Emanuela Nohejlová-Prátová (1900-1995) was a Czechoslovak numismatist, archaeologist and historian. She is considered to be a founder of modern Czech numismatics.
Nohejlová-Prátová was born on 3 June 1900 in Opatovice nad Labem, east Bohemia, then part of Austria-Hungary. [1] Her father, Emanuel Nohejl, was the doctor and mayor for the village. [1] Her mother was Berta Schmidt and the couple had three daughters, of which Nohejlová-Prátová was the youngest. [2]
In 1918 Nohejlová-Prátová caught influenza as a result of the pandemic of Spanish flu that swept Europe, and this illness delayed her graduation. [2] Nevertheless, she graduated from high school and went on the study History at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague; one of her tutors was the Czech historian, Professor J V Šimák. [1] Initially, her father encouraged to Medicine like him, but she preferred History - as soon as her eldest sister settled on Medicine, it meant that Nohejlová-Prátová could pursue her historical studies. [2] During her time at University, she became engaged, however in 1923 her fiancee died as a result of injuries received during the World War I. [2]
By the end of her university studies, Nohejlová-Prátová had already begun to make a name for herself as an excellent historian. [2] Her final dissertation on the history of the Opatovice monastery was published soon after she graduated. [2]
From 1923 to 1926 she worked as a scientific officer at the National Museum in Prague. [2] In 1926 she returned briefly to teaching in schools in Chrudim, Ivančice and Dvůr Králové, but in 1927 she returned to Prague. [2]
In 1930 Nohejlová-Prátová was appointed as a curator in the Numismatic Department at the National Museum in Prague, where she worked until her retirement in 1959.
Nohejlová-Prátová was arrested by the Gestapo on 4 February 1942, she was interrogated at Petschek Palace and imprisoned because she had used crystals from the mineralogy department to build radios, which supplied news at odds with Nazi propaganda. [2] She was released from prison in May 1943. [2] At that time she was forbidden from working in Prague, but was allowed to find work elsewhere and through a connection to Professor Fritz Dworschak, director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, found work there for two years. [2]
After the end of the war, her colleagues in Vienna were keen for her to remain, however Nohejlová-Prátová was keen to return to her work in Prague. [2]
Nohejlová-Prátová had been a pioneer of the use of photographic enlargement in her research prior to the World War II. [1] Post-war, she returned to her job in the Department of Numismatics and began to research and catalogue the collections extensively. [1]
In 1949 she was appointed as a lecturer at Masaryk University in Brno, alongside her museum work. [1] She worked extensively on hoarding practices in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, examining deposits from the ancient period up to the nineteenth century, [3] In her research she worked across many periods, with her specialisms lying particularly in Czech coinage, especially of Bohemia, [4] and metrology. [5] She was also considered an expert on medieval counterfeits. [6] In Nohejlová-Prátová's work on Czech coinage in the tenth and eleventh century, she believed that numismatics tended to over-estimate the link between iconography and contemporary politics. [7] In 1958 she was awarded a doctorate. [1] In 1964 was appointed Professor at the Charles University. [1] By 1960, she was Keeper of Numismatics and President of the Czech Numismatic Commission. [8]
She died on 19 November 1995, aged 95, in Pardubice, Czech Republic and is buried in the cemetery there. [1]
A full bibliography for Nohejlová-Prátová can be found at Databáze Národní knihovny ČR. [9] She wrote several books, including:
As well as many articles, such as: