The Book History Department
The Book History Department is one of the leading centres for studying book history in the Czech Republic. We compile the Bibliography of Foreign Language Printed Bohemica up to 1800 (BCBT), curate the collection of incunabula, early and rare printed books. We also publish the scholarly journal Knihy a dějiny (Books and History) and deal with the history of printing, publishing houses and libraries.
The department’s primary responsibility is maintaining and updating the BCBT database, which covers Bohemian print production up to 1800. The database contains data about some 32,000 foreign-language printed Bohemica (books printed in the Czech Lands, about them and books by Bohemian authors published abroad). The database is continually updated. Together with the Knihopis database, which records Czech-language printed Bohemica, the BCBT presents the Czech national retrospective bibliography.