Biobibliographical Database of Religious in the Czech Lands in the Early Modern Period

The database compiles information about the life of religious in the early modern period with potential overlap into both earlier and later periods. It was primarily created and is developed as a tool for the systematization and presentation of biographical data on monks and nuns. The primary sources of information are contained within a catalogue of manuscripts created according to the standards required by a manuscript cataloguing committee. Additional information is provided in a database of old prints, which serves as a record of printed biographical sources and school theatre synopses as well as a means of method verification in working with historical catalogues or those no longer in existence.
Biobibliographical Database of Religious in the Czech Lands in the Early Modern Period is a developed database containing more than 19,000 entries for people and corporations (religious orders, order houses) at different levels with details based on the predicative value of surviving sources and the findings of ongoing research. It compiles general information on the Capuchins, Piarists, Brothers of Mercy, and Bohemian eremitical Augustinians. A large group is made up of entries presenting part of the religious career connected with either a function (e.g. superior, musical prefect, military chaplain) or place (the Jesuit community in Telč or Klatovy). The database primarily contains information about the largest religious order in the Czech lands in the early modern period, the Jesuits. Complete or nearly complete biographical cards of religious are compiled only for individuals, namely order superiors, important figures, and order historiographers.
The catalogue of manuscripts with more than 2,500 entries focusing primarily on narrative and biographical sources contains the following segments of information: separate codicological description, identification of the manuscript, description of contents, and interpretation tools categorizing the manuscript in terms of genre, content, and authorship.
In addition to these public sections providing access to research results in real time, i.e. immediately upon entry of the information, the database also contains nonpublic sections. These include a module with documents relating to the functioning of school (namely Jesuit) theatre as well as modules for information about events and material objects recorded in sources. The records are not yet available for browsing, but they are used in the creation of indexes and legends in the electronic edition.

Contact

Mgr. Kateřina Bobková-Valentová, Ph.D.
email: locus.pietatis@gmail.com