Cantastoria prints represent a specific genre of printed material that served as a mass medium for broad segments of the population, particularly from the 17th to the 19th century. Their defining features were their format and method of distribution. Inexpensive single-sided prints or bundles called “špalíčky” contained simple woodcut illustrations and verse texts intended for singing. Distribution took place through peddlers and wandering singers at markets, fairs, pilgrimages, or in taverns, with the prints simultaneously serving informational, propagandistic, commemorative, spiritual, and moral-educational functions.
The collection of cantastoria prints thematically includes religious, pilgrimage, love, satirical (couplets), historical, military, moralizing, catastrophic, and criminal (murder) stories. The collection includes both individual prints and booklets. In total, there are 2,953 prints, dating from the second half of the 18th century to the beginning of World War I (1914). The core of the collection’s provenance is Eastern Bohemia, though locations throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire are also represented.
The collection’s number series is designated T-KT.
The collection is open to researchers.
The curator of the collection is Mgr. Nikol Holubová
