Guest Blogger: Nina Haviernikova, Graduate Associate, RCMSS / HRL
Recent acquisitions to the stacks of the Hilandar Research Library include two works devoted to Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs.
Title page
The first, formerly held by the Litchfield Public Library in Litchfield, Minnesota, and offered to academic libraries courtesy of Gordon B. Anderson* is Památka roku slavnostního 1863 tisícileté památky obrácení národu českého na Moravě, Slovensku a v Čechách na křesťanství / Commemoration of the Millennial year 1863 Anniversary of the Christianization of the Czech People in Moravia, Slovakia and in the Czech Republic by J. Janata, Václav Šubert, and Heřman z Tardy, published in 1864 in Prague. The book commemorates the one thousandth anniversary of SS. Cyril and Methodius’ mission to Great Moravia. Written by priests, the book contains poems, a history of the conversion of the Western Slavs to Christianity which began in 863, a section devoted to the lives of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, as well as notes on the history of Protestantism in Bohemia, and a description of the most important events of the Evangelical Church in Bohemia in the year 1863. The publication is interesting from theological, historical as well as linguistic and literary perspectives.
1864 spine and front cover
Gift of Václav Čermák
The second publication, a gift of Václav Čermák from the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, is the bilingual Czech-English Cyril a Metoděj – doba, život, dílo / Cyril and Methodius – Their Era, Lives, and Work, published by Moravské zemské muzeum in Brno in 2013. Besides addressing the importance of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission and its immediate legacy, this work also focuses on reflections of the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions in Czech literature, theater, music, and society. The publication specifically examines Cyrillo-Methodian themes in modern Czech literature and in Czech folk culture. It offers insight into the long-lasting influence of the “Enlighteners of the Slavs” on the culture and society of Czechs and Moravians.
*Gordon Anderson is both the Librarian for European Studies at the University of Minnesota and the Bibliographer for Scandinavian Studies for the University of Chicago Library.
