Ottův slovník naučný
Ottův slovník naučný (Otto's Konversationslexikon ), also Ottova encyklopedie (Otto's Encyclopedia), is a 28-volume Czech encyclopedia from the years 1888–1909 with almost 186,000 headings, published on 29,000 pages. It is considered to be one of the cornerstones of Czech culture and identity.
history
Booksellers Jan Otto (1841–1916) and Jakub Malý (at that time editor of the Riegrův slovník lexicon , named after Franz Ladislaus Rieger ) drafted a plan for a Czech national encyclopedia in 1884, which should surpass the outdated Riegrův slovník .
Malý died in 1885, and one of the first main authors, Tomáš G. Masaryk (later President of Czechoslovakia), succeeded him as editor-in-chief. He was responsible for the selection of employees and determined the scope of the work, Otto took care of all financial matters. After Masaryk became a controversial figure in public life in a sensational dispute over the authenticity of two supposedly medieval manuscripts ( Königinhofer Manschrift and Grünberger Manschrift ), he retired from the editor of the encyclopedia in 1887, and Kořán became his successor. During this time almost 60 people worked in the editorial office.
In January 1888 the first volume of Ottův slovník naučný appeared in bookshops. Most of it contained material from the former editorial team. In the following years the other 26 volumes (a total of 27 volumes with 27,789 pages) and an additional volume were published. 1,086 experts processed around 139,418 keywords, which were illustrated with 4,888 images and 479 tables.
Originally the encyclopedia was sold in booklet form, later in leather binding. On the spine of the book there is usually an angel sitting on a throne in gold, above whose head there is a shining star with a coat of arms and a crown hovering over it.
1930–1943 produced twelve supplementary volumes under the name Ottův slovník naučný nové doby (Otto's Conversation Lexicon of the New Era). Under editor-in-chief Bohumil Němec, around 59,000 mostly new keywords and 2,000 images (1,000 more in the appendices) were added on 9,000 pages. The graphics were corrected by Karel Svolinský .
Under the name Ottova encyklopedie obecných vědomostí (Otto's Encyclopedia of General Knowledge ), the entire encyclopedia was digitized from 1997 to 1999 and published on 4 CD-ROMs in Portable Document Format (PDF).
In 2002 the publishers AION CS and Globe Internet published the digital Ottův slovník naučný along with other well-known Czech encyclopedias from the past 100 years. Your offer coto.je (German What is that? ) Is chargeable.
Web links
- Ottův slovník naučný , digital copies in the Internet archive
- CD-ROM release information (Czech)