Rose Garden | Handwritten prayer books from the 18th and 19th centuries | The collection of Jan Poš

19 February – 3 May 2009
Olomouc Archdiocesan Museum | Picture Gallery

This breakthrough exhibition, which is a contribution to book culture, the major theme of this year’s exhibition plan of the Olomouc Museum of Art, is concerned mainly with the artistic qualities of handwritten and illustrated prayer books that the Olomouc Museum of Art gained from the estate of Jan Poš, a Prague collector. These transcribed and decorated books of Czech and German prayers take over the structure of printed prayer books of the period and represent a unique phenomenon in the history of devotional literature widely found in the rural areas of Bohemia and Moravia in 1750 – 1850. Visitors will be no doubt captivated by their picturesque and naïve charm.