Theses of the past: Charles University’s 2014 Calendar












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            * Theses of the past: Charles University’s 2014 Calendar
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            For the official 2014 Charles University Calendar (sadly not on sale to the general public

            it was decided to accompany the dates with beautifully designed high quality prints taken 
            dissertations submitted by students  of the university from centuries ago.
            The theses come from the collections of Charles University and National Library of Czech R

            National Library collection of theses originating from Faculty of Arts of CU being the big
            of its kind of university theses (526 in total) attached to a single educational establish
            in the calendar date from the university’s “Baroque Age” (roughly the mid-17th to mid-18th

            when Charles University was known as Charles-Ferdinand University, and were used as fronti
            various dissertations and theses, or as illustrations for the text. Exquisitely detailed a

            made by prominent engravers, many of them are based on models by leading artists of the ti
            fantastical glorifications of the work of the students, and their patrons, who had finance
            These theses and dissertations were printed in the Academic Printing Office (also known as

            located in the Clementinum.  At the time, degrees were awarded to those who could successf
            theses, leading to often pompous speeches by the students, filled with flowery and eloquen
            bombastic nature matching that of the prints in their dissertations/theses. At this time, 

            were also accorded a special status, their names appearing in the title pages of theses, a
            considered co-authors.
            The prints feature figures and objects related to the theses or dissertations that they ca

            as optical instruments, physics instruments, drawings of the pelvic bones and the spine), 
            religious figures, such as the Virgin Mary and Jesus, or Saint Catherine of Alexandria, th
            philosophers, preachers and also the Faculty of Arts of Charles University (what appears a

            a wheel, a reference to how she died, as she was tied to a spiked wheel and then beheaded 
            The images of religious nature are a link to the university’s history, when it was run by 
            Order (graduates and professors were even required to take an oath in which they affirmed 

            Conception of the Virgin Mary). The university was given to them by the Holy Roman Emperor
            in the same person) Ferdinand III as part of the Re-Catholicisation of Bohemia following a
            that ran from 1618-1620 (of which the promotion of Baroque art also played a part).

            The image for August, taken from Anacrisis medico-historico diaeticia seu Dissertationes q
            cafee en chocolatae, nec non de herbathee ac nicotinae, written and defended in 1720 by on
            of Mainz (though it’s highly doubtful that was his real name), is particularly interesting

            probably guess from the title, it features plants whose products we are now long-familiar 
            then were still exotic and rare, and were just becoming fashionable for culinary and other
            Another image which harks back in this way is the image for May, taken from a theses datin

            The image shows a European merchant and missionary ship arriving amongst Native American p
            that there was a time when the Americas constituted a largely, for Europeans, unexplored l
            people who seemed quite alien.

            It is an understatement to say that all in all, these prints represent an era which for st
            University was very different to what it is today; also the covers featured in this calend
            covers of today’s theses/dissertations, with their simple, bland, banal minimalistic compu

            to shame. Maybe we should return to a time of beautifully designed prints, which are works
            themselves?                                                                               
                                                William Francis Hannell is an Erasmus student from Bri
                                                Arts in Charles University.                           
                                                Email is wfh(zavinac)hannellfamily.plus.com [ MAIL "wf