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Posted March 18, 2005.

Prague Library Acquires Rare Czech Text

The Czech National Library successfully bid on a 24-page fragment of a rare 14th-century Bohemian manuscript at a March 17 auction in Paris. Director Vlastimil Jezek told Agence France-Presse that the item, which sold for EUR346,600 ($463,600 U.S.), was the most valuable work about Bohemia to go no the market in the last 80 years.

Curator Zdenek Uhlír said the hitherto-unknown Latin translation of the Czech-language Chronicle of Dalimil dates to around 1340 and contains 13 full-page illuminations by artists of the Bologna or Padua schools. The manuscript was put up for auction by a prominent Parisian family, who rediscovered the approximately 9.5-by-6.8-inch booklet among their possessions.

The chronicle is an ode to patriotism and the independence of the Bohemian Kingdom. Uhlír said he expects the library will arrange for a special exhibition of the fragment.

Posted March 18, 2005.