Location

• Czech Republic
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Languages

• Czech

Website

• http://scriptum.cz/

Name of collection

• Scriptum.cz

Provenance and cultural activities

• The Scriptum.cz website is a project of the Exodus Association, which aims to make available selected Czech exile and samizdat periodicals in a non-commercial way. This online collection was created in close cooperation with Mr. Miroslav Svoboda, director of the Exodus Association, Libri Prohibiti library and its director Jiří Gruntorád. The collection was created as a project of the Exodus Association, where disabled members digitize prints, and part of their work is the digitization of samizdat and exile periodicals. The purpose of the collection was to make the periodicals widely accessible to the general public, which had often not been accessible in digital form, to contribute to the dissemination of awareness among the general public, as well as to create a safe preservation of those publications.

  Scriptum.cz received materials that are presented in digital format on the web, mainly thanks to the Libri prohibiti library and some titles also in cooperation with the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. However, Miroslav Svoboda had a large number of titles at home in his personal library and gathered them before year 1989.

  The collection is understood as general, ie. it should be represented by periodicals of all cultural (culturally-opposition) currents, or their important titles, including Christian ones. The collection also has overlaps in several directions - thematic literature, such as aids, reviews, registers, overviews and sub-work including academic works. At the same time, the rare titles of pre-war periodicals (Order, On the Deep, ...) and other various pieces, such as Stanislav Berton's collection "Laughter behind the Iron Curtain", are available. The collection adds links to other sites that contain the specific title.

Description of content

• On the website Scriptum.cz digitized works can be found divided into three categories: “samizdat”, “exil” and “other”. A separate category consists of tools. In each of them, dozens of digitized periodicals from the second half of the 20th century can be found.

  The “samizdat” tab is for separate Slovak works. A wide range of works are represented on the site, from periodicals dealing with sport, religion, news, culture, collections, regional periodicals, Charter 77 periodicals and others. You can find both famous samizdat works such as “Vokno” and regional pieces such as “Staroplzenecký atašé” or “Západočeská průser”.

  The “exil” tab contains digitized works of exile origin, such as “The Czechoslovak Magazine”, which was based in London, or “The New Home”, which originated in Toronto. All these works were issued by emigrants in exile.

  The tab “other” links to other digitized collections, such as the Cyril site or the digitized magazine of the Catholic clergy, which is digitally accessible on the site of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

  Scriptum.cz is a unique form that makes hundreds of samizdat and exile periodicals available free of charge. Works are accessible to all and some cannot be found elsewhere, either in physical or digital form.

Content

• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 10-99
• publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 10-99

Operator(s)

• Exodus

Owner(s)

• Exodus

Topics

• democratic opposition
• emigration/exile
• independent journalism
• religious activism
• samizdat and tamizdat

Founder(s)

• Exodus
• Svoboda, Miroslav

Date of founding

• 2007

Place of founding

• Plzeň, Pilsen, Czech Republic
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Creator(s) of content

• Benda, Václav
• Bondy, Egon
• Boudník, Vladimír
• Brabenec, Vratislav
• Chadima, Mikoláš
• Chalupecký, Jindřich
• Chramostová, Vlasta
• Feierabend, Ladislav Karel
• Gruntorád, Jiří
• Gruša, Jiří
• Havel, Václav
• Havlíček, Dušan
• Hejdánek, Ladislav
• Hutka, Jaroslav
• Janouch, František
• Jelínek, Milan
• Jirous, Ivan Martin
• Kantůrková, Eva
• Karásek, Svatopluk
• Knížák, Milan
• Kohout, Pavel
• Kolář, Jiří
• Komárková, Božena
• Kundera, Milan
• Lederer, Jiří
• Ledererová, Elzbieta
• Marek, Vlastimil
• Mládková, Meda
• Němec, Jiří
• Patočka, Jan
• Pelikán, Jiří
• Peroutka, Ferdinand
• Pithart, Petr
• Placák, Petr
• Prečan, Vilém
• Ruml, Jiří
• Schwarzenberg, Karel
• Seifert, Jaroslav
• Tesař, Jan
• Topol, Filip
• Topol, Jáchym
• Trefulka, Jan
• Trinkewitz, Karel
• Třešňák, Vlastimil
• Uhde, Milan
• Uhl, Petr
• Vaculík, Ludvík
• Vladislav, Jan
• Zajíček, Pavel
• Čep, Jan
• Šabata, Jaroslav
• Šiklová, Jiřina
• Šimečka, Martin Milan
• Šimečka, Milan
• Šimsa, Jan
• Škvorecký, Josef
• Šustrová, Petruška

Collector(s)

• Svoboda, Miroslav

Supporters

• Society of Libri Prohibiti

Important events in the history of the collection

• Acquisition of exile magazine "Listy" by Dušan Havlíček

Featured items

• Listy - exile magazine

Access type

• completely open to the public

Author(s) of this page

• Vrtálková, Anna

References

Svoboda, Miroslav , interview by Vrtálková, Anna , April 24, 2017. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection