Dr Antoine Haaker: Quid Vratislaviense exemplum Horti sanitatis anni 1491 ad cognitionem sermonis et historiae litterariae Boëmorum conferat (A Wrocław Copy of the Hortus sanitatis (1491) as a Witness to the Czech Language and Literary History)

Invitation pdf

Dr Antoine Haaker (Wrocław University)

Abstract
The aim of the presentation, which will be delivered in Latin, is to examine a copy of the Hortus sanitatis (Mainz, 1491) currently housed in the Wrocław University Library. This late medieval encyclopaedia of the natural world survives in numerous copies. What renders this one particularly interesting are the copious annotations entered in the margins by its first owners during the Renaissance. They include many translations of names of rare plants, animals or insects, that could be valuable for Czech lexicography. One of the annotators, Adam Lewharticzenus of Hradec Králové, also added at the end and at the beginning of the incunable extra leaves containing a handwritten copy of his correspondence (26 letters, some of them quite lengthy), as well as various historical or autobiographical notes in Latin. They offer valuable insights into the life of a burgher from Hradec Králové in the 16th century, as well as into broader aspects of education, patronage, and religious history of the period. At the same time, because Lewharticzenus maintained contacts with noted scholars and writers – including Matthaeus (Matouš) Collinus, his teacher, the poet Matthaeus Hosius (Matouš Hozius) and Adalbert (or Vojtěch) Bouzek, the first Czech to enter the Jesuit Society, his letters shed new light on certain aspects of the literary history of the Czech lands.

Bio
Dr Antoine Haaker is a French classical philologist. He studied Classics in his native country, Italy and the United States, before earning a doctoral degree in Wrocław, by writing a 800-page dissertation in Latin about the 17th century scholar Claudius Salmasius. He currently works in the Manuscripts Department of Wrocław University Library, where he is known for his role in identying and recovering a number of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and valuable printed books that once belonged to the collections. He is currently conducting research at the Centre for Classical Studies of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences as a Josef Dobrovský Fellow. His project focuses on a Wrocław copy of the Hortus sanitatis (The Garden of Health) and the evidence it provides about Czech intellectual life.