Instalment Nine

A School of Light and Conscience
A World-Class Library of the Czech Brethren

These intellectually stirring books belonged to the circle of the influential philosopher, educator, and reformer Jan Ámos Comenius (1592–1670) and to the Czech Brethren in 17th-century Leszno – in a time of religious tensions and political uncertainty. Read in schools and communities, they helped shape a new model of education and of thinking about freedom of conscience.

This unique collection, inscribed on UNESCO’s International Memory of the World Register, is a rare example of an almost completely preserved library of a religious minority settled in a multi-confessional and multilingual environment. It reveals the intellectual and political activity of the Czech Brethren. This socio-religious movement emerged from the ruins of Hussitism, and its members, fleeing Habsburg persecution, found refuge in the then tolerant Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They based their lives on the authority of Holy Scripture and the evangelical principles of poverty and equality, condemned violence, and advocated a strict and devout way of life.

A

4129
John Foxe
Book of Martyrs
Londyn, druk. Stationers’ Company
1641

B

25770
Jan Amos Komeński Historia Fratrum Bohemorum
Halle, druk. Waisenhaus
1702

C

310075
Bible that is the holy Scriptures contained in the Olde and New Testament
Edynburg, druk.
Andro Hart
1610