.), Companion to Central and Eastern European Humanism, II, The Czech Lands, 1, A-L, Berlin: De Gruyter 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-064642-9, s. 339‒345, 406‒411, 430‒432, 547‒550, 554‒560, 610‒614. (Co-authors from KKS Ondřej Podavka, Vojtěch Pelc and Marta Vaculínová).
• Vaculínová, Marta – Šárovcová, Martina – Nachtmannová, Alena, Portréty předbělohorských intelektuálů [Portraits of Intellectuals between 1516 and 1620.], Praha: Academia 2022, 420 pp. ISBN 978-80-200-3245-4.
• Vaculínová, Marta, Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Básně a listy [Bohuslaus of Lobkowicz and Hassenstein. Poems and Letters], Česká knižnice, sv. 116. Praha – Brno: Host 2022 (Česká knižnice, sv. 116) [introduction, translation and commentary], 192 pp. ISBN 978-80-275-1099-3.

STUDIES (since 2020)

• Förster, Josef, „Melodrama Heroica in adversis constantia Thomae Mori as an Example of Olomouc Jesuit Sodality Theatre Production in the Context of the Holy Week“, in: Moreana 61,2/2024, pp. 192–208.
• Förster, Josef, „Čeští cestovatelé na Blízkém východě do konce 19. století“ [Czech Travellers in the Near East before 1900], in: Šárka Velhartická (ed.), 100 let české staroorientalistiky. České klínopisné bádání, předovýchodní archeologie a spřízněné obory v dokumentech, Praha – Hradec Králové – Poděbrady, Praha 2022, pp. 16–24.
• Förster, Josef, „Translation despite Stereotypes. On the First Poetic Translation of Seneca’s Tragedies into German“, in: Wiener Studien. Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition 135/2022, pp. 225–253.
• Pelc, Vojtěch, „Jazykové a literární aspekty dedikačních textů tezí“ [Language and Literary Aspects of the Thesis Prints Dedicatory Texts], in: Zelenková Petra (ed.), Karel Škréta (1610–1674) a univerzitní teze v českých zemích, Praha: Národní galerie v Praze 2023, pp. 45–50.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Exul. Perno. Tiskařská a provenienční bohemika v knihovně kostela Panny Marie v Pirně“ [Exul. Perno. Printing and Provenance Bohemica from the Library of the Church of Virgin Mary in Pirna], in: Bibliotheca antiqua 31, 2023, pp. 37–59.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Johann Clingerius, S.J., and His Technopaegnion poeticum“, in: Neulateinisches Jahrbuch 25, 2023, pp. 195–228.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Studenten aus den Böhmischen Ländern und ihre literarischen Aktivitäten im Umfeld der Universität Basel am Anfang des Dreißigjährigen Krieges“, in: Acta universitatis Carolinae – Historia universitatis Carolinae Pragensis, 63/1, 2023, pp. 139–151.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „The Neo-Latin Epic in the Czech Lands before 1620“, in: Listy filologické 146, 2023, pp. 111–148.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „The Poet and Physician Laurentius Span and His Place among the Humanists in the Circle of Archduke Ferdinand II.“, in: S. Dobalová – J. Hausenblasová (eds.), Archduke Ferdinand II od Austria. A Second-Born Son in Renaissance Europe, Wien 2021, pp. 365–379.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Literární tvorba na jezuitské akademii v Olomouci v letech 1597–1598 a její odraz v tiskařské produkci“ [Literary work at the Jesuit academy in Olomouc in the years 1597-1598 and its reflection in print production], in: Bibliotheca antiqua 29, 2021, pp. 81–92.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Letohrádek Hvězda v latinské humanistické poezii“ [The Star Summer Palace in Prague and Latin Humanist Poetry], in: Listy filologické 143, 2020, pp. 467–507.
• Vaculínová, Marta, „Humanistická bohemika v rukopisných sbírkách v Drážďanech a Lipsku“ [Humanistische Bohemica in den Handschriftensammlungen in Dresden und Leipzig], in: Studie o rukopisech 50, 2020, pp. 7–24.
• Vaculínová, Marta (with Petr Daněk), „Musicus et poeta trilinguis. New Findings about the Life and Work of Jiří Cropatius Teplický“, in: Musicalia 12, 2020, pp. 6–29, Czech version ibid. pp. 30–49.