Krocení nestvůr nevědomosti -Societas incognitorum eruditorum a článková bibliografie časopisu Acta incognitorum (1976–1988) – Melichar Dominik (2024)

"The Learned Society" Societas incognitorum eruditorum (SIE) represented a unique and simultaneously closed community of people who refused to reconcile themselves with the cultural and educational dictates of the totalitarian regime of so-called normalization in Czechoslovakia. Beyond the bounds of legality, they created a free environment for the dissemination of knowledge across various fields: from literary science or aesthetics to physics, mathematics, theology, public transport, and even the Olympic Games. They programmatically identified with the first learned society on the territory of the Habsburg monarchy, the Enlightenment Societas incognitorum eruditorum in terris Austriacis. Their scientific focus, primarily based on polemics as an essential part of the self-education and cultivation mechanism, was enriched with a playful aspect and satire. The backbone of the present volume is an article bibliography of the samizdat journal Acta incognitorum, which SIE published more or less monthly for nearly thirteen years (1976–1988). It is not only the longest-running and completely preserved Czech literary samizdat periodical from the period before 1989 but also a unique source representing unofficial culture from an extraordinarily personal perspective. The introductory study by Dominik Melichar analyzes the activities of SIE and traces the development of the discussed topics...