Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

The Books of Ladislaus of Schönfeld in the Capuchine Library in Roudnice

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2020

Abstract

The article focuses on a fragment of the Renaissance library of the Czech highest judge Ladislaus Seydlitz of Schönfeld (1566-1632) which stayed preserved partly in the Capuchine Library (38 volumes) in Roudnice and in the castle library of the Lobkowicz family (19 volumes) in the same town. Seydlitz took part in the Bohemian Revolt between the years 1618-1620 and after the uprising failed all his property was confiscated and later sold to the Lobkowicz family.

Seydlitz died in exile in Pirna. The fragment of Seydlitz book collection, which originally encompassed 1 506 volumes, introduces - although not entirely - not only the topical content of the library of a Renaissance educated humanist active both in politics and diplomacy but also his military and travel memories mirrored in his handwritten notes and remarks in margine of the main text.