Authors of the Literae Annuae from the Jesuit College in Telč in the 17th Century

Abstract

The paper focuses on the annual reports (literae annuae) as a specific genre of Jesuit writing in an attempt to better understand the process of their creation. The possibilities to identify the authors of the texts were examined while analysing both the form and content of the annual reports from the Jesuit House of the Third Probation in Telč in the 17th century created as anonymous. Although the attribution of the text is possible, the analysis shows that the subject of the author and his individual (personal) input was not seen as relevant from the perspective of Jesuit ideals and the purpose for which the texts were produced, hence the “collective” nature of literae annuae authorship is evident in the texts.