The present chapter provides an overview of Danish research on private book collections and libraries with particular regards to the different sources available. Scholarly interest in Danish private book collections has a long history with different traditions and waves of research.1 In the nineteenth century, the focus was primarily on book collections of the elite,2 but throughout the twentieth century, this interest gradually widened to include book collections of all strata of society,3 and from the late 1990s research began using theoretically-informed, book-historical approaches as points of departure.4 Most research has been local and regionalâsometimes nationalâbut very rarely have Danish book collections been put into a broader, transnational context.
One should immediately be aware of the spatial and linguistic borders that, during the period in question, differed from those characterising Denmarkâs present state. During the long eighteenth century (1665â1830) the country was part of a conglomerate state where the king ruled over the twin kingdoms of Denmark and Norway as well as the (mostly German-speaking) duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and several overseas territories. The Danish language was the primary language of the kingdom of Denmark as well as the northern half of Schleswig, and it was the official written language of Norway. Thus, Denmark and Norway made up a common book market, where no national borders separated Danish and Norwegian authors and readers.5 This lack of frontiers is illustrated by the fact that the most popular author of eighteenth-century Denmark was the Norwegian-born Ludvig Holberg (1684â1754), who became a professor at the University of Copenhagen and published his work in that city. However, the focus of this chapter is on research relating to Denmark within its present day geographical and linguistic borders, and research regarding Norway will only be covered when it has direct consequences for the former.
As for other types of frontiers, as elsewhere in Europe, early modern boundaries between Danish private and public collections were not as clear as they are today. The notion of âprivate collectionâ as used in this article refers to books in private ownership held by individuals, such as learned aristocrats, clergymen, merchants and peasants. This definition excludes several institutional libraries that existed during the long eighteenth century. Thus, research on the diocesan libraries, the libraries of grammar schools, the libraries of churches, and the Queenâs Reference Library is not taken into consideration.6
Bibliographical work done by librarians at Det Kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library, Denmark) has resulted in the creation of centralised and indispensable tools for research concerned with private book collections and libraries. Hence, this chapter begins with a short introduction to this work, in particular the creation of a Danish national bibliography. The ensuing section will deal with sizeable learned libraries of the long eighteenth century, followed by some paragraphs on book collections owned by people who did not belong to the educated elite. Next, after an overview of Danish research from the 1990s onwards inspired by new book-historical developments in Europe, the chapter concludes with a description of the field as it is today, offering perspectives for future research.
The Bibliographical Work at the Royal Library
Danish book history began as an auxiliary discipline for literary history before it became a tradition in its own right. Literary historians used bibliographical studies as a tool for their own work, though some of this published research can best be characterised as book historical in focus. One such author was the royal librarian and literary historian Rasmus Nyerup (1759â1829), who examined popular reading culture in his seminal Almindelig Morskabslæsning i Danmark og Norge igjennem Aarhundreder (1816).7 Nyerup became the founder of a tradition at the Royal Library, fully established during the nineteenth century and similar to the British discipline of analytical bibliography.8
The most significant achievement of this school was the gradual creation of a Danish national bibliography. Librarian and historian Christian Bruun (1831â1906) started this process during the last decades of the nineteenth century with the publication of his Bibliotheca Danicaâa national bibliography in four volumes.9 With its essential, subsequently published, supplements it is still today the most comprehensive bibliography of early modern Danish books and hence an excellent tool for the identification of titles in early modern collections.10 This short title catalogue includes all Danish books published between 1482 and 1830 kept in the collections of the Royal Library, the Library of the University of Copenhagen, and Karen Braheâs Library in Odense.11 Christian Bruun included books printed in Denmark or in Danish and followed the topical categorisation system used by the Royal Library.12 As in other countries, some publications did not find their way into the collections of these libraries: mostly ephemera, popular print, and further editions of titles already included. Furthermore, some books were lost because of the great fire of Copenhagen in 1728, which incinerated large parts of the University Library. However, since legal deposit of all publications printed in Denmark has been in effect since 1697,13 and as printing and publishing activity was concentrated in Copenhagen,14 the Royal Libraryâs collections contain most books published in eighteenth-century Denmark.15 These circumstances ensure that the Bibliotheca Danica lists most books printed in early modern Denmark and it has been an excellent tool for the identification of early modern books ever since its first edition.
Christian Bruunâs successors continued the bibliographical work into the following century. Between 1919 and 1935, historian and librarian Lauritz Nielsen (1881â1947) published another national bibliography: Dansk Bibliografi 1482â1600, which includes Danish books found in libraries outside of Denmark. Nielsen provided detailed bibliographical descriptions of all publications as well as information about all extant copies identified so far.16 The prolific writer and librarian Erik Dal (1922â2006) contributed to the creation of a Danish national bibliography with his 1982 book on the Danish provincial press, Dansk Provinsbogtryk gennem 500 Ã¥r.17 This book was followed by a six-volume bibliography compiled by Grethe Larsen and edited by Dal entitled Danske provinstryk 1482â1830, published between 1994 and 2001.18 Dalâs successor Harald Ilsøe (1933â2019) had a similarly diverse and productive research output through his long career. His 1992 book Bogtrykkere i København continued where Lauritz Nielsenâs bibliography had stopped (in the year 1600), but with different source material: primarily the sales catalogues of Copenhagen printers from 1600â1810. This book, in his own words âa bibliographical handbookâ of printers, combined biographical information and business details such as print capacity with a detailed list of their print output, and accompanied these with references to bibliographies such as the Bibliotheca Danica.19
Considered together, the above works form a comprehensive national bibliography of an international standard, and researchers working with Danish book collections have excellent tools for the identification of early modern books. The tradition at the Royal Library has shaped Danish book history through the librariansâ many investigations into the libraryâs collections.20 The value of their bibliographical work cannot be overstated, and it is indispensable for any researcher interested in private book collections and libraries of eighteenth-century Denmark. Many royal librarians have also contributed with research on private book collections, especially on those of the learned elite.
Extensive Libraries of the Learned Elite
During the long eighteenth century, Danish noblemen collected books to an extent not seen before, and they created large learned libraries comparable in size to the largest in Europe. These libraries have deservedly received much attention from researchers. However, there has been an even greater interest for the preceding period, as the time between the Danish reformation (1536) and the introduction of absolutism (1660) has traditionally been regarded as the apogee of the power of the nobility.21 Thus, cultural historians have exhibited a predilection for this periodâs nobility and their libraries.22
Researchers of private book collections in eighteenth-century Denmark have a wide range of excellent sources at their disposal. Hundreds of private libraries of the long eighteenth century can be studied through the collections of the Royal Library, as books from these collections ended up here either as donations or purchases. While these collections have not been kept separately, and many books have later been eliminated as duplicates, large parts of the Royal Libraryâs holdings can be traced back to these eighteenth-century private libraries and allow material studies of these collections.23
Other sources open up to a book world far beyond the Danish nobility. In 1660s Copenhagen, auctions of private book collections began taking place regularly. Many of the collections put up for auction belonged to the nobility and higher strata of the clergy and they were of a scope that required printed auction catalogues. About 1,500 of these catalogues are still extant. Some are just a few pages long, while others cover 500 pages, but they are all excellent sourcesânot just to document the second-hand book trade, but also to study the many private book collections of the time.
One of the first scholars to acknowledge the value of these auction catalogues was the above-mentioned Christian Bruun, who studied a collection of printed catalogues kept at the Royal Library. In his 1873 book Det Store Kongelig Bibliotheks Stiftelse, about the founding of the Royal Library, he touched upon these private collections.24 He studied 200 catalogues from 1661â1699, of which about 190 were auction catalogues, and found that the collections were of such international character when it came to the languages represented by the books that they could have belonged to learned men of any nationality. Books in Danish were the exception, not the rule. The owners belonged to the highest strata of society: noblemen and high clergy; their collections were extensiveâwith the library of high court judge Jørgen Seefeld (1594â1662), containing 26,000 volumes, being the largest. With some pride, Christian Bruun exclaimed that this Danish nobleman might have owned the most extensive private collection of the seventeenth century. With his book, Bruun unlocked a new field of research that would use auction catalogues as a source for studying early modern book collections. Moreover, he left an unpublished annotated list of auction catalogues from the period 1650â1800.25
Since the Scandinavian languages are mutually intelligible, much past and present research crosses national borders; book history is no exception. The writings by the Swedish book historian and librarian Otto Walde (1879â1963) are a good example. He contributed to early research on Danish learned private collections with his major work from 1920, Storhetstidens litterära krigsbytenâa two-volume study on books taken to Sweden as spoils of war.26 Other publications treating Danish libraries include articles in the journal Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, a pan-Nordic periodical on the history of the book and of libraries.27 His work on books found at the collections of Skokloster Castle in Sweden that were taken from Denmark as spoils of war, offered valuable knowledge concerning the provenance of early modern books and especially those lost among European book collections due to war spoliations. Walde would have a long-lasting influence on students of Danish private libraries.
One of the researchers inspired by the works of Walde was historian and librarian Ellen Jørgensen (1877â1948), with her 1917 article on seventeenth-century libraries of the Danish nobility. She found that, within these collections, contemporary literature dominated and, as Christian Bruun had already observed, Danish books were a minority. Going into more detail about the individual titles than Bruun, she examined the confessional trends to which the theological books belonged. She found that works by Luther were surprisingly few and that Philippist and Reformed theology was as common as orthodox Lutheran works were, even though the period she examined is often regarded as dominated by Lutheran orthodoxy.28 Carl Sophus Petersen (1873â1958) was another royal librarian who used printed auction catalogues to study private book collections. He was the first to look for books of specific authors across different collections in his examination of works by Ludvig Holberg in contemporary book collections (1720â1723). In his investigation, which also touches on methodological challenges of this type of source material, he gives a detailed description of several book collections mostly belonging to noblemen but a few of them also to pastors.29
One of the most extensive, systematic studies of private libraries of the Danish elite is Lauritz Nielsenâs Danske Privatbiblioteker gennem Tiderne from 1946, covering the first decades of the long eighteenth century. Nielsen examines seventeenth-century private libraries that primarily belonged to the nobility, and a smaller fraction of them to members of the high clergy and some high-ranking officials and scholars. Nielsen, eager to write the history of early modern Danish bibliophilia, had planned to publish studies on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but died one year after publishing the first volume.30 His main interest were the collections that were important according to their size and value, and to the status of their owner. In his descriptions of these private libraries, Nielsen described the books following the catalogues. Through various sources, he described how and where the libraries were kept, who had access to them and how they were used. While Nielsen covered the beginning of the long eighteenth century, literary historian Knud Frederik Plesner (1898â1968) covered the last decades of the long eighteenth century in his 1957 Danske bogsamlere i det nittende Ã¥rhundrede.31 He argued that the book collections of the nineteenth century were under-researched and examined almost 300 auction catalogues from the period for his overview of that centuryâs collections. He left his annotated survey of these catalogues to the Royal Library as a continuation of Christian Bruunâs manuscript mentioned above.
While no investigation focusing on the eighteenth century exists that is similarly systematic to Nielsen and Plesner, an overview of the whole period 1661â1811 has been published by Harald Ilsøe in his 2007 Biblioteker til salg.32 In the introduction of his book, Ilsøe offers a history of Danish book auctions. Inspired by book auctions in Amsterdam and beginning already in 1661, they were some of the earliest book auctions organised outside of the Netherlands.33 Ilsøe estimates that the 1,500 extant auction catalogues only document parts of the periodâs book auctions.34 Besides this brief history of Danish book auctions, the main part of the book presents a selective bibliography of about 430 book auctions, based on extant auction catalogues and other sources, such as notices in newspapers and accounting records. Encompassing a vast amount of material in one single volume, it contains many rather short descriptions. Moreover, Ilsøe provides references for each collection when available. This book is an indispensable handbook to all researchers using Danish auction catalogues as their source material.
While the private, learned libraries of the eighteenth century have not been investigated as a whole, the individual libraries of learned men have received much scholarly attention ever since Christian Bruunâs work based on auction catalogues in 1873. Four important private libraries from the first half of the period have been described in detail. Lauritz Nielsen and Harald Ilsøe have both studied the library of university professor Peder Hansen Resen (1625â1688).35 Christian Kaaber has examined bishop and hymn-writer Thomas Kingoâs (1634â1703) book collection.36 Knud Larsen thoroughly investigated the library of high-ranking official Frederik Rostgaard (1671â1745) in his Frederik Rostgaard og bøgerne (1970) and in 1997, Carl Johan Ballhausen studied the library of Professor Hans Gram (1685â1748).37 From the second half of the eighteenth century, libraries that were even more impressive were put up for auction. The largest, with an estimated 200,000 titles, was the one owned by Count Otto Thott (1703â1785). For good reasons, it has always received much scholarly attention and still does so today. Among the latest articles on this collection are those by Harald Ilsøe, Stig T. Rasmussen, Ruth Bentzen (1932â2014) and Anders Toftgaard.38 Thottâs contemporary Peter Frederik Suhm (1728â1798) was also an avid collector and his library, which he opened to the public, contained an estimated 100,000 volumes.39 In 1898, Christian Bruun wrote a biography on Suhm in which he also deals with his library.40 Suhm and his library have been the subject of several articles, most recently by Gerhard Munthe.41
Clerical Libraries, Urban Book Collections and Books Owned by Peasants
While there has of course been much interest in the impressive libraries of the elite, researchers have also paid attention to privately-owned libraries that allowed wider public access and book collections of people belonging to other social groups of eighteenth-century Denmark. Just as Suhm opened his private library to the public, many other efforts were made to create libraries open to the public. Librarian Helge Nielsen (1919â1999) dealt with such libraries from the period 1770â1834 in his study Folkebibliotekernes forgængere (1960), an ambitious synthesis on the prehistory of Danish public libraries.42 Nielsen analysed the efforts made during this period to enlighten the population and explored all the libraries that were established for the âcommon manâ and libraries owned by the growing middle class. While all of the libraries Nielsen dealt with do not necessarily fall under the definition of âprivateâ used in this article, some do: for example, Suhmâs library. While his investigation did not include analysis of the lending practices of the librariesâ users, his comprehensive investigation still proves an indispensable reference work in the domain.
Helge Nielsenâs book is one example of the influence of social history and history from below on research on private libraries. A widening of the research field to include the book collections of people outside the so-called elite gradually took place from the late nineteenth century onwards. This research was based on new types of sources, such as the growing number of probate inventories in the long eighteenth century, a result of the increased regulation of the probate system by the growing absolutist state beginning in 1661. Danish historians have long appreciated the value of probate inventories as a source for cultural and economic history.43 In the nineteenth century, many historians interested in agrarian history began using probate inventories to document the cultural and economic history of early modern peasants. This sparked a new interest in book ownership among classes whose book collections had hitherto not been the object of research.
From the late nineteenth century on, researchers began to pay attention to the book collections of ordinary clergymen such as pastors and parish clerks.44 The author, librarian, and politician Frederik Barfod (1811â1896) was the first to use clerical probate inventories as a source for studying book collections owned by pastors. His 1887 article âNogle præstelige Bogsamlingerâ, a modest title best translated as âSome clerical book collectionsâ, examined the book collections of 26 pastors in the countryside of Zealand through clerical probate inventories from 1689 to 1729.45 While Barfod, inspired by agrarian history, was primarily interested in the total value of the estates and the relative value of the book collections, he also studied the titles the pastors owned. Perhaps his most interesting conclusion was that the collections, mostly made up of Latin and some Danish books, contained more books in Dutch than in German.
Georg Hansenâs (1916â1992) cultural history of eighteenth-century pastors in Denmark published in 1947 includes an appendix listing the most common secular books found in 160 clerical probate inventories.46 While historian Troels Dahlerupâs (1925â2006) article on books owned by a rural dean from the middle of the seventeenth century is formally just outside the period considered in our present study, his methodological discussions deserve mention.47 Dahlerup asks why some books ended up in the inventory, while some did not, and he is perhaps the first to connect book collections to professional habits such as those linked to the pastorâs involvement in the school system. He also made excellent contributions to the field of literacy studies, examining literacy rates in early modern Denmark.48
The researchers mentioned above contributed to the historiography of private book collections by widening the object of investigation from the colossal learned collections of the highest strata of society to those of ordinary clergymen. The scholars presented in the following paragraphs widened this scope even further by including book collections owned by people without university training, arguably a much more significant leap.
While, as early as 1884, the historian, librarian and archivist Oluf Nielsen (1836â1896) examined a small sample of book catalogues from the year 1719, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that researchers began to pay attention to urban book collections.49 Historian Jørgen Olrik (1875â1941) was the first to use probate inventories to investigate urban book collections: a list of books contained in twenty inventories is to be found in his study on urban homes in the market town of Helsingør.50 Following Olrik, other researchers contributed with investigations of book ownership in different market towns in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Denmark: V. Woll (1868â1958) examined the town of Kerteminde (on the Island of Funen), Palle Birkelund (1912â2012) focused on Aarhus (Jutland), Holger Rasmussen (1915â2009) studied Odense (Funen), and Johan Jørgensen (1924â1969) worked on Kalundborg (Zealand).51 They all paid particular attention to probate inventories of local bookbinders, thus contributing to a reconstruction of the local supply of books in each town. Influenced by the rising trend of social history, they were all interested in the differences between book collections of people from diverse social backgrounds. While Woll found that only the upper-middle class owned what could be properly called collections, Birkelund was interested in the books owned by the urban population at large, and he found considerable differences between what he described as an educated upper class and a less educated middle class in his survey of 406 inventories (of which 110 listed books with titles).52 Out of these early investigations, Rasmussenâs was the most ambitious study in scope, as he set out to describe not just the book collections but also the whole book market in a Danish market town. In his investigation of about one hundred probates (of which fourteen contained books), Jørgensen drew comparisons between his results, in which he divided the book owners according to their trade, and the research that came before him. All these historians used probate inventories as their primary sources and their methodological discussions gradually deepened.
Throughout the previous two centuries, researchers have also studied the book world of peasants. The first to look into this world was librarian and historian Erich Christian Werlauff (1781â1871), who did not study actual book ownership but, instead, studied the books accessible to and printed for the common man.53 The first researcher to study the actual book collections of peasants was Frits Heide (1883â1957).54 His analysis of no fewer than 1,300 probate inventories from eighteenth-century Zealand resulted in an article published in 1918, which documented book ownership of peasants living on the land belonging to two manors. He found that 98 out of the 1,300 inventories contained books, of which he identified the vast majority as âreligiousâ.55 The differences in these collections led him to conclude that there were significant social disparities among peasants, and he described what he called a âpeasant aristocracyâ. Heide was also the first historian to reflect on how these inventories were made. According to him, a scribe would write down the titles while somebody else dictated, except the very complex titles, copied verbatim from the book handed to him. Heide also made the point that some titles might represent the same copy circulating in the same area through generations.
In continuation of Heideâs work, theologian and church historian Folmer Elle Jensen (1885â1973) studied probate inventories of peasants from the latter half of the eighteenth century.56 He studied 337 inventories in a specific area of Western Jutland and compared this sample with his more extensive study of 1,040 inventories scattered across Jutland. He found that book ownership was much more widespread than in Heideâs studies, arguing that peasants in Jutland (and especially Western Jutland) were more likely to own and read books than peasants on Zealand.57 His research, which resulted in several articles and a book, had a clear theological focus, resonating with his background in ecclesiastical history. He was particularly interested in confessional trends represented in the peasantsâ book collections, concluding that Pietism was not as widespread in Jutland as hitherto assumed. In contrast, orthodox, penance-focused literature dominated the collections. Elle Jensen argued that the large proportion of religious literature was due to clerical auctions as the primary way in which peasants acquired books. Books certainly circulated in this manner, as he showed in his 1959 article on clerical auction catalogues, but peasants also purchased books through travelling book pedlars and book sales in churches, as Birkelund had pointed out six years before the publication of Elle Jensenâs first article.58
New Developments in Book History
While all the contributions mentioned above may still be worth consulting, most of them can be characterised as quite specialised investigationsânot attempts at broader book historical syntheses. While, in other countries, new developments in book history took place in the 1980sâespecially in the French tradition of Histoire du livre, where scholars such as Roger Chartier and Robert Darnton developed book history as an interdisciplinary field of research solidly grounded in theory59 âthese developments did not reach Danish book history until the 1990s, when Henrik Horstbøll and Charlotte Appel introduced these new book-historical developments into the Danish tradition with their respective doctoral theses.60
Historian and librarian Henrik Horstbøll took an interest in early modern Danish popular print, which resulted in his thesis Menigmands medie, published in 1999.61 Building on an older Danish tradition of studying popular literature established by Rasmus Nyerup at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and drawing inspiration from new book historical approaches especially from the French tradition, Horstbøll mapped out printed matter that had the âcommon manâ as its intended reader in Denmark during the period 1500â1840. Horstbøllâs primary source materials were the bibliographies Bibliotheca Danica and Dansk Bibliografi and their supplements. He contrasted these with other sources such as booksellersâ catalogues and inventories, auction catalogues and records from subscription libraries. He studied the book formats of popular print and the moral worldview found in chapbooks.
Concerning private book collections, Horstbøllâs main contribution is his investigation of the subscription libraries in the latter half of the eighteenth century. After Helge Nielsenâs research on private libraries in 1960, he was the first to examine this type of sources in detail and the first to examine the contents and languages of the books in these libraries. He found a decline of French language books and a rise of the genres of fiction and biography. In a separate article, he examined the age of the books based on their earliest date of publication and found that the share of older titles grew in the period studied.62 Horstbøll thoroughly studied which literature was available for the âcommon manâ in early modern Denmark. However, his chosen source material did not allow him to study how it reached its intended readers.
Also concerned with popular print, cultural historian Charlotte Appel took a different approach. Her two-volume thesis entitled Læsning og bogmarked i 1600-tallets Danmark is a thorough enquiry into reading, literacy, book ownership, and the print market of seventeenth-century Denmark.63 Her investigation of approximately 2,400 probate inventories from several Danish market towns is still the major work on urban book ownership and book collections in seventeenth-century Denmark. After thorough methodological reflections, Appel examined the inventories using three different approaches. Firstly, a general overview of urban book collections listed in probate inventories through three generations of book owners 30 years apart. Here, she found a growth in the rate of urban book ownership and a dominance of books in Danish and German. Secondly, she mapped different topics and genres of specific books, finding a rise of secular imprints and devotional literature aimed at the individual rather than the collective. Thirdly, she examined a range of specific book collections with varying sizes (from the very small containing three to six books, to larger collections of 25â99 books). She also examined where these books were kept in the respective homes and compared book ownership across gender and occupations. Through these chapters, she drew comparisons with most of the research mentioned above, assembling a very comprehensive picture of book ownership in towns of seventeenth-century Denmark. Moreover, she compared her results with findings from other European countries, putting the Danish case into an international context.
The Field in 2020: State of the Art and Perspectives
As shown above, the history of Danish book collections of the eighteenth century is a fairly well-researched topic, although some sources still hold much untapped potential. During the last twenty years, archivists and librarians have made considerable efforts to digitise sources and make them available online.
The Royal Danish Library has digitised its catalogue, meaning all titles are searchable in its online catalogue, and information about provenance has been entered as metadata.64 Likewise, its collection of Danish books printed before 1601 has been digitised and made available in the database Early European Books, with books from the seventeenth century soon being added.65 The Danish National Archives have made handwritten probate inventories and auction catalogues from around 1650 until around 1910 publicly available.66 Along with published auction catalogues, these sources offer great tools for researchers interested in private book collections.
There is still much activity at the Royal Library, and research with new focuses and approaches is published every year in Fund og Forskning.67 Regarding the extensive learned collections of the elite, Harald Ilsøeâs 2007 Biblioteker til salg serves as an excellent overview of the extant catalogues, and many of the large private libraries of the eighteenth century have not yet been described in much detail. Further studies, such as a systematic investigation into the languages, genres and authors of the books these libraries contained would be most welcome, and Ilsøeâs book combined with the unpublished notes of Christian Bruun and Knud Frederik Plesner offer the perfect foundation for such endeavours.
Book collections held by churches also offer excellent opportunities for further research, as many have not yet been studied in detail. While not traditionally regarded as private collections, the boundary between the book collection of an early modern pastor and the library of the parish church was often vague. A systematic investigation of books found in churches would be a welcome addition to the field. Book collections such as these are generally hard to study, as the collections themselves have often disappeared. However, extraordinary sources sometimes allow research on ordinary libraries. In a 2012 article, Charlotte Appel examined such a source: a collection of inventories of the books in village schools presented to a bishop on his visitation journeys in Northern Jutland in the 1750s.68 As many pastors established and improved on these book collections, they also give us an insight into their private collections. Appel found that most schools had only a few books because it was generally the responsibility of parents to supply schoolbooks. She found a high degree of continuity in the schoolbooks listed, and new government-sanctioned curriculum only gradually found its place on the bookshelves. More research on this topic remains to be done.
For extensive, systematic investigations of multiple book collections, probate inventories still hold great potential. As shown above, Danish researchers have not been afraid of using this type of source. However, since Appelâs work at the beginning of the last decade, broad syntheses based on this type of material have been missing in Danish research. While Appel thoroughly covered book ownership in the seventeenth century, especially in towns, research on the eighteenth century is still lacking. Apart from a few smaller studies mentioned above, book ownership in the countryside has not been covered either. It seems as if the field of research on book ownership has stagnated in the last decade. Appelâs work inspired the Norwegian book historian Gina Dahl to conduct several systematic investigations into the book collections of the Norwegian clergy based on clerical probate inventories.69 Danish researchers have only studied book collections of the Danish clergy sparingly, which is surprising, considering the increased attention given to the important role pastors played in the early modern world in Danish research, especially in connection to research relating to the long Reformation and the shaping of confessional culture.70 Dahlâs work in turn inspired the 2022 PhD thesis by the present author, who conducted a similar investigation into the book collections of Danish clergymen in the long eighteenth century based on probate inventories and local auction catalogues.71
In conclusion, Danish research on private book collections and libraries has a long tradition that goes back to the nineteenth century. Researchers have long worked on the collections of the Royal Danish Library, and their fundamental bibliographical work is an excellent foundation for further research. Some of the large-sized learned collections of the eighteenth century have been studied in detail, but many are still virtually untouched, and larger, systematic investigations based on printed auction catalogues still hold potential, as do the libraries of churches and parish schools, sources permitting. Urban book collections have been thoroughly studied, while researchers have paid less attention to book collections of peasants and clergy in the countryside. The forerunners of public libraries such as subscription libraries have been examined well, but studies of actual lending practices based on library ledgers are still mostly missing. Combined with probate inventories and auction catalogues, this type of source material probably offers the best opportunities for future research. It is also vital to see Danish book collections and libraries of the eighteenth century in a greater, transnational perspective. Comparisons with the book collections of other European countries as well as studies of specific transnational exchanges probably hold the most potential for future research in this field.
Appendix: Bibliography
Aadna, Jarle Rui, âSynliggørelse af proveniens i KBs bøgerâ, Magasin fra Det kongelige Bibliotek, 25:3 (2012), pp. 28â33.
Appel, Charlotte, âBøger i 1700-tallets nordjyske landsbyskolerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 233â259.
Appel, Charlotte, âBogmarkedets og læsningens historie ca. 1500â1700 i nyere europæisk Forskning. En introduktionâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 32 (1993), pp. 185â241.
Appel, Charlotte, Læsning og bogmarked i 1600-tallets Danmark (2 vols., Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2001).
Appel, Charlotte, and Morten Fink-Jensen (eds.), Religious Reading in the Lutheran North. Studies in Early Modern Scandinavian Book Culture (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011).
Appel, Charlotte, and Morten Fink-Jensen, NÃ¥r det regner pÃ¥ præsten. En kulturhistorie om sognepræster og sognefolk 1550â1750 (Højbjerg: Hovedland, 2009).
Ballhausen, Carl Johan, âBogauktionen 1749 over Hans Grams trykte bøgerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 36 (1997), pp. 253â260.
Barfod, Frederik, âNogle præstelige Bogsamlingerâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 3:6 (1887), pp. 792â797.
Bentzen, Ruth, âLord Harley og grev Thott. En studie i nogle af Det Kongelige Biblioteks bind og bøger fra Harleys og Thotts bogsamlingerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 44 (2005), pp. 277â369.
Birkelund, Palle, âNoget om Læsningâog lidt om Boghandelâi Aarhusâ, Aarbøger udgivne af Historisk Samfund for Aarhus Stift, 32 (1939), pp. 17â43.
Bjerring-Hansen, Jens, and Torben Jelsbak, Boghistorie (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2010).
Bruun, Christian, Bibliotheca Danica (4 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1877â1902).
Bruun, Christian, Det store Kongelige Bibliotheks Stiftelse under Kong Frederik den Tredie og Kong Christian den Femte (Copenhagen: Thiele, 1873).
Bruun, Christian, Peter Frederik Suhm. 18. oktober 1728â7. september 1798. En Levnetsbeskrivelse (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1898).
Christensen, Karsten, âBogbind i Sjællands Stiftsbibliotek. Nogle eksempler fra de ældre samlingerâ, Historisk à rbog for Roskilde Amt (2012), pp. 113â122.
Christensen, Karsten, and Birger Munk Olesen, âTo pergamenthÃ¥ndskrifter fra det 13. Ã¥rhundrede i Aalborg Katedralskoles bibliotekâ, Aalborg Katedralskole (1983), pp. 51â55.
Dahl, Gina, Book Collections of Clerics in Norway, 1650â1750 (Leiden: Brill, 2010).
Dahl, Gina, Books in Early Modern Norway (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
Dahl, Gina, Libraries and Enlightenment. Eighteenth-Century Norway and Outer World (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2014).
Dahl, Svend (ed.), Nordisk hÃ¥ndbog i bibliotekskundskab (3 vols., Copenhagen: Nordisk Videnskabeligt Bibliotekarforbund, 1957â1960).
Dahlerup, Troels, âProvsten i Lumby hr. Oluf Andersen og hans bibliothekâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 7 (1961), pp. 348â358.
Dal, Erik (ed.), Bibliotheca Danica (5 vols., Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1961â1963).
Dal, Erik, âBibliotheca Danica 1482â1830â, in Axel Andersen (ed.), Danske Opslagsværker (2 vols., Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1977), pp. 225â298.
Dal, Erik, Dansk provinsbogtryk gennem 500 år. En boghistorisk skitse i elleve streger (Odense: Bogtrykkerbladets Forlag, 1982).
Elle Jensen, Folmer, âBøger i gamle Skifteprotokoller fra Hads Herredâ, Aarbøger udgivne af Historisk Samfund for Aarhus Stift (1959), pp 170â178.
Elle Jensen, Folmer, âVestjydsk Bondelæsning i Stavnsbaandstidenâ, Jyske Samlinger, 5:6 (1943), pp. 251â264.
Elle Jensen, Folmer, Pietismen i Jylland. Studier over jyske Menighedstilstande, særlig paa Landet, omkring Midten af det 18. Aarh (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1944).
Hansen, Georg, Præsten paa Landet i Danmark i det 18. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen: Det danske Forlag, 1947).
Hansen, Robert L., âPeter Frederik Suhm og hans bibliotekâ, Bibliotek og Forskning, 12 (1963), pp. 7â33.
Heide, Frits, âBidrag til SpørgsmÃ¥let om den danske Almues Læsning i det 18. Aarhundredeâ, Danske Studier (1918), pp. 36â47.
Horstbøll, Henrik, ââNedsivningsteoriâ, kultursammenstød og kulturhistorie. Kampen mod bondesamfundets husholdningshorisont i Danmark i det 18. Ã¥rhundredeâ, Den jyske historiker, 26 (1983), pp. 76â98.
Horstbøll, Henrik, âA Survey of the History of the Book and Libraries in Denmark since 1990â, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Bibliotekshistoria, 86:2 (2006), pp. 165â203.
Horstbøll, Henrik, âBolle Willum Luxdorphs samling af trykkefrihedens skrifter 1770â 1773â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 44 (2005), pp. 371â414.
Horstbøll, Henrik, âDe âSmÃ¥ historierâ og læserevolutionen i 1700-talletâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 33 (1994), pp. 77â99.
Horstbøll, Henrik, âEn bogtrykker og boghandler i København. Claude Philiberts forbindelse med Societé typographique de Neuchatel 1771â1783â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 311â335.
Horstbøll, Henrik, Menigmands medie. Det folkelige bogtryk i Danmark 1500â1840 (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999).
Horstbøll, Henrik, and John T. Lauridsen (eds.), Den trykte kulturarv. Pligtaflevering gennem 300 år (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998).
Horstbøll, Henrik, Ulrik Langen, and Frederik Stjernfelt, Grov Konfækt. Tre vilde Ã¥r med trykkefrihed 1770â73 (2 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2020).
Ilsøe, Harald, âBogbind med historieâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 55 (2016), pp. 257â273.
Ilsøe, Harald, âBøger der gik den anden vej. Historien om hvad der blev af Det kongelige Biblioteks dubletterâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 37 (1998), pp. 11â62.
Ilsøe, Harald, âHvordan sÃ¥ Otto Thotts bøger ud?â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 35 (1996), pp. 65â93.
Ilsøe, Harald, âPeder Resens nordiske bibliotek, katalog, bibliografi og boghandel i sidste halvdel af 1600-talletâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 30 (1991), pp. 26â49.
Ilsøe, Harald, Biblioteker til salg. Om danske bogauktioner og kataloger 1661â1811 (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 2007).
Ilsøe, Harald, Bogtrykkerne i København og deres virksomhed ca. 1600â1810 (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1992).
Ilsøe, Harald, Det kongelige Bibliotek i støbeskeen. Studier og samlinger til bestandens historie indtil ca. 1780 (2 vols., Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999).
Ilsøe, Ingrid, âLitteratur om dansk bogvæsen trykt 1950â1990. Tryk, bind og boghandel ca. 1482â1920â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 31 (1992), pp. 143â198.
Ilsøe, Ingrid, âPrinting, Book Illustration, Bookbinding, and Book Trade in Denmark, 1482â1914â, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1985), pp. 258â80.
Jakobsen, Jesper, âChristian Gottlob Proft og de utilladelige skrifter. Bogforbud i Ã¥rene efter trykkefrihedsperiodenâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 289â310.
Jespersen, Knud J.V., A History of Denmark (2nd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Jørgensen, Ellen, âDanske adelige Biblioteker i det 17. Aarhundrede med særligt Henblik paa den teologiske Literaturâ, Teologisk Tidsskrift for den danske Folkekirke, 3:8 (1917), pp. 244â250.
Jørgensen, Johan, âBogsamlinger i Kalundborg i slutningen af det 17. Ã¥rhundredeâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 7:4 (1961), pp. 359â371.
Jørgensen, Johan, Skifter og testamenter (Copenhagen: Dansk Historisk Fællesforening, 1968).
Kjølsen, Klaus, Hendes Majestæt Dronningens HÃ¥ndbibliotek 1746â1996 (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1997).
Koefoed, Nina Javette, Bo Kristian Holm, and Sasja Emilie Mathiasen Stopa (eds.), Religion som forklaring? Om kirke og religion i stat of samfund (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2018).
Kornerup, Bjørn, Ribe Katedralskoles Historie. Studier over 800 Aars dansk Skolehistorie (2 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1947â1952).
Larsen, Grethe, and Erik Dal, Danske provinstryk 1482â1830. En bibliografi (Copenhagen: Det danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 2001).
Larsen, Knud, Frederik Rostgaard og bøgerne (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1970).
Lehm Laursen, Johannes, Dansk litteratur om bogvæsen. En bibliografi (2 vols., Copenhagen: Dansk Bibliografisk Kontor, 1955â1956).
Michelsen, Hans, âSjællands Stiftsbibliotekâ, Historisk à rbog for Roskilde Amt (2012), pp. 67â88.
Michelsen, Hans, Peder Sørensen. En præst og hans bøger (Roskilde: Roskilde Stiftsblad, 1995).
Mitchell, P.M, âP.F. Suhms âFornødent Bibliothekââ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 60 (1973), pp. 1â34.
Munthe, Gerhard, âSuhm og Norgeâ, Bibliotekshistorie, 1 (1985), pp. 7â29.
Nationalmuseet, âDanmarks Kirkerâ <http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/> (last accessed 20 November 2020).
Nielsen, Helge, Folkebibliotekernes forgængere. Oplysning, almue- og borgerbiblioteker fra 1770âerne til 1834 (Dansk Bibliografisk Kontor, 1960).
Nielsen, Lauritz, Danske Privatbiblioteker gennem Tiderne. I. Indtil Udgangen af det 17. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen, 1946).
Nielsen, Lauritz, and Erik Dal, Dansk Bibliografi. Med særligt Hensyn til dansk Bogtrykkerkunsts Historie (2nd ed. Copenhagen: Det kongelige Bibliotek, 1996).
Nielsen, Oluf, Kjøbenhavn paa Holbergs Tid. Kulturhistoriske Billeder fra Begyndelsen af det 18. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen: Forlagsbureauet i Kjøbenhavn, 1884).
Nyerup, Rasmus, Almindelig Morskabslæsning i Danmark og Norge igjennem Aarhundreder (Copenhagen: Thiele, 1816).
Olrik, Jørgen, Borgerlige Hjem i Helsingør for 300 Aar siden (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1903).
Outzen, Susanne, and Karsten Christensen, Birgitte Gøye & Herluf Trolles bøger (Vordingborg: Museum Sydøstdanmark, 2016).
Petersen, Carl Sophus, Afhandlinger til dansk Bog- og Bibliotekshistorie (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1949).
Plesner, Knud Frederik, âBibliofiliens historieâ, in Svend Dahl (ed.), Nordisk hÃ¥ndbog i bibliotekskundskab (1958), II. 370â395.
Plesner, Knud Frederik, Danske bogsamlere i det nittende århundrede (Copenhagen: Forening for Boghaandværk, 1957).
Rasmussen, Holger, Bøger og bogbindere i Odense før 1694 (Odense, 1959).
Rasmussen, Stig T., âOtto Thotts orientalske hÃ¥ndskrifter identificeret pÃ¥ grundlag Det Kgl. Biblioteks arkivâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 37 (1998), pp. 299â324.
Rigsarkivet, âArkivalieronlineâSkifterâ <https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/da/collection/theme/30> (last accessed 20 November 2020).
Selm, Bert van, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987).
Stilling, Niels Peter, Politikens bog om Danmarks kirker (2nd ed. Copenhagen: Politiken, 2004).
Toftgaard, Anders, âLandkort over en samling. Hvad katalogposterne kan fortælle om Otto Thotts hÃ¥ndskriftsamlingâog om katalogiseringâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 58 (2019), pp. 129â160.
Toftgaard, Anders, âPrincely libraries, the readings of the common man and the entry of the book cover into literary studiesâ, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis, 20 (2013), pp. 159â181.
Walde, Otto, âOm bokanteckningar som källor och behofvet af proveniens-katalogerâ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 5 (1918), pp. 77â111.
Walde, Otto, âStudier i äldre dansk bibliotekshistoriaâ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 19 (1932), pp. 1â66.
Walde, Otto, Storhetstidens litterära krigsbyten. En kulturhistorisk-bibliografisk studie (2 vols., Uppsala, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1916â1920).
Werlauff, Erich Christian, Historiske Antegnelser til Ludvig Holbergs atten første Lystspil (Copenhagen: Samfundet til den danske Literaturs Fremme, 1858).
Werlauff, Erich Christian, Historiske Efterretninger om det store kongelige Bibliothek i Kiøbenhavn (Copenhagen: Samfundet til den danske Literaturs Fremme, 1844).
Woll, V., âOm Borgerskabets Læsning i det 17. Aarhundredeâ, Aarbog for Historisk Samfund for Odense og Assens Amter, 22 (1934), pp. 591â595.
Wulff, D.H., âBiskop Oluf Chrysostomusâs Fortegnelse over Præsternes Bøger i Vendelbo Stiftâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 3:1 (1874), pp. 165â212.
Zeeberg, Peter, Heinrich Rantzau. A Bibliography (Copenhagen: Society for Danish Language and Literature, 2004).
I wish to thank Charlotte Appel and Karsten Christensen for their comments on earlier versions of the present article. Any shortcomings are my responsibility alone.
Research on private book collections and libraries in Denmark has mostly been the domain of librarians and book historians, and the vast majority of it has been published in Danish. For a general introduction to Nordic library history (but not much on private collections), see Svend Dahl (ed.), Nordisk hÃ¥ndbog i bibliotekskundskab (3 vols., Copenhagen: Nordisk Videnskabeligt Bibliotekarforbund, 1957â1960). A two-volume introduction to Danish library history entitled Dansk Bibliotekshistorie was published in 2021 (I am thankful to Nan Dahlkild for providing me with this information). For a comprehensive list of Danish research on book history (excluding library history, which was intended for a third volume that was never published) up until 1950, see Johannes Lehm Laursen, Dansk litteratur om bogvæsen. En bibliografi (2 vols., Copenhagen: Dansk Bibliografisk Kontor, 1955â1956). For research done from 1950 to 1990 (again excluding library history), see Ingrid Ilsøe, âLitteratur om dansk bogvæsen trykt 1950â1990. Tryk, bind og boghandel ca. 1482â1920â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 31 (1992), pp. 143â198, or Ingrid Ilsøe, âPrinting, Book Illustration, Bookbinding, and Book Trade in Denmark, 1482â1914â, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1985), pp. 258â280. For research between 1990 and 2005 see Henrik Horstbøll, âA Survey of the History of the Book and Libraries in Denmark since 1990â, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Bibliotekshistoria, 86:2 (2006), pp. 165â203. For research up until 2013, see Anders Toftgaard, âPrincely Libraries, the Readings of the Common Man and the Entry of the Book Cover into Literary Studiesâ, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis, 20 (2013), pp. 159â181.
See, for instance, Christian Bruun, Det store Kongelige Bibliotheks Stiftelse under Kong Frederik den Tredie og Kong Christian den Femte (Copenhagen: Thiele, 1873); Ellen Jørgensen, âDanske adelige Biblioteker i det 17. Aarhundrede med særligt Henblik paa den teologiske Literaturâ, Teologisk Tidsskrift for den danske Folkekirke, 3:8 (1917), pp. 244â50.
See, for instance, Frits Heide, âBidrag til SpørgsmÃ¥let om den danske Almues Læsning i det 18. Aarhundredeâ, Danske Studier, 1918, 36â47; Folmer Elle Jensen, Pietismen i Jylland. Studier over jyske Menighedstilstande, særlig paa Landet, omkring Midten af det 18. Aarh (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1944).
See, for instance, Henrik Horstbøll, Menigmands medie. Det folkelige bogtryk i Danmark 1500â1840 (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999); Charlotte Appel, Læsning og bogmarked i 1600-tallets Danmark (2 vols., Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2001).
Books published in Denmark-Norway were subject to censorship from the state during the entire period, with the exception of the years 1770â1773, when censorship was abolished. However, restrictions were quickly reintroduced, see Jesper Jakobsen, âChristian Gottlob Proft og de utilladelige skrifter. Bogforbud i Ã¥rene efter trykkefrihedsperiodenâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 289â310; Henrik Horstbøll, âBolle Willum Luxdorphs samling af trykkefrihedens skrifter 1770â1773â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 44 (2005), pp. 371â414; Henrik Horstbøll, Ulrik Langen, and Anders Stjernfelt, Grov Konfækt. Tre vilde Ã¥r med trykkefrihed 1770â73 (2 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2020).
For research on diocesan libraries, see Hans Michelsen, âSjællands Stiftsbibliotekâ, Historisk à rbog for Roskilde Amt (2012), pp. 67â88; Karsten Christensen, âBogbind i Sjællands Stiftsbibliotek. Nogle eksempler fra de ældre samlingerâ, Historisk à rbog for Roskilde Amt (2012), pp. 113â122. On grammar school libraries: Bjørn Kornerup, Ribe Katedralskoles Historie. Studier over 800 Aars dansk Skolehistorie (2 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1947â1952); Karsten Christensen and Birger Munk Olesen, âTo pergamenthÃ¥ndskrifter fra det 13. Ã¥rhundrede i Aalborg Katedralskoles bibliotekâ, Aalborg Katedralskole (1983), pp. 51â55. For libraries of churches, consult Niels Peter Stilling, Politikens bog om Danmarks kirker, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen: Politiken, 2004); Nationalmuseet, âDanmarks Kirkerâ <http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/> (last accessed 20 November 2020). For the Queenâs Reference Library, see Klaus Kjølsen, Hendes Majestæt Dronningens HÃ¥ndbibliotek 1746â1996 (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1997).
Rasmus Nyerup, Almindelig Morskabslæsning i Danmark og Norge igjennem Aarhundreder (Copenhagen: Thiele, 1816).
Jens Bjerring-Hansen and Torben Jelsbak, Boghistorie (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2010); Charlotte Appel, âBogmarkedets og læsningens historie ca. 1500â1700 i nyere europæisk Forskning. En introduktionâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 32 (1993), pp. 185â241.
Christian Bruun, Bibliotheca Danica (4 vols., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1877â1902).
In 1914, Lauritz Nielsen produced two supplements with additional titles identified after Bruun finished his work. In 1948, H. Ehrencron-Müller published a supplement covering the period 1831â1840 as well as books published in the duchies Schleswig and Holstein. In addition, between 1961 and 1963, Erik Dal published a new edition in five volumes including Nielsenâs supplements (entitled Supplement A and B) and his own further supplement (C) (Erik Dal (ed.), Bibliotheca Danica (5 vols., Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1961â1963).
Danish Noblewoman Karen Brahe (1657â1736) donated her library containing some 3,400 printed books and 1,150 manuscripts to Odense Adelige Jomfruklosterâa womenâs convent. This extant private library is now part of Roskilde Library. In 2006, the Royal Danish Library and Copenhagen University Library merged into a single institution, and in 2017, this institution merged with the State and University Library in Aarhus to become a combined national library under the name the Royal Danish Library.
This system comprised sections for: theology; law; medicine; philosophy; pedagogy; the fine arts; political science; mathematics; dynamics, statics and mechanics; astronomy; physics; meteorology, hydrography and geology; chemistry; natural history; commercial science; crafts and industry; housekeeping; agronomy; veterinary science; horticulture, forestry, hunting and fishing; warfare, maritime affairs and naval warfare; construction; geography and travel; history; linguistics, literature and periodicals (Erik Dal, âBibliotheca Danica 1482â1830â, in Axel Andersen (ed.), Danske Opslagsværker (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1977), vol. I, pp. 225â298).
Henrik Horstbøll and John T. Lauridsen, Den trykte kulturarv. Pligtaflevering gennem 300 år (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998).
Until around 1730, there were only scattered and disjointed printing activities outside of Copenhagen, and even though presses were established in most cathedral cities during the eighteenth century for the printing of newspapers and schoolbooks, most activity was still concentrated in Copenhagen, where the number of active printers gradually grew from five in 1659 to 25 in 1826. See Erik Dal, Dansk Provinsbogtryk gennem 500 Ã¥r: en boghistorisk skitse i elleve streger (Odense: Bogtrykkerbladets Forlag, 1982); Harald Ilsøe, Bogtrykkerne i København og deres virksomhed ca. 1600â1810: en biobibliografisk hÃ¥ndbog med bidrag til bogproduktionens historie (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1992).
Charlotte Appel has estimated that Bibliotheca Danica contains three quarters of all editions of Danish books published in the seventeenth century, while its coverage of the eighteenth century is likely better. Henrik Horstbøll is less optimistic, giving a figure of between half and two-thirds. However, they both estimate that at least one edition of around 90% of books are contained in the pages of Bibliotheca Danica. Horstbøll has also compared it favourably to national bibliographies of other countries (Horstbøll, Menigmands medie; Appel, Læsning og bogmarked).
This bibliography (originally consisting of two volumes and a register) was later republished in a new edition with several supplements by Erik Dal (Lauritz Nielsen and Erik Dal, Dansk Bibliografi: med særligt Hensyn til dansk Bogtrykkerkunsts Historie, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen: Det kongelige Bibliotek, 1996)).
Dal, Dansk provinsbogtryk gennem 500 år.
Grethe Larsen and Erik Dal, Danske provinstryk 1482â1830. En bibliografi (Copenhagen: Det danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 2001).
Ilsøe, Bogtrykkerne i København.
Since 1954, much research has been published in the Royal Libraryâs journal Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger. English abstracts are available from 1973 onwards.
The period is often referred to as adelsvælden, which translates to âaristocratic governmentâ. For a general introduction to this period, see Knud J.V. Jespersen, A History of Denmark, 2nd ed. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
For example, Peter Zeeberg, Heinrich Rantzau. A Bibliography (Copenhagen: Society for Danish Language and Literature, 2004); Susanne Outzen and Karsten Christensen, Birgitte Gøye & Herluf Trolles bøger (Vordingborg: Museum Sydøstdanmark, 2016).
For an overview of these collections and a general history of the Royal Library, see Harald Ilsøe, Det kongelige Bibliotek i støbeskeen. Studier og samlinger til bestandens historie indtil ca. 1780 (2 vols., Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999); Erich Christian Werlauff, Historiske Efterretninger om det store kongelige Bibliotek i Kiøbenhavn (Copenhagen: Samfundet til den danske Literaturs Fremme, 1844). Specifically on eliminations of duplicates, see Harald Ilsøe, âBøger der gik den anden vej. Historien om hvad der blev af Det kongelige Biblioteks dubletterâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 37 (1998), pp. 11â62.
Bruun, Det store Kongelige Bibliotheks Stiftelse.
Bruunâs manuscript is being prepared for publication by the Royal Library; I am thankful to Anders Toftgaard for this information. For the most comprehensive overview of auction catalogues today, see Harald Ilsøe, Biblioteker til salg. Om danske bogauktioner og kataloger 1661â1811 (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 2007). More on this book follows below.
Otto Walde, Storhetstidens litterära krigsbyten. En kulturhistorisk-bibliografisk studie (2 vols., Uppsala, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1916â1920).
The original journal ran from 1914 to 1997. It was briefly revived in the new millennium being published from 2001 to 2007 under the slightly modified name Nordisk Tidskrift För Bok- och Bibliotekshistoria. Otto Walde, âOm bokanteckningar som källor och behofvet af proveniens-katalogerâ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 5 (1918), pp. 77â111; Otto Walde, âStudier i äldre dansk bibliotekshistoriaâ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 19 (1932), pp. 1â66.
Jørgensen, âDanske adelige Bibliotekerâ.
Carl Sophus Petersen, Afhandlinger til dansk Bog- og Bibliotekshistorie (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1949).
Lauritz Nielsen, Danske Privatbiblioteker gennem Tiderne. I. Indtil Udgangen af det 17. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen, 1946).
Knud Frederik Plesner, Danske bogsamlere i det nittende århundrede (Copenhagen: Forening for Boghaandværk, 1957).
Ilsøe, Biblioteker til salg.
Auctions were held earlier in Leuven and Helmstedtâin 1636 and 1659, respectively (Bert van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987), p. 11).
Ilsøe, Biblioteker til salg, pp. 12â13. Ilsøe did not give an estimate of the total amount of book auctions of the period. While the majority of printed catalogues probably survive, many lesser auctions took place, which did not require a printed catalogue, instead the organisers relied on the circulation of a manuscript. This was also the case for auction sales of personal effects held all over the country. These auctions often contained books, and handwritten auction protocols can be found among the probate inventories of the period, more on these below.
Nielsen, Danske Privatbiblioteker; Harald Ilsøe, âPeder Resens nordiske bibliotek, katalog, bibliografi og boghandel i sidste halvdel af 1600-talletâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 30 (1991), pp. 26â49.
Christian Kaaber, âBispens bibliotek. Thomas Kingo og hans bøgerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 57 (2018), pp. 117â130.
Knud Larsen, Frederik Rostgaard og bøgerne (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1970); Carl Johan Ballhausen, âBogauktionen 1749 over Hans Grams trykte bøgerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 36 (1997), pp. 253â260.
Harald Ilsøe, âHvordan sÃ¥ Otto Thotts bøger ud?â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 35 (1996), pp. 65â93; Stig T. Rasmussen, âOtto Thotts orientalske hÃ¥ndskrifter identificeret pÃ¥ grundlag Det Kgl. Biblioteks arkivâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 37 (1998), pp. 299â324; Ruth Bentzen, âLord Harley og grev Thott. En studie i nogle af Det Kongelige Biblioteks bind og bøger fra Harleys og Thotts bogsamlingerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 44 (2005), pp. 277â369; Anders Toftgaard, âLandkort over en samling. Hvad katalogposterne kan fortælle om Otto Thotts hÃ¥ndskriftsamlingâog om katalogiseringâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 58 (2019), pp. 129â160.
K.F. Plesner, âBibliofiliens historieâ, in Svend Dahl (ed.), Nordisk hÃ¥ndbog i bibliotekskundskab (1958), vol. II, pp 370â395.
Christian Bruun, Peter Frederik Suhm. 18. oktober 1728â7. september 1798. En Levnetsbeskrivelse (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1898).
Robert L. Hansen, âPeter Frederik Suhm og hans bibliotekâ, Bibliotek og Forskning, 12 (1963), pp. 7â33; P.M. Mitchell, âP.F. Suhms âFornødent Bibliothekââ, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- och Biblioteksväsen, 60 (1973), pp. 1â34; Gerhard Munthe, âSuhm og Norgeâ, Bibliotekshistorie, 1 (1985), pp. 7â29.
Helge Nielsen, Folkebibliotekernes forgængere. Oplysning, almue- og borgerbiblioteker fra 1770âerne til 1834 (Dansk Bibliografisk Kontor, 1960).
Johan Jørgensen, Skifter og testamenter (Dansk Historisk Fællesforening, 1968).
Already in 1874, historian D.H. Wulff published an article on the book collections of pastors based on an unusual sourceâa bishopâs register of books owned by his subordinate pastors from 1553 (D.H. Wulff, âBiskop Oluf Chrysostomusâs Fortegnelse over Præsternes Bøger i Vendelbo Stiftâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 3:1 (1874), pp. 165â212).
Frederik Barfod, âNogle præstelige Bogsamlingerâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 3:6 (1887), pp. 792â797.
Georg Hansen, Præsten paa Landet i Danmark i det 18. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen: Det danske Forlag, 1947).
Troels Dahlerup, âProvsten i Lumby hr. Oluf Andersen og hans bibliothekâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 7 (1961), pp. 348â358.
Another study of an individual pastorâs book collection was published by Hans Michelsen in 1995, but as this pastor died in 1588, his book falls outside the scope of this article (Hans Michelsen, Peder Sørensen: en præst og hans bøger (Roskilde: Roskilde Stiftsblad, 1995)).
Oluf Nielsen, Kjøbenhavn paa Holbergs Tid. Kulturhistoriske Billeder fra Begyndelsen af det 18. Aarhundrede (Copenhagen: Forlagsbureauet i Kjøbenhavn, 1884).
Jørgen Olrik, Borgerlige Hjem i Helsingør for 300 Aar siden (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1903).
V. Woll, âOm Borgerskabets Læsning i det 17. Aarhundredeâ, Aarbog for Historisk Samfund for Odense og Assens Amter, 22 (1934), pp. 591â595; Palle Birkelund, âNoget om Læsningâog lidt om Boghandelâi Aarhusâ, Aarbøger udgivne af Historisk Samfund for Aarhus Stift, 32 (1939), pp. 17â43; Holger Rasmussen, Bøger og bogbindere i Odense før 1694 (Odense, 1959); Johan Jørgensen, âBogsamlinger i Kalundborg i slutningen af det 17. Ã¥rhundredeâ, Kirkehistoriske Samlinger, 7:4 (1961), pp. 359â371.
Birkelund did not count inventories with entries such as âsome old booksâ.
Werlauff, Historiske Antegnelser.
Heide, âBidrag til SpørgsmÃ¥let om den danske Almues Læsningâ.
Only eight inventories contained any âverdsligeâ, meaning âsecularâ, books, according to Heideâs own definition.
Folmer Elle Jensen, âVestjydsk Bondelæsning i Stavnsbaandstidenâ, Jyske Samlinger, 5:6 (1943), pp. 251â264; Jensen, Pietismen i Jylland; Folmer Elle Jensen, âBøger i gamle Skifteprotokoller fra Hads Herredâ, Aarbøger udgivne af Historisk Samfund for Aarhus Stift, 1959, pp. 170â178.
Henrik Horstbøll has since then criticised this comparison for not taking into account the different periods and background of the book owners in these investigations (Henrik Horstbøll, ââNedsivningsteoriâ, kultursammenstød og kulturhistorie. Kampen mod bondesamfundets husholdningshorisont i Danmark i det 18. Ã¥rhundredeâ, Den jyske historiker, 26 (1983), pp. 76â98.) While these criticisms are certainly valid, Charlotte Appel argues that Elle Jensen might very well be on to something, as her studies indicate more widespread literacy in Jutland than in Zealand in the seventeenth century (Appel, Læsning og bogmarked).
Birkelund, âNoget om Læsningâ.
Chartier and Darnton, of course, drew on earlier work in the French tradition from the 1960s onwards.
The Danish doktorgrad (higher doctorate) is not to be confused with the PhD, but is a separate degree based on a major published work (generally 600â1,000 pages long, and with extensive English summaries) of research defended against two peers. It is mostly achieved by established scholars.
Horstbøll, Menigmands medie.
Henrik Horstbøll, âDe âSmÃ¥ historierâ og læserevolutionen i 1700-talletâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 33 (1994), pp. 77â99.
Appel, Læsning og bogmarked.
Jarle Rui Aadna, âSynliggørelse af proveniens i KBs bøgerâ, Magasin fra Det kongelige Bibliotek, 25:3 (2012), pp. 28â33.
For more details, see Toftgaard, âPrincely librariesâ.
Rigsarkivet, âArkivalieronlineâSkifterâ <https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/da/collection/theme/30> (last accessed 20 November 2020).
For example, Henrik Horstbøll, âEn bogtrykker og boghandler i København. Claude Philiberts forbindelse med Societé typographique de Neuchatel 1771â1783â, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 311â335; Harald Ilsøe, âBogbind med historieâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 55 (2016), pp. 257â273.
Charlotte Appel, âBøger i 1700-tallets nordjyske landsbyskolerâ, Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 51 (2012), pp. 233â259.
Gina Dahl, Book Collections of Clerics in Norway, 1650â1750 (Leiden: Brill, 2010); Gina Dahl, Books in Early Modern Norway (Leiden: Brill, 2011); Gina Dahl, Libraries and Enlightenment. Eighteenth-Century Norway and Outer World (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2014).
See among others Charlotte Appel and Morten Fink-Jensen, NÃ¥r det regner pÃ¥ præsten. En kulturhistorie om sognepræster og sognefolk 1550â1750 (Højbjerg: Hovedland, 2009); Charlotte Appel and Morten Fink-Jensen (eds.), Religious Reading in the Lutheran North. Studies in Early Modern Scandinavian Book Culture (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011); Nina Javette Koefoed et al. (eds.), Religion som forklaring? Om kirke og religion i stat og samfund (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2018).
The thesis was succesfully defended in June 2022.