Dvéře

Dvéře jazyků odevřené, to jest Krátký a snadný způsob kteréhokoli jazyka, spolu i s začátky všech umění svobodných, pochopení: v kterémž pod stem titulů v tisíci průpovědech všecka slova celého jazyka obsažena jsou. Nejprv v jazyku latinském a nyní v českém zhotovené od J. A. C.

The door of language opened, that is, a Short and simple method for understanding any language, together with the fundamentals of all the liberal arts; in which under hundreds of headings in thousands of maxims all the words of the whole language are contained. Initially in the Latin language and now compiled in Czech by J.A.C.

Origin of the work:
  1628 – 1633 Leszno

Editions:
  1633 (Leszo), place not stated

1667 Prague, Jesuit edition (Latin, German & Czech)

1805 Prague, edition of K. I. Thám (Latin, Czech & German)

1957 Prague, Johannis A. Comenii Janua linguarum reserata, paralelně s prvním a druhým zpracováním první  verze Januy, (the first and second treatments of the first version of the Janua, prepared by J. Červenka and L. Pallas)

1958 Prague, Vybrané spisy J. A. Komenského, vol. I, (under the title Brána jazyků otevřená)

1973 Prague, J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 11

Contents:

A Czech makeover of the Latin textbook the Janua linguarum reserata (the Janua linguarum). The original Janua had a Latin text, but Comenius was aware that it would be useful to mediate knowledge to pupils in their mother tongue. The Janua was successfully adopted by Polish, Prussian and Silesian schools, amongst others, and had appeared in German, Polish, French, English, Hungarian, Dutch, Greek, Italian and Spanish versions in addition to Latin. Comenius decided to publish it in Czech in order that Czechs might possess the key that would open the door to knowledge for them, as he relates in the introduction to the Dveře. He had wanted the Czech text to be printed in parallel with the Latin, but due to a lack of paper this was not done. Comenius also takes this work as being preparation for the great Czech-Latin and Latin-Czech dictionary on which he had been working for over twenty years (the Thesaurus).

The work is a translation and explication of the Latin Janua, and this preconditioned its Czech content and text. For this reason it is sometimes hard, and not always smooth, as Comenius himself acknowledges in the foreword. The Czech text contains main words of German and Latin origin, but this was the custom of the time. Comenius had intended to attach an index of words to the treatise, in order that every word could be rapidly located and understood in its textual context, but this was prevented by a lack of space and paper, as well as the need for still more diligent work. (Later editions have the indices).

For further study, see also:

J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 11. Prague 1973, pp426-428

J. V. Novák & J. Hendrich, Jan Amos Komenský, jeho život a spisy.Prague 1932, pp165-167

Jan Kumpera, J. A. Komenský, poutník na rozhraní věků. Prague & Ostrava 1992, pp247-248