Czech and German Chapbooks from the Printing Workshop of Jan Spurný and His Successors
| Pages | 5–21 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/amnpsc.2025.009 |
| Keywords | chapbooks – broadside ballads – nineteenth-century Prague printing workshops – German and Czech printing production – Jan Spurný – Julius Janů |
| Citation | BYDŽOVSKÁ, Iva. Czech and German Chapbooks from the Printing Workshop of Jan Spurný and His Successors. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2025, 70(3-4), 5–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnpsc.2025.009. ISSN 2570-6861 (Print), 2570-687X (Online). Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia-litterarum/70-3-4/czech-and-german-chapbooks-from-the-printing-workshop-of-jan-spurny-and-his-successors |
An investigation of German-language chapbooks issued by the printing workshop of Jan Spurný and his heirs – Kristina Spurná, Josef Janů (Kristina’s second husband), and their son Julius Janů – until the takeover of the printing company by the Czecho-Slavonic Joint-Stock Book-Printing Company (Českoslovanská akciová tiskárna) in 1911 has revealed only a low percentage of German publications. The chapbook collection held by the National Museum Library has been analysed in detail. In the course of this processing, the collection was divided into broadside ballads on the one hand and prayers and other non-song religious texts on the other. These two categories markedly differ in the proportion of German-language items, with a clear predominance in the non-song religious segment. Although the total number of chapbooks – forty-one – is too small to support categorical conclusions, it is possible to trace certain tendencies in the temporal distribution of the extant German output and in the modes of acquisition and to compare the thematic composition of Czech and German production of the printing workshop.