College and Research Libraries


By KAROL MAICHEL 

Czechoslovak National Bibliography: 
A Historical Sketch 

~E DESIGNATION "Father of Czech 
~ Bibliography" doubtless belongs to 

Josef Jungmann. His work, Historie lit-
eratury ceske aneb soustavny pfehled 
spisu ceskych s krrltkou historii nrlrodu} 
osviceni a jazyka}1 was the first success-
ful attempt to compile Czech-written 
production from the earliest period to 
1825. It is not, as the title suggests, a his-

-tory of literature in the sense of belles-
lettres, but rather a list of manuscript 
and printed material on various subjects, 
divided into seven chronological sections 
based on historical events. Each section 
is preceded by a brief description of the 
general and literary history of the period. 
Except in the first two sections, which 
comprise the earliest writings up to 1310, 
the material is divided into seven to ten 
classes: linguistics, literature, history, 
geography, philosophy, law, religion, 
mathematics, natural science, and medi-
cine. All together, the work lists 2,453 
items and has two alphabetical indexes: 
one of Czech authors and one of foreign 
authors translated into Czech. In the 
Czech author index, each author is pro-
vided with a short biographical sketch. 

This pioneer work saw a second edi-
tion in 1849, with coverage extended to 
1846, listing 7,273 items. The material 
was collected and prepared for publica-
tion by Jungmann himself, but due to 

1 Translation: History of Czech literature, or a sys-
tematic survey of Czech writings, with a brief history 
of the people, culture and language. (All Czech titles 
in the remainder of the article are translated in foot-
note citations.) 

Mr. Maichel is in charge of S~avic ac-
quisitions} Columbia University Libra-
rzes. 

JULY 1957 

his death in 1847 the work was edited by 
V. V. Tomek. A title index, compiled by 
Tomek, was added in the second edition. 
For almost a century Jungmann's work 
was the basic bibliography for the period 
covered, and as such was often supple-
mented. Of these the most important is 
the work of I. L. Hanus, published in 
two volumes (1869 and 1871) entitled 
Dodatky a doplnky k ]ungmannove His-
torii literatury ceske. 2 A direct continua-
tion of Jungmann's first edition ·is Josef 
Vaclav Justin Michl's Auplny literaturnj 
letopis cili obraz slowesnosti S.lowanuv 
nrlfecj ceskeho w cechrlch} na Morave} 
w Uhfjch atd.} od leta 1825 az do leta 
1837}3 published in Prague in 1839. It 
contains 832 entries, arranged by subject. 
With the publication of Jungmann's sec-
ond edition, much of the original value 
of Michl's work was lost; but because it 
lists some items not listed by Jungmann, 
it is not entirely superseded. 

Most of the period covered by Jung-
mann, Hanus, and Michl was, a hundred 
years later, covered more thoroughly by 
Zdenek Tobolka in his two-volume work 
Knihopis ceskych a slovenskych tisku od 
doby nejstarsi az do konce XVIII stoleti.4 

The first volume, on incunabula, was 
published in 1925; the second, covering 
the period from 1501 to 1800, appeared 
in 1939. Every entry has a detailed anno-
tation, and there are reproductions of 
some title pages. The arrangement is 

2 Additions and supplements to Jungmann's history 
of Czech literature. 

3 Complete annals of the literature of Slavs with 
Czech dialect in Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, etc., 
from 1825 to 1837. 

4 Bibliography of Czech and Slovak publications 
from the earliest times to the end of the . eighteenth 
century. 

269 



alphabetical by author, followed by a 
short biographical sketch. There are 
three indexes: a chronological index of 
works, an alphabetical title and author 
index, and a subject index. 

In contrast to the previous centuries, 
the nin.eteenth century lacks a compre-
hensive bibliography which would give 
an adequate survey of its book produc-
tion. Although numerous attempts were 
made, none of them lasted longer than a 
few years. This was due to the fact that 
most of the attempts were made by pri-
vate individuals who lacked the financial 
support to -continue. It is true that there 
were a number of bibliographies com-
piled by literary historians and book-
sellers, but the former limited their work 
to particular subjects, while the latter 
compiled bibliographies from those 
books which they had on hand, and thus 
none of them can be called comprehen-

. sive. 
For the first half of the nineteenth 

century we can use the J ungmann bib-
liography, the second edition of which 
goes to 1846, as well as the work of]. ]. 
Heinrich Czikann, Die lebenden Schrift-
steller Miihrens (Brno, 181.2), arranged 
alphabetically by author and containing 
the rna jor bibliographical information. 
The two works of Christian d'Elvert, 
Historische Literatur-Geschichte von 
Miihren und Osterreichisch-Schlesien, 
published in Brno in 1850, and Gesch-
ichte des Bucher- und Steindruckes, des 
Buchhandels, der Biicher-Censur und der 
periodischen Literatur, so wie Nachtriige 
zur Geschichte der historischen Literatur 
in Miihren und Osterreich Schlesien, 
published in Brno in 1854, can be con-
sidered for continuation and supplement 
of the Jungmann and Czikann bibliogra-
phies. D'Elvert gives a chronological list 
of Moravian printers with brief descrip-
-tions of their publications. 

From among the bookseller lists the 
most useful bibliographical work for the 
nineteenth century is the work of Jan 

Vaclav Rozum, Seznam ceskych knih, 
obrazu a hudebnich vytvaru, ktere posud 
na sklade jsou, 5 which was compiled on 
the holdings of Jaroslav Pospisil's book-
store in 1853. The work was published 
in 1854, and according to the author it 
is a "quite complete list of the Czech 
output in the early nineteenth century." 
It is arranged alphabetically by title, with 
author, translator, and publisher index, 
a systematic index of authors arranged 
by their subjects, and a list of booksell-
ers in Bohemia, Moravia, and Vienna. 

Another work which covers the first 
half of the nineteenth century, but which 
is important to us especially because of 
its coverage of the first decade of the 
second half, is Frantisek Doucha's Kni-
hopisny slovnik cesko-slovensky: Seznam 
knih, map, obrazu a hudebnin 1774 az 
1864,f> published in Prague in 1865. It 
is arranged alphabetically by author, 
with detailed bibliographical notes and 
data for collectors. In some places the 
author lists reviews in periodicals. 

The first half of the 1870's is covered 
by Vestnik Bibliograficky} edited by 
F. A. Urbanek from 1870 to 1874 in 
Prague and published by I. L. Kober. 
This tool, a monthly, covers the period 
from 1869 to the first four months in 
1874. In January of 1874 the editorship 
of the · journal devolved upon Otakar 
Hostinsky, but only four more numbers 
appeared. In January of 1875 publica-
tion was renewed under the editorship 
of -Fr. A. Zeman and F. A. Urbanek, but 
it ceased publication altogether toward 
the end of 1876. 

In 1877 the Association of Czechoslo-
vak Bookseller Accountants 8 under the 
editorship of A. Michalek, I. Kloucek, 
and 9thers, started the publication of 
Slovansky katalog bibliograficky. 9 This 

5 List of Czech books, pictures, and musical works, 
which are still in stock. 

6 Czechoslovak bibliographical dictionary: list of 
books, maps, pictures and music from 1774 to 1864. 

7 Bibliographical messenger. 
8 Spolek ceskoslovenskych knihkupeckych ucetnich. 
9 Slavic bibliographical catalog. 

270 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



annual included the Slavic countries of 
Bohemia, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, 
Croatia, and Serbia. In spite of all the 
efforts to ·keep it going, it survived for 
only four years. Because of difficulties 
connected with the procurement of mate-
rial, it ceased publication with the 1881 
ISSUe. 

The years 1880-83 are covered by the 
indefatigable F. A. Urbanek, who in 
1880 renewed his publication of 1870 
under the title Urbdnkuv V estnik Bib-
liograficky.10 This monthly listed the 
Czech and Slovak book and periodical 
publications in the fields of literature, 
music, and art. An important feature is 
the information about reviews of some 
of the more important books. Its great 
disadvantage is the lack of a cumulative 
index. 

For the years 1884-88, there is no 
Czech national bibliographical tool ex-
cept for F. A. Urbanek's publication of 
1909 entitled Biograficky a bibliograficky 
slovnik ceskych spisovatelu?1 in two vol-
umes. Volume one is subtitled Bdsnici a 
be.letriste 1800-190012 ; volume two, Spi-
sovatele vedeCti 1800-1900. 13 Although 
the title suggests inclusion of all the 
works of poets, writers, and scientists of 
the nineteenth century, it is in reality a 
selective list of works from the nine-
teenth century, dependent upon Ur-
banek's judgment, and is far from com-
plete. 

The remaining years of the nineteenth 
century, from 1889, are covered quite ad-
equately by a number of bibliographical 
tools. The most important of these is the 
tesky katalog bibliograficky/4 published 
by the above-mentioned Association of 
Czechoslovak Bookseller Accountants in 
Prague. This monthly covers the years 
1889-1903, listing the book, pamphlet, 
periodical, and music output in Czecho-

10 Urbanek's bibliographical messenger . 
u Biographi<:al and bibliographical dictionary of 

Czech writers. 
12 Poets and belletrists, 1800-1900. 
13 Scientific authors, 1800-1900. 
14 Czech bibliographical catalog. 

JULY 1957 

slovakia as well as Czechoslovak litera-
ture published abroad, especially in the 
United States. From 1891 on, it includes 
an index to scientific articles in the ma-
jor Czech periodicals. The years 1898 to 
1903 (vols. X-XV) came out in 1906 in 
one cumulative volume, compiled byVoj-
tech Kudlata_ The other bibliographies 
for this period were compiled by some 
publishing houses which began at this 
point the listing of Bohemian national 
book production. A comprehensive bibli-
ography for the years 1897-1900 with a 
subject index, issued by Backovsky Pub-
lishing House under the editorship of 
B . Jindfich, is entitled Abecedni soupis 
vsech knih vsech nakladetelu ceskych 
vydanych za poslednich tfi let. 15 The 
years 1892-94 are covered by ceskd bibli-
ografie/6 edited by I. L. Kobra. For the 
years 1900-01, publications are listed in 
the cesky V estnik Bibliograficky 17 of the 
Rivnac Publishing House_ 

As we have seen, the nineteenth cen-
tury does not possess a comprehensive 
bibliography of Czech books, although 
various sectional bibliographies exist. In 
order to cover the book output of the 
vears for which there are no Czech bibli-
~graphies, as well as of the years which 
have only superficial coverage, we must 
turn to the Austrian bibliographies of 
the nineteenth century, when the present 
Czechoslovak terri tory belonged to the 
Austro-Hungarian 1\fonarchy. The first 
of this kind is the first Austrian national 
bibliography, Al1gemeine Bibliographie 
filr das Kaisertum Osterreich) published 
in the periodical Osterreichische Blatter 
filr Literatur und Kunst) a supplement 
to the Osterreichisch-Kaiserliche Wiener 
Zeitung) which began in 1853. It was 
compiled by the Library of the Ministry 
of Domestic Affairs, whose director was 
C. vVurzbach. It was issued weekly and 
contained German, Italian, Hungarian, 

15 Alphabetical index of all books of all Czech pub-
lishers published within the past three years. 

16 Czech bibliography. 
17 Czech bibliographical messenger. 

271 



Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Slovenian ti-
tles. It ceased publication in 1857. For 
1859-60 we have the Bibliographisches 
Central-Organ des dsterreichisches Kai-
serstaates, also a publication of the Min-
istry of Domestic Affairs. This tool, a 
semi-weekly, is arranged systematically, 
listing only the important literary publi-
cations. It includes the same countries 
as the previous work. From 1860 on, there 
appears the dsterreichische Buchhiindler-
Correspondenz} a publication of the Aus-
trian Bookseller Association. At the be-
ginning this tool was published three 
times a month, later becoming weekly. It 
listed German, Hungarian (to 1889), 
Czech, Italian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian, 
and Bulgarian publications. From 1861 
to 1870, the yearly cumulation of this 
bibliography was published under the 
title dsterreichscher Katalog: Verzeich-
nis aZZer im jahre 18 ... in dsterreich 
erschienenen Biicher}Zeitschriften JK unst-
sachen } Landkarten} und Musikalien. In 
1871 this yearly cumulation came out . 
under the title Alphabetisches Verzeich-
nis der Bucher} Kunstartikel und Musi-
kalien} welche im Jahre 1871 in der oster-
reichisch-ungarischen M onarchie ers-
chienen sind. However, in 1872 this title 
was changed to Halbjiihriges Inha.lts- Ver-
zeichnis} der in den Bibliographien der 
osterreichischen Buchhiindler Correspon-
den z aufgenommenen Neukeiten und 
Fortsetzungen} and it appeared under 
this title as a semi-annual to 1882. From 
1883 to 1888 its continuation was dster-
reichischer Katalog: Verzeichnis aZZer 
vom ]anuar bis ]uni (]uli bis December) 
1883- . . . in dsterreich erschienenen 
Bucher} Zeitschriften} K unstsachen} Land-
kart en und Musikalien} also a semi-an-
nual. It is divided into five sections, ·of 
which the second contains Slavic writings. 
The years 1881-94 are covered in Gesamt-
Ver.lag-Katalog des Deutschen Buchhan-
dels und des mit ihm im direkten Ver-
kehr stehenden Auslandes} published by 
Russel in Munster in Westfallen. It is a 

28-volume work consisting of sixteen 
parts. Volumes XII and XVI include 
Bohemia. 

Bibliographical control in the twenti-
eth century showed a promising develop-
ment at the beginning of the century; 
when in 1902 the Czech Academy of 
Science ( Ceska Akademie cis are Fran-
tiska Josefa pro vedy, slovesnost a umeni) 
decided to take over the recording of the 
national book output, and in the next 
year, under the editorship of Z. V. To-
bolka, published Ceskd bibliografie}ts 
starting the coverage with the year 1902. 
As stated in the preface, the bibliography 
"aims at completeness" for the Czech 
lands. AI though the original idea was to 
publish it annually, for the previous 
year, the volumes appeared irregularly, 
often delayed as much as two or three 
years. It ceased publication with the year 
1911, the volume for which was pub-
lished in 1914. 

A second tool for this period, as well 
as for the last decade of the nineteenth 
century, is ]. Schmidt's Pfirucni seznam 
ceske literatury? 9 a catalog of books from 
approximately 1880 to 1916, in classified 
arrangement. It was published in 1917 
by the Association of Czech Booksellers 
and Publishers. Its disadvantage is that 
it lacks an author index. 

In March of 1919 there was established 
the Bibliographical Institute of Prague 
University, whose task it became to re-
cord all Czechoslovak publications. The 
Institute first brought out in 1923, under 
the editorship of L. K. Zivny, the Bibli-
ografisky Katalog cSR. 2 o This weekly 
classified listing was based on the obliga-
tory copies received by the Bohemian li-
braries. In 1924 an alphabetical index of 
authors was added and, from 1926 on, a 
subject index. Up to 1935 it is not en-
tirely comprehensive, because there was 

1 8 Czech bibliography. 
19 A handy index of Czech literature. 
20 Bibliographica l catalog of the Czecho slovak Re-

public. 

272 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



until then no national law for obligatory 
copies. 

The gap between 1916, the last year 
covered by Schmidt's Pfirucni seznam 
... , and 1923, the first year of the Bibli-
ograficky Katalog, was filled later by a 
two volume work of Karel Nosovsky and 
Vilem Prazak entitled Soupis ceskoslo-
venske literatury za leta 1901 az 1925.21 

Volume one, which covers the letters A 
to L, was published in 1931; volume two, 
with the rest of the alphabet, was pub-
lished in 1933. The work contains over 
75,000 items and is arranged according 
to decimal classification. Another aid for 
this period, as well as for the following 
two decades, is the Prague Public Li-
brary's catalog of acquisitions in the field 
of literature entitled Seznam belletrie 
(od r. 1912 do 1924)22 published in 1924, 
and its supplements, the Seznam ceske 
belletrie puvodni i preloiene (Bdsne, 
krdsnd pros a a literatura dramatickd ),23 
published in 1929, 1932, and 1935, cover-
ing the period 1925 to 1934. These works 
were issued as a part of the collection 
Spisy knihovny hlavneho mesta Prahy,24 
numbers 1, 2, 11, and 18. In 1948 a con-
tinuation was published under the title 
Knizny Novinky 1935-1947.25 In contrast 
to its predecessor, which is limited to lit-
erature, the later work includes nineteen 
different fields and, according to the 
preface, records "the large majority of 
the Czech book output of the past 13 
years ." It does not include periodicals, 
school textbooks, annual reports, or chil-
dren's books. It is arranged in alphabet-
ical order by author and has a subject 
index. 

In 1925 the Bibliographical Institute 
at the Prague University Library merged 
with the Narodni Knihovna, which con-
tinued to publish the above-mentioned 
Bibliograficky Katalog in its original 

21 Index of Czech literature from 1901 to 1925. 
22 Index of belles-lettres (from 1912 to 1924). 
23 Index of Czech original and translated belles-

lettres. 
24 Writings of Prague Library. • 
25 Book news, 1935-1947. 

JULY 1.957 

form (weekly) until 1929. From 1930 to 
1932 it became an annual publication, 
but it returned to a weekly with cumula-
tions and general index in 1933. It is 
published except for a few minor changes 
in this form to date. From 1942 to 1945, 
during the German occupation of Bohe-
mia, it was entitled Bibliographischer 
Katalog: Bibliograficky Katalog; verzeich-
nis des im Protektorat Bohmen und Miih-
ren erschienenen Schriftums.26 After-
wards it resumed its original title. 

The Bibliograficky Katalog GSR in-
cludes several parallel series, such as 
Geske knihy,21 Slovenske knihy,2s Geske 
hudebniny,29 Slovenske hudobniny,3o 
Gldnky v ceskych casopisech,3l and Gldnky 
v slovenskych casopisoch.32 The Geske 
knihy and the Slovenske knihy, which 
record the national book production, 
give full bibliographical description of 
individual items listed, as well as a brief 
annotation. The arrangement is classi-
fied. They have cumulative author, title, 
and subject indexes as well as an index 
of translations. 

The Slovak national bibliography on 
the whole has a much less complicated 
history than the Czech. The equivalent 
to Jungmann in Slovak is the work of 
L. V. Rizner, Bib.liografia pisomnictva 
slovenskeho na sposob slovnika od naj-
starSich cias do konca r. 1900,33 covering 
all Slovak publications from the earliest 
times to the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury. It was published in TurCiansky Sv. 
Martin by Matica Slovenska from 1929 
to 1934 in six volumes. This lifetime 
work of L. V. Rizner is arranged alpha-
betically by author, with books and ar-
ticles in chronological order under each 
author. A particular feature is that it 

26 Bibliographi~al catalog; list of literature published 
in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. 

?:T Czech books. 
2s Slovak books. 
29 Czech music. 
30 Slovak music. 
31 Articles in Czech periodicals. 
3 2 Articles in Slovak periodicals. 
33 Bibliography of Slovak publkations from the: 

earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century in 
dictionary arrangement. 

273 



lists in many cases bibliographical works 
about the writer, after listing all his 
works. A supplement is J. Misianik's 
Bibliografie slovenskeho pisomnictva do 
konca XIX xtor.-Doplnky k Riznero-
vi~34 published in Bratislava by the Slo-
vak Academy of Science in 1946. These 
two works, plus the Czech tools which in-
clude Slovak output such as Tobolka's 
Knihopis ceskych a slo v ensky ch tisku . .. ~ 
Doucha's Knihopisny slovnik . . . ~ Slo-
vansky Katalog) Cesky katalog bibliograf-
icky~ and the Austrian national bibliog-
raphy, cover the Slovak book output to 
the end of the nineteenth century. 

In the twentieth century the Slovak 
national book output began to be re-
corded, beginning with 1923, in Bibliog-
raficky Katalog cSR. In 1939, due to the 
German occupation of Bohemia, the Slo-
vak part was dropped, and there was no 
listing of Slovak output for six years. 
After the war, in 1945, the Bibliograficky 
Katalog resumed the Slovak recording 
and continues it to the present. 

Thus, there were two gaps in the Slo-
vak national bibliography of the twenti-
eth century. The first one was from 1903, 
the last year of Cesky katalog bibliograf-
icky> to 1923, the first year of Bibliograf-

34 Bibliography of Slovak p ublication s to the end 
of the nineteenth century.-Supplements to Ri zner. 

icky Katalog cSR. This gap was filled by 
the previously mentioned work of K. No-
sovsky and V. Prazak, Soupis Ceskoslo-
venske literatury za leta 1901-1925 )35 pub-
lished in three volumes from 1931 to 
1938. A helpful bibliography for this pe-
riod also is the work of A. Zeilinger, Pan-
theon Tyrnaviense bibliographicam con-
tinens recensionem operum typis tyrna-
viensibus 1578-1930~36 published in Trna-
va in 1931. As the title implies, it covers 
everything published in Trnava from 
1578 to 1930. Arrangement is chronolog-
ical b y date of publication. The second 
gap, 1939-45, was filled by two works of 
A. Dubay. The years 1939 to 1941 are 
covered in his work entitled Bibliograf-
icky katalog slovenskej kniznej tvorby 
za roky 1939-41,37 published in 1948. 
The next four years he covered in his 
Bibliografia slovenskej kn ~znej tv orby za 
roky 1942-45>38 published in 1953. Both 
works were published by the Biblio-
graphical Institute at the Slavonic Uni-
versity Library in Bratislava. The ar-
rangement in both is alphabetical by 
author, with various indexes. 

35 Index of Czechoslovak literature from 1901 to 
1925. 

36 A census of prints pu bli shed in Trn a va, 1578- 1930. 
37 A bibliogr a phical ca talog of the Slovak book pro -

duction f or the y ear s 193 9!41. . 
38 A bibliogr aphy of the Slovak book production f or 

the years 1942-4 5. 

Graduation Gift from . Earlham Library 

A service to graduating seniors which 
may be unique among college libraries 
has been instituted by Earlham College 
Library, Richmond, Indiana. A bibliog-
raphy, R efer ence Books for a P ersonal 
Library~ listing some forty books in vari-
ous fields, is given to each graduate. He 
is also given a permanent library card 
entitling him to full use of the Earlham 
College Library. The card advises him 
to use his local public library first and 

then the Earlham Library for needs not 
filled locally. 

The bibliography was compiled by 
Ellen Stanley, assistant librarian of the 
Earlham College Library and herself an 
alumna of Earlham. 

Copies of the first bibliography are 
also being mailed to all alumni. An ac-
companying memorandum from the li-
brarian announces the availability of 
permanent library cards for the asking. 

274 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 

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