Lumina quaeruntur (Czech Academy of Sciences)

The Lumina quaeruntur Fellowship established by the Academic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences as an instrument to support scientific excellence at the CAS is designed to reward outstanding prospective researchers when setting up new scientific teams at CAS institutes. The Lumina quaeruntur Fellowship makes it possible for those awarded the Fellowship to develop their science programmes, focusing on conceptually new topics that significantly shift the frontiers of knowledge. The science programme is carried out within the bounds of institutional support for institutes at AV ČR v. v. i.  according to Section 3(3)(f) of Act No. 130/2002 Sb.
https://www.avcr.cz/en/academic-public/support-of-research/lumina-quaeruntur-bonus/index.html

Migration and mobility in Prague’s Jewish community at the transition of the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period

Institutes involved in carrying out the science programme: Historický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. (Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Principal researcher in the programme: Mgr. Marie Buňatová Dr. phil.
Subject-matter of the programme: Migration and mobility in Prague’s Jewish community at the transition of the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
Identification code of science programme: LQ300151901 
Duration: 2019–2024

The science programme focuses on the migration processes that affected the Jewish community in Prague during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. Its primary objective is to describe these processes, while at the same time shedding light on how and to what extent they contributed to the creation and transformations of the Jewish community in Prague from the time at which Vladislaus II Jagiello took the throne (1471) to the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Research focuses on internal migration (i.e. from the Czech lands), the migration of Jews to Prague from abroad (from the German lands, Italy etc.), and the Prague Jews that left the city to go abroad in the face of several waves of expulsions during the 16th century. The broader socio-political contexts of such migration are observed (identification of the causes, the level of stability of the legal environment, etc.), as are their influence on the Prague Jewish community and its political-administrative, demographic, sociocultural, religious and economic development. The objective of the science programme is to reach a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of the subject-matter at issue. Its results will be presented at a number of conferences and published in the form of specialised studies, conference proceedings, and a final collective monograph.