The Sorbian Section (L)

The Sorbian section was created in 1927, when some earlier Lusatica as well as sets of earlier editions were purchased and the subscription of newly issued publications was ordered. The collection continued to be systematically built after the Second World War as well. The Section contains numerous printed books from the 17th and 18th centuries including Frencel’s dissertation De originibus linguae sorabicae (1693), the Sorbian grammar by Georg Matthaei (1721) and the first Lusatian magazine, Lausitzisches Magazin (1768–1792). Numerous Latin and German printed books from the beginning of the 18th century are an important source for the study of late feudalism in Lusatia. The first real poet of Upper Lusatia, Handrij Zejler, represented in the collection i.a. by the grammar of Upper Sorbian published in 1830, was the leader of a literary group whose most productive members Handrij Dučman and Korla August Fiedler also have many of their works in the collection. A rare book is Sserska Postilla (1807), mentioned by Josef Dobrovský in his Slovanka (Vol. 1, 1814, p. 243). The section further comprises the magazine Jutrničžka, which was published through the care of Jan Pětr Jordan in 1842. It also includes the magazine Lužičan, which was published in the 1860s and 1870s by Jan Arnošt Smoler and edited by Michał Hórnik. The first modern Upper Lusatian dictionary by Christian Traugott Pfuhl comes from 1865. Not even works by Bogumił Šwjela, a linguist and the codifier of Lower Lusatian orthography, are lacking. There are rich collections of the works of the spiritual leader of the Sorbs, the philologist Arnošt Muka (Ernst Mucke) and the poetic leader of the Young Sorbian movement Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, whose work placed Lusatian literature in the international context. Among the poets and prose writers of the 20th century, Jurij Brězan, Marja Kubašec, Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński and Kito Lorenc are represented by the highest number of editions.