Semi-folk compositions, traditionally referred to as ‘broadside ballads’, can be seen as a distinct work of art but also as a specific type of historical source. The authors of the ballads reacted, among other things, to events in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th century and at the…

The paper focuses on the issue of a relatively wide range of kramářské tisky – the medium of Czech popular literature of the Early Modern period and the 19th century. They mostly contained kramářské písně (Czech equivalent for broadside ballads), which are currently in the spotlight of Czech…

The Rajhrad collections currently contain 81 song prints that can be classified as broadside ballads. Most of them are stored in boxes, like many other small prints from the monastic library that came there in the 19th century. Only a few provenance notes make it possible to identify the original…

The study deals with the Franco-Prussian War in chapbooks. This conflict provided the last major stimulus for this medium, which gradually disappeared in the second half of the 19th century. Chapbooks on the subject of the Franco-Prussian war comprised mostly broadside ballads, but prayers and small…

This book-science study focuses on chapbooks, the development of research on this specific cultural phenomenon and the related collection activities, presented by the example of the collection of chapbooks housed in the Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region. Chapbooks have already been of…

The focus of this paper is on Czech pilgrimage broadside ballads and their adaptation for different pilgrimage sites. The heyday of Czech broadside ballads (1750–1850) partly overlapped with the period in which pilgrimages to both local and more distant holy sites were extremely popular. Collective…

This article presents the journeys of the collections of chapbooks to museums and libraries in Moravia. The article attempts to outline the individual ways in which chapbooks came to particular institutions. It highlights acquisitions by purchase and donation. It also deals with the individuals…

The international exchange of publications has a long tradition in the National Museum. It is an important source of foreign scientific literature as well as a very useful way of distributing publications published by the National Museum and thus presenting its scientific results. The paper…

The story of Michal Mácha illustrates the life of Karel Hynek Mácha’s family. The paper recalls the almost forgotten and unappreciated efforts of the miller’s journeyman Michal to preserve his brother’s work. It attempts to show the fate of a man living in straitened circumstances in the middle of…