Illuminated Czech Prayer Book.

$2,800.00

Item Number: 146578

[Czech Republic]:, c. 1830.

Rare wonderfully illustrated Czech prayerbook. Duodecimo, bound in half leather over gray boards with approximately forty-five pages of added prayers appended and without all leaves before page twenty-five, illustrated with botanical decorations, calligraphic rubrics and borders ruled in red, and two full-page, had-colored illustrations of the penitent Mary Magdalene and a IHS monogram surrounded by a wreath of flowers. In near fine condition with light rubbing to the spine and slight toning throughout, repair to the bottom corner of the opening leaf.

The area of what is today the Czech Republic was a pagan nation until the 9th century. In 863 A.D., two brothers, Cyril and Metodej (Constantin and Methodius), arrived as Christian missionaries, and Christianity quickly spread throughout the region. Since the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, widespread anti-Catholic sentiment and resistance to the Catholic Church underlay the history of the Czech lands even when the whole population nominally belonged to the Catholic Church, and the Czechs have been historically characterised as "tolerant and even indifferent towards religion." Today, 47.8% of the Czech population is irreligious and 21.3% are believers, a far cry from the first half of the 20th century, when more than 90% of Czechs were Christians.