Vilém Gabler’s Library and Alexander the Great

Abstract

Abstract The article is divided into three parts. The first one aims to present the figure of Vilém Gabler, a close colleague of Karel Havlíček and František Ladislav Rieger, as a person important for the beginnings of Czech–French relations and for the spread of the knowledge of the Czech language and culture in the Czech milieu. The second part is devoted to the summary of previous research and the reconstruction of the personal library of Vilém Gabler, scattered in the central collection of the National Museum Library. The last, third part discusses Gabler’s article Alexander Veliký [Alexander the Great], written in reaction to the work Alexandre le Grand from the pen of Alphonse de Lamartine and under the impression of the events of 1859. Despite its thematic focus on the ancient commander, it provides abundant information on the author’s view of the recent Austrian-Czech past as well as present. It thus shows a man with his own world of opinion and moral schemes created based on his own experience from 1848 and strongly influenced by the study of French history, especially the period after 1789.