International Colloquium "Late Medieval Prayer Books in Central Europe. Art History, Codicology, Linguistics", October 3-4, 2024, at the Academic Conference Centre in Prague (Husova 4a, Prague 1).

The multidisciplinary colloquium will focus on the hitherto underexplored questions about late medieval prayer books. The papers, often case studies, address the content, linguistic and visual aspects of these fascinating manuscripts.

Emphasis will be placed on the function of decoration and the question of how it influenced the form of prayer books in the era immediately preceding the invention of the printing press and the rapid spread of reproductive graphic techniques.

The colloquium is organized within the framework of the project Libri precum: The Book of Hours of King Wenceslas IV in the Context of Lay Prayer Books (Czech Science Foundation, No. 22-28502S) by the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

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PROGRAM:

THURSDAY OCTOBER 3, 2024

14:00 Registration

14:15 Introductions by Jan Klípa, the deputy director of the Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences and by the organisers Milada Studničková and Jan Dienstbier

I. PRAYING COMMUNITIES – SOURCES RECONSIDERED

14:30 Prayer books for lay women in medieval Bohemia? A few probes
Věra Soukupová
Institute for Czech Literature of the CAS, Prague

15:00 Saints in the litanies of Bohemian manuscripts
Michal Dragoun
Charles University, Prague

15:30 coffee break

II. PRAYING ELITES – VISUAL AND TEXTUAL ASPECTS

16:00 Eigenartiges Design. Das Stundenbuch für König Wenzel IV.
Milada Studničková
Institute of Art History of the CAS, Prague

16:30 Prayerbook of George of Poděbrady and the advent of print
Jan Dienstbier
Institute of Art History of the CAS, Prague

17:00 Clypeus spiritualis. On the set of protective prayers of King Sigismund I the Old
Rafał Wójcik
Adam Mickiewicz University, University Library, Poznań

17:30 discussion & refreshment

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 4, 2024

9:30 VISIT TO THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Round-table discussion with leafing through a selection of Bohemian prayer books

12:00 lunch break

III. PRAYING IN VERNACULAR – CZECH AND GERMAN CASES

13:00 Das Berliner Gebetbuch Ms. germ. oct. 489
Maria Theisen & Kathrin Chlench-Priber
Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences,Vienna, University of Bonn, Department of German and Comparative Literature and Culture

13:50 Linguistic adaptation in Old Czech books of hours
Kateřina Voleková
Czech Language Institute of the CAS, Prague

14:20 Communion prayers in Old Czech manuscripts: signs of confession and gender
Andrea Hlaváčová Svobodová
Czech Language Institute of the CAS, Prague

14:45 conclusion & final discussion over coffee