Department of Early Modern History

Areas of Focus

The department specializes in research on the political, religious, cultural, intellectual, and educational history of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries with particular focus on the Lands of the Bohemian Crown perceived as an integral part of the Habsburg Monarchy and Central Europe. Certain areas of research focus on Italy, France, and the USA. The department also publishes the journal Folia Historica Bohemica, a periodical dedicated to early modern history. Members of the department teach at a number of university faculties (Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague; Faculty of Arts, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice; Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice; Faculty of Arts, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem). They also work to popularize the findings of basic research, namely through appearances on Czech Television and Czech Radio but also through lectures for the general public and the University of the Third Age. 

Main Research Projects

• Political culture, dynastic power, and nobility 
• Ecclesiastical and religious history in the Czech lands 
• Education, cultures of knowledge, and communication 
• Comparative history of towns 
• Sources on Czech history from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (see below)

Department Publishing Projects

• Historica Třeboň 1526–1547 
• Consuetudines assistentiae Germaniae 
• Acta Unitatis Fratrum 
• Epistulae et acta nuntiorum apostolicorum apud imperatorem 1592–1628
• Other editions on the cultural and educational history of the early modern period

Periodicals

• Folia Historica Bohemica

Important Grants