Correspondence in the Jan Patočka Archive and his Collected Works

The nucleus of the Jan Patočka Archive at the Centre for Theoretical Study and the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences is Patočka’s handwritten legacy (approximately 10,000 manuscript pages). These papers, which are accessible to researchers, are gradually being edited and published as part of the Collected Works of Jan Patočka (issued since 1996 by the publishing house OIKOYMENH and currently comprising 19 volumes). More recently work on digitisation and the possibilities of accessing the archive online has been taking place.

The collection includes a number of files of Patočka’s correspondence. Some have already been issued in the Collected Works: the correspondence with Václav Richter (vol. 20, 2001), with Comenius scholars in Czechoslovakia and abroad (vols. 21–22, 2011). The publication of correspondence with Eugen Fink, Ludwig Landgrebe, and with Polish philosophers and individuals in Czech cultural life, is in preparation.

Data concerning Patočka’s correspondence with Milada Blekastad is currently under preparation to become a public database as part of the cooperation with the project Historical Correspondence Online.