Virtual Reconstruction of Scattered Book Collections of Bohemical Provenance in the Czech and Foreign Libraries

Project NAKI MK ČR DG18P02OVV009 “Virtual reconstruction of scattered sets of books of Bohemian provenance in domestic and foreign libraries”, spread over the years 2018–2022, is being carried out by a consortium of three institutions (the National Museum, National Library and National Heritage Institute) and is coordinated by the National Museum. It follows up on project NAKI MK ČR “PROVENIO: The Method of the Book Provenance Research “, which the National Museum (NM) carried out in the years 2012–2015.

In contrast to the previous PROVENIO project, which was focused on studying sets of books from prominent individuals of noble houses and certain institutions that have been preserved in our territory as wholes or fragments, the main objective of the current project is to survey and catalogue book collections of Bohemian provenance scattered not only among domestic institutions (NM Library, NM chateau libraries in cooperation with the National Museum and National Heritage Institute, as well as in the Reserve Collections and Historical Collection of the Czech National Library’s Biblioteca Nationalis), but also in foreign libraries in which the researchers discovered sets of books of Bohemian provenance in past years, then virtually reconstructing them in the innovative PROVENIO online database of book owners and the database of national authorities at the Czech National Library, with selected newly created authority records of book owners also to be sent to the CERL Thesaurus database (the contributor is both the NM and National Library). Information stored in the PROVENIO database will be visualised in Google Maps, with plans to expand and innovate upon this.

Additional output from the project will be presentation of the history of reading and book culture in the form of exhibitions, scholarly works (articles in conference proceedings and academic journals), support for care for historical collections at smaller museums, galleries and other memory institutions via a certified methodology for research, revision and inventory-taking of the historical book collection, and experimental operation of an online form (in cooperation with the Association of Museums and Galleries).