Sto let výuky egyptologie v češtině
A century of teaching Egyptology in Czech

Summary/Abstract: In April 1919, František Lexa, at that time a grammar school teacher of mathematics, physics and philosophy, started to lecture on Egyptology at the Czech Faculty of Arts of Charles University. Only three years later, he became Associate Professor of Egyptology at the faculty. As the only Egyptologist at the faculty (it was not until 1930 that his former pupil, Jaroslav Černý, started to read some lectures alongside him as a private senior lecturer), Lexa addressed a broad range of themes during his lectures. For several years in the mid-1930s, he was the only professor of Egyptology in Europe who taught Demotic studies. After the outbreak of World War II, when the Czech universities were closed by the Nazi regime, Lexa retired, to be reactivated immediately after the war’s end. Jaroslav Černý joined him again for a while until he left for England in 1946. Their pupil, Zbyněk Žába (who graduated in Egyptology in 1949), followed Lexa as Professor of Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University since 1959. The number of students was strictly limited during the Communist regime – only five of them (Miroslav Verner and Jaromír Málek among them) graduated between 1960 and 1990. Following Zbyněk Žába’s death in 1971, moreover, the study of Egyptology itself was almost cancelled at the faculty due to the tightening political situation. Since 1989, Egyptology is regularly taught at the Faculty of Arts, and the number of students has increased rapidly. At the same time, the lectures are read by a much greater number of specialists, including visiting professors from abroad.

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