The monastery was founded in 1142 by Bishop Zdik of Olmütz, during the reign of King Vladislav I. The first building was of very modest dimensions, and both the monastery and the church that belongs to it were rebuilt several times before the present structure was erected by Italian architects at the end of the seventeenth century. Considerable changes have also recently been made in the monastery. The church belonging to the monastery contains the tomb of Pappenheim, the great general of the Thirty Years' War, and other monuments. A very handsome railing divides the choir from the rest of the church. In the small picture gallery is the much-repainted [Illustration: THE TYN CHURCH] Madonna by Albrecht Dürer, that once belonged to Rudolph, and a good Tiepolo. But the most interesting part of the building is the library. It occupies several halls, in one of which are the very handsome bookshelves that were brought here from the suppressed Monastery of Klosterbruck. In one hall we see over the doors small shelves with wire grating, in which the books condemned by the Index, but which the monks read by special permission, were formerly contained. The library is very rich in Oriental MSS., incunables and early printed Bibles; among these is the priceless Utraquist Bohemian Bible, printed at Venice, the first edition of the celebrated Bible of Kralice, and a rare copy of the _Biblia Pollyglotta Briani Waltoni_ in Latin, Hebrew, Samaritan, Greek, Chaldæan, Syrian, Arabic, Æthiopian and Persian. Though printed in London in 1657, it is dedicated to King Charles II. The view from the gardens of the Strahov Monastery is one of the finest in Prague. On the left bank of the river also is the Capuchin Monastery on the Loretto Place and the church dedicated to St. Mary, which adjoins it. The buildings occupy the spot where the town residences of several Protestant nobles stood who were exiled after the Battle of the White Mountain. Princess Catherine of Lobkovic purchased the ground in 1625 and built here a chapel in imitation of the Santo Casa, and a treasury[46] which is the most valuable in Bohemia, and is far more interesting than the better known treasury of St. Vitus's Cathedral. It consists mainly of donations of the seventeenth century, and most of the contents are in the rococo style. 'The treasury was first founded by Catherine of Lobkovic, and was enriched by gifts of members of almost all the great Bohemian families. A crucifix, the gift of Cardinal Harrach, and a monstrance--said to contain 6580 diamonds--a foundation of Countess Kolovrat, are amongst the most interesting objects. The treasury contains also a very fine picture of the Madonna and Child, attributed in the catalogue to Albrecht Dürer, and said to have formed part of Rudolph collection.[47] It is more probably a work of Adrian of Utrecht.'