The lute manuscript on display at the Lobkowitz Museum in Prague are
probably a selection, the bulk being held in another Lobkowitz castle
outside of Prague.
The Lobkowitz properties (12 castles) and treasures (painting, library,
weapons) were confiscated by the
Communist Authorities after WW_II, and the lute books were given to the
Prague
University Library (two are in the National Museum). They have distinctive
call numbers, II.Lb.* and
II.Kk.*, which many of you will recognize. After the Velvet Revolution, the
confiscated properties were returned to the Lobkowitz family, the head of
which, Prince William Lobkowitz (b. 1961), was born in the US and now
resides in Boston. He was a son
of refugeees from Czechslovakia, and grew up here, went to a private prep
school and then Harvard, where he was much interested in music. His
forebearer Fran Joseph Max Lobkowitz was the dedicatee of Beethoven's
Third, Fifth and Sixth symphonies. Another Prince Philip patronized St. Luc.
I was amused by a picture of Bill Lobkowitz in the Boston Magazine a few
years ago. He really looked like a genuine preppie (sports coat and
carefully
creased khakis). At the time of the Velvet Revolution he was a real estate
broker
living here in Boston on Beacon Hill. Prince of Nothing. You can imagine
the effect it have been to wake one morning to
discover that he was the owner and caretaker of some 12 castles in
Czechslovaka, in various states of decay. (He has never used the epithet
"Prince.")
I meant to provide a link to an interesting recent article about Prince
Lobkowicz. His family library now has 13 lute manuscripts from the 17th and
18th century, perhaps the largest private collection of such books. They
were during the communist years in the University Library in Prague. The
lute manuscripts
contain all of the works by Jacques St. Luc (save one manuscript in Vienna)
and three manuscripts purchased from Gallot and Charles Mouton when Prince
Philip Lobkowitz was in Paris. A very important collection, indeed!
And the gallery has nearly 450 paintings including works by Brueghel,
Rubens, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Segher (who
painted the portrait of Jacques de Saint-Luc), Dürer, Holbein, et al. And
weapons enough to outfit an army. Quite a place.
The article gives a overview of what he received, and its state of decay
(alas the slides are no longer with the article):
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_prince_is_a_pauper/
AJN
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