Hudební Věda

Prague University Lectures on Aesthetics by František Xaver Němeček. Basic Characteristic

article summary

Tomáš Hlobil

A study dealing with notes from the aesthetics lectures given at Prague University's Faculty of Arts in the academic year 1811/1812, taken by Peter Eduard Bolzano (1793–1818), the prematurely deceased brother of Bernard Bolzano. The study identifies as the lecturer František Xaver Němeček, a finding which singles the notes out as source material for an insight into the most comprehensive available version of the latter's theory of aesthetics. The contents of the individual lectures are then summed up and complemented by a list of aestheticians, artists and art works referred to in the notes. All of this is then set in a broader context of the given historical period, with a view to prospective detailed research into Němeček's contribution to aesthetics. The study demonstrates that Němeček's approach to aesthetics was still by and large cosmopolitan and universalistic rather than nationally oriented.

Key words: František Xaver Němeček; aesthetics; Prague University; period before March 1848

Translated by Ivan Vomáčka

The complete text of this article can be found in the printed edition of Hudební věda 4/2021