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dans la rćgion de PIzeft; le musće consacre a Picrre Bezruć, a Opava, artiste nationai ct gćant de la littćrature tchćque; et en Slovaquie, le Musće P. O. Hviezdoslav, classique des lcttres slovaqucs, a Dolni Kubin (rćgion dc Żilina), et le Musće de Svaty Jur, pres de Bratislava, qui iliustre ia vie ct l’ceuvre dc Pierre Jilemnick^, le plus grand reprćsentant du rćalismc socialiste en Slovaquic (fig. jj). Ajoutons qu’en gćnćral, les musćes de la littćrature de province sont organisćs avec la collaboration du Musće de la littćrature nationale, des Archives litteraires du Musće nationai, et de lTnstitut de littćrature tchćque de 1’Academic des Sciences tchćcoslovaque.

(Tradnił dtt łcb'eq/ie.)

Museums of Czechosloyak Literaturę

by K . § V E H L A

;/. PaMATNIk NaRODNJHO PiSEMNICTVI V Praze. Lc couvcnt dc Strahov a Prague abrite lc Musće dc la littćrature nationale, les archives littćraircs du Musće nationai, ct 1’Institut dc littćrature dc 1’Acadćmic des Sciences tchecoslo-vaquc. Lors des travaux considćrables entrepris aprćs 1945 pour ramenagemeni de ces bati-ments, les archćologues et les architectes ont decouvert d’importants vestiges d’edifices romans qui sc classent parmi les plus anciens monuments architecturaux de la Tchecoslo-vaquie.

During the past few years the network of the old type of museums devoted to the traditional branches of museology has been supplemented by a new type— the specialized Museums of Literaturę. Their object is to acquaint the public with the lifc and works of leading writers, mainly by displays of printed materiał, manuscripts, correspondence, official documents and original photographs.

. Unlikc natural science objects, it is often impossible to inelude the most valuable of the printed records in permanent exhibitions owing to their fragility, and they are usuaily replaced by models, faesimiles or photographs. Most of the materiał being of uniform character without any salient features, the exhibitions are enlivened by original pictures, drawings, engravings, sculptures or casts, as well as by models, graphs and slides. Furniture, sometimes even whole suites formerly used by the subject of the exhibition, is also often included. Another important feature is the display of quotations from studies by literary historians and from the works of the writer or poet in qucstion illustrating his life and work. They are not merely an accompaniment of the exhibition, but serve to point out what is living and topical in that work today.

The first Museums of this kind were organized in Prague. One devoted to the great classic of Czech literaturę, Alois Jirdsek, whose historical novels depicted the most important episodes in Czech history, was opened in 1951 in the celebrated Castle of the Star (fig./o), on the spot where the fateful battle ofthe White Mountain took place in 1620, marking the end of Bohemia’s independence. The exhibition occupies 10 rooms and its collections inelude 20,000 documents and 7,500 volumes

//. Strahov Monastcry, Prague, houses the Museum of National Literaturę, the Literary Archivcs of the National Museum, and the Institutc of Literaturę of the Czcchoslovak Academy of Sciences. In the course of the large-scalc works undertaken after 1945 to rcnovatc thesc buildings, the architects and the archaeologists discovcred extcnsive remains of Romanesquc buildings which rank among the oldest architcctural monuments in Czcchoslo-vakia.

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J2. PAMATNIK NARODNiHO PlSEMNICTVi V Praze. Musće de la littćrature nationale, sallc consacrćc aux principaux reprćsentants dc la Rcnaissance nationale en Boheme, Franęois Palacky, 1798-1876, et Paul Joseph Safarik, 1795-1861.

;2. National Literaturę Museum, room devotcd to the foremost rcprcsentatives of the Czech nationai rcnaissance, FrantiSek Palacky, 1798-1876, and Pavcl Joscf Safarik, 1795-1861.

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