Czech flowers

The lecture from the series From the Treasures of Klementinum III will present the atlas of our plants Flora Boëmica inchoata, the work of the Czech botanist and extraordinary professor of botany at the University of Prague Franz Willibald Schmidt (1764-1796). For several years he was the caretaker of Kanálka, a large and famous garden built by the Spanish Count Josef Emanuel Canal de Malabaila (1745-1826). Kanálka extended from today’s National Museum to a part of Riegrovy Sady to Vinohradská Street.

Let’s go back for a moment to the end of the 18th century and visit the magical garden behind the Horse Gate, famous in Bohemia at that time. The Spanish Count Josef Emanuel Canal de Malabaila (1745-1826) built a large garden in Prague, which stretched from today’s National Museum to a part of Riegrovy Sady to Vinohradská Street. In its time it was considered one of the most important Czech gardens and the intellectual centre of Prague. It was even visited by Emperor Franz I. The administrator of Kanalka for several years was the Czech botanist and extraordinary professor of botany at the University of Prague, Franz Willibald Schmidt (1764-1796). The author of the atlas of our plants Flora Boëmica inchoata, and a close friend of the important Clementine librarian Karel Rafael Ungar (1744-1807), created a unique work here, one of the “most beautiful natural history books in our library”, as Dr. Emma Urbánková, a long-time employee of the Department of Manuscripts and Old Prints of the National Library, wrote about him in 1957.

Lecture by: Alena Císařová-Smítková

The lecture will be followed by the exhibit of the month.

Place: National Library of the Czech Republic, Klementinum, Old Town, Czech Republic
Date: 08.11.2022
Start: 17:00 h
Price: free

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