PhDr. Jiří Beneš

(born in 1950 Tábor)

J. Beneš completed his studies of Latin and French at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in 1973. The same year he joined the J.A. Comenius Pedagogical Institute of the CSAS as an expert for the critical edition ”Complete Work of J. A. Comenius“. In 1990, together with the editorial team, he joined the Institute of Philosophy of the CSAS (now the Institute of Philosophy of the ASCR) as researcher. In 2001-2003, he was appointed as director of the Institute for Classical Studies of the ASCR. After this institution had been integrated into the Institute of Philosophy as the Cabinet for Classical Studies, he has remained head of this department and has been appointed as deputy director of the Institute of Philosophy. Since 2003 he has been full delegate of the ASCR in the Union Académique Internationale (Brussels), member of the Internationale Thesaurus Kommission (Munich), member of the Scientific Council of the Hussite Theological Faculty of Charles University, member of the Scientific Council of the National Library, member of the editorial boards of Acta Comeniana, Studia Comeniana et historica, Comenius-Jahrbuch (Berlin).

His core specialization is focused on Comenius studies. Besides textological and interpretative problems related to the editing of Comenian texts, he is exploring the interpretation of language phenomena in Comenius’ work at didactical, theoretical and philosophical levels. He also pays attention to the issues of humanistic and Reformation education. In 1986, having carried on his investigations at European libraries and archives, he was a pioneer explorer of one anonymous Comenius’ print, “Votiva acclamatio“, until then unknown, at the Zurich Municipal Library. In 1987 he was visiting lector at the Zurich University. In 1991 he was awarded a CSAS prize for research in Comenius studies.