Exhibitions - November 2020

The National Library is closed as a precautionary measure related to spreading coronavirus disease COVID-19. Since October 22, 2020, cultural events in the NL, Mirror Chapel of the Klementinum, the Klementinum Gallery and regular guided tours for tourists in historical premises have been cancelled. Thank you for understanding.

The exhibitions are POSTPONED until further notice due to covid-19.

Ex Oriente lux. Rudolf Dvořák, Between the Orient and the Awakening of the Czech Nation

The exhibition, prepared by the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the CR, commemorates the anniversary of Rudolf Dvořák, first Professor of Oriental studies at Czech Charles-Ferdinand University, an Arabist, Iranian scholar, Turcologist and Sinologist. Among Dvořák´s students we can find future university professors Rudolf Růžička and Felix Tauer, as well as Jaromír Borecký, Director of the University Library in the Klementinum. Dvořák also contributed to the development of Egyptology and cuneinform studies and he participated in organizing the scientific life at university and the Czech Academy od Sciences and Arts. He was an author of professional and popular translations of oriental poetry and philosophy. As a staunch patriot he was involved in education of the public for all his life, he gave lectures to the wide public and wrote popular books and articles. He was actively engaged in the project of the Otto´s Educational Dictionary as an author, professional editor and, for some time, also an editor-in-chief. He was a friend of important personalities of the Czech scientific and cultural life of the time, among others Vojta Náprstek, Jaroslav Vrchlický, or T. G. Masaryk.
The exhibition presents the life and work of Rudolf Dvořák in contemporary context through the mediation of archival documents, period literature and objects from his art collection kept nowadays in the Náprstek Museum. Archival materials are also interesting testimony of Czech science and culture on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Changes in Rural Architecture in the 19th and 20th Century in Bohemia

The exhibition records the development up to now and the present state of rural architecture in today´s regions that are largely located on the territory of Bohemia. It continues the previous exhibitions, dedicated to the same topic in Moravia and Silesia, which also emphasized the 19th and 20th centuries.