Schweizerische Drucke in den bürgerlichen frühneuzeitlichen Privatbibliotheken in den Prager Städten

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the probate inventories of the burghers of the New Town of Prague in the 17th century, the paper identifies religious and secular literature produced by Swiss printers in Prague burgher private libraries and examines its occurrence in the context of the development of a multi-confessional society in Bohemia before the Thirty Years’ War and subsequently in the phase of the recatholization policy towards a mono-confessional Catholic society. The prints of Swiss printers are analysed in the context of their contemporary offer on the Central European book market in Frankfurt a. M., which was mainly imported to Prague by Nuremberg merchants, and also in the context of the local Prague market, which offered titles by Swiss authors in translation. The reception of Swiss printed literature in the Prague towns is compared with the situation in one of the typical royal towns in Bohemia. The role of the Unity of Brothers in the reception of the production of Swiss printers is also taken into account.