The digitized collection includes drafts of Bolzano’s works, his sermons, mathematical, philosophical, and theological notebooks, as well as correspondence, lecture notes, and a range of official documents. These include, for example, university certificates, materials relating to his dismissal from the position of Professor of Religious Studies, documents connected with ecclesiastical proceedings, and his last will and testament.
The fate of this written estate after Bolzano’s death in 1848 was exceptionally complex. In accordance with his wishes, the papers were entrusted to acquaintances who could make use of his manuscripts, publish them, or complete them. A crucial role was played by his friend and student Michael Josef Fesl, who gathered a large portion of the materials and bequeathed them to the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia. After his death in 1864, Bolzano’s papers thus returned to Prague. The collection was then gradually expanded by what is today the National Museum and, from 1964 onward, also by the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature.
The current digitization was made possible through close cooperation with the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature. The emerging archive will be made available to the public gradually in several waves and will be accessible in open access under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Long-term preservation and data security are ensured through an agreement with CESNET, while data management will be handled by members of the PragMatika team.
The aim of the project is not only to preserve these unique documents, but also to make Bolzano’s legacy accessible to contemporary research and to the wider public. In addition to digitized manuscripts, the archive will also offer Bolzano’s published works, related secondary literature, historical maps of the Czech lands, and 3D models of places where this Prague polymath was active. In the coming years, it is expected to become an important resource for the study of the history of science, philosophy, and Czech cultural heritage.
Bolzano’s written estate will be made available in open access under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The first part will be available to interested users by the end of this year.
More about the PragMatika project
