7 surprising facts about books and libraries that will amaze you
There are many ways to discover the magic of books and literature. You can visit interesting museums, such as the Museum of Literature at the Memorial of National Literature in Prague, the Kralice Bible Memorial in Kralice nad Oslavou, or the Latin School Library in Jáchymov. You can also attend various book festivals, fairs, and literary events, or focus on books you know from literary competitions. The most famous Czech literary award is Magnesia Litera, but book lovers will also enjoy the competition for the Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Year, organised annually by the Memorial of National Literature and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Did you know that International Book Giving Day is celebrated every year on 14 February, St. Valentine’s Day? This day aims to promote a love of reading, especially among children, and to spread the joy of literature. This holiday was established in 2012 and brings together people around the world who donate books to their loved ones, strangers, libraries or charities.
1. March – Book Month
March was first celebrated as Book Month in 1955 with the aim of bringing books into every household, to every corner of our country, and spreading awareness of literature to as many people as possible. Under the previous regime, the focus was, of course, mainly on Marxist-Leninist literature, but even then, libraries and bookshops played a key role in the whole project, so many events, such as discussions and poetry evenings, took place without ideological baggage. The plan was quite successful: company libraries were even established in factories and steelworks, which led to many enthusiastic readers and bookworms starting to visit municipal and city libraries. March has thus become the month of books to this day, with various book fairs taking place and publishers and bookshops offering attractive book prices. It seems that predictions of a world without books have been postponed indefinitely.
2. The most beautiful library in the world
The Baroque Jesuit Library in Prague’s Klementinum has been named the most beautiful library in the world many times. It was built by the master of Baroque architecture, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, and first opened in 1722. Since then, its appearance has not changed much. The library houses 20,000 volumes of mainly foreign-language theological literature, and some books with white spines and red marks were already there during the Jesuit era. In addition to books, there is also a collection of historical globes, including astronomical clocks. The Jesuit library in Klementinum became one of the cornerstones of the National Library of the Czech Republic, which is the largest library in the country and also one of the oldest public libraries. Since 1782, Prague printers have been required to send a copy of every book they produce to the National Library; since 1807, this obligation has been extended to printers throughout Bohemia, and this remains the case today.
3. Records of our libraries
The oldest core of the historical collections of today’s National Library consists of manuscripts from Charles University. Its founder, Charles IV, donated 114 manuscripts from the estate of Vilém of Lestkov to the library in 1370, including three codices, which are now the oldest parts of the National Library’s collection. The earliest items in the library are Greek papyri from the first century AD. The heaviest book in the Clementine collection is the Lobkovice Gradual, which weighs more than seventy kilograms, and the most valuable is the Vyšehrad Codex. According to researchers, this codex was intended for the royal coronation of Vratislav II on 15 June 1086, and is sometimes considered a Czech coronation jewel. It is named after an inconspicuous note “de Wisegrad” on one of its pages and was probably created in a Bavarian monastery scriptorium influenced by Regensburg book culture. Its value is estimated at one billion Czech crowns.
4. Books on chains
In some monastery libraries in the Middle Ages, books were placed on reading desks and tied to chains. These books, called “Libri catenati”, had to remain in the library and could not be removed without the permission of the librarians. It was only later that books began to be placed on shelves and the chains were gradually removed; today, only a small place on the back cover or a metal eyelet remains. However, books on chains are rare in Czech libraries: they were found, for example, in the historical library of the municipal school in Jáchymov and in the library of the Franciscan monastery in Cheb, which was purchased as a whole by the National Library in 2008.
5. The smartest library in Czechia: the National Technical Library
If Kaplický’s “octopus”, the unrealised National Library building selected by an international jury in 2007, had been built, we might have had a different, even more modern library. However, this octopus remained only in the plans, and the primacy thus belongs to the National Technical Library in Prague’s Dejvice district. It is modern and environmentally friendly, does not need to be heated, and even on hot summer days, it usually does not need air conditioning. The building is monitored by a computer-controlled system that automatically maintains optimal climatic conditions. The library has more than 230,000 volumes of technical literature (the total capacity is up to 660,000), and there is space for another 1.2 million books in three underground storage areas.
Given its appearance, the library looks like a three-dimensional technical drawing: the dimensions are marked on the doors, walls and even the façade, which states that the building has a circumference of 263 metres and a height of 21 metres. The stairs even show how long it takes to climb them and how many calories you burn in the process. All floors around the spacious atrium with galleries are decorated with simple comic-like drawings created by Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi. The National Technical Library was opened to the public in 2009 and has since won several awards.
6. The most mysterious and beautiful book in the Czech Republic
Among the most mysterious manuscripts, alongside the Devil’s Bible and the Voynich Manuscript, is the Liber sapientiae / Book of Wisdom, a witchcraft book written in German and Latin. It was written in the mid-18th century and its author signed it, but his identity remains a mystery: he used the fictitious name of an adept of secret teachings. This manuscript summarises various disciplines of hermetic sciences: theoretical magic, Kabbalah, alchemy and practical magic, offering instructions for invoking fallen angels and demons. The book is supplemented with various illustrative images full of complex symbolism and hidden meanings. Several black-coloured pages contain mysterious incantations written in white ink. Similar magical symbols, called pantacles, are also depicted on a few preserved round metal plates hanging on ribbons of fine colourful silk. The journey that brought this book to the National Library is also unusual: during the reign of Emperor Joseph II, the financial guard detained a smuggler at the border and confiscated his goods. Among the seized contraband, a strange book was discovered, which the financiers found disturbing. The emperor himself ordered that it be placed in the Jesuit library in Prague and shown to every visitor as an example of obscurantist superstitions and harmful delusions.
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year competition, the organisers added a poll for the Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Century in 2024. The winner was Josef Váchal’s publication Šumava umírající a romantická (The Dying and Romantic Šumava), one of the most significant Czech works of art of the 20th century, which the author hand-set and printed in 1931.
7. A discovery from the 15th century
The National Library recently made part of its old prints available for digitisation. In one of the manuscripts published on the Manuscriptorium digital library portal, fragments of six two-part compositions were discovered, which were composed in the 13th century in the vicinity of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The significance of the work is even greater when we realise that only three similar manuscripts from the 13th century and a few small fragments have survived to this day. The first two codices are stored in the library in Wolfenbüttel; the first of these codices was written around 1230 for St Andrews Cathedral in Scotland, while the second dates from the mid-13th century, probably from Paris. The third manuscript is now kept in Florence and its creation is probably connected with Louis IX’s order for the Sainte Chapelle in Paris in 1248. How did these two folios end up in Prague? The manuscript was used as material for binding a book for a member of Prague University, which was common practice in the late Middle Ages, as paper was expensive and old, unwanted documents were often used to make new books.
