bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Betty Møllers almanak
Authors: Jensen Finn Gredal
Published: March 2020

NB: Artiklen er på dansk, kun resuméet er på engelsk. In 2006 the Royal Library bought an almanac that had belonged to Betty Møller (1804-34). It was given to her by her husband, the Danish poet and philosopher Poul Martin Møller (1794-1838) during their stay in Norway where he was professor of philosophy. While the book is an almanac in the usual sense, containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclestiastical and other anniversaries, Betty Møller also used the blank pages as a kind of personal journal. The article briefly presents the general background, transcribes and comments upon her entries, some of which were written after their return to Denmark in 1831. The personal contents mostly concern her daily life with their small children or record a few major events, for instance the happy feeling when Møller was appointed professor at the University of Copenhagen, since this meant that their life abroad could come to an end. The last long entry, which is highly emotional, she seems to have written shortly before her early death in 1834. She dedicates the almanac to one of her sons, Frederik Møller, called Fritz, whose infancy and early development is the subject of several of the entries and to whom she has copied some short passages from her favourite books for him to read after her death.
Silkeborgkontorets sidste dage. Peder Herschends dagbog omkring den tyske kapitulation maj 1945
Authors: Lauridsen John T.
Published: March 2020

NB: Artiklen er på dansk, kun resuméet er på engelsk. In November 1943, the German Wehrmacht’s Commander-in-Chief in Denmark, Hermann von Hanneken, moved his headquarters from Copenhagen to Silkeborg. He demanded that a representative of Danish department heads be sent there to ensure efficient arrangement for, and implementation of, the Wehrmacht’s needs. The department heads unanimously appointed Chief County Administrator Peder Herschend to “provisionally carry out the central administration and administer its central institutions according to due process of law on their behalf for urgent decisions.” Herschend took on the task and established an office in Silkeborg (the Silkeborg Office) to this end. He was assisted by a small, experienced staff of civil servants, some of them from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until May 1945, Herschend functioned as adviser to the Danish authorities in Jutland and on Funen and as intermediary with the German headquarters when necessary. The Silkeborg Office was closed on 16 May. An official log was kept at the Silkeborg Office from November 1943 to May 1945. Notes were kept on all the cases with which the Office had to deal. The log is in five volumes, consisting of a total of approximately 7,000 pages, in which some 3,036 cases were recorded. There is one copy of the log in the National Archives and one at the Royal Library (Herschend’s copy). The National Archive’s copy contains only the log cases while the Royal Library’s copy also has a volume with the telegrams exchanged between Herschend and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The log has by no means been ignored but has been used only rarely. It is a unique source of information on many aspects of German occupation policy in Denmark at the regional level, particularly indispensable given that nearly all of the corresponding German archives were destroyed. The log covering the period from 4 May to 16 May 1945 has now been published in its entirety. It bears witness not only to a role change during the days of capitulation in which it was no longer the occupying power that decreed and confiscated but also to the fact that liberation brought many new problems and other players onto the scene. The Silkeborg Office handled everything professionally. If there was a celebratory atmosphere in the Office on 4 and 5 May, this was not commented on in the log. Herschend and his co-workers sought throughout the entire process to maintain an official style that, in numerous cases, was the only means of satisfying the Germans.
En sur udfordring. Om surt papir i bibliotekets samlinger
Authors: Hansen Birgit Vinther
Published: March 2020

NB: Artiklen er på dansk, kun resuméet er på engelsk. New materials were adopted during the industrialisation of paper production in the early 1800s. Experiments were done with straw and wood as fibre sources and acidic alum was commonly used as a sizing agent for all paper qualities produced by the paper machines. This, along with stiff competition among paper manufacturers, resulted in a drastic decrease in the quality of all types of paper and the production of vast quantities of acidic paper that could last only a relatively short time. Many of the Royal Library’s collections consist of acidic, short-fibre paper from around 1830 up to the middle of the 1980s when, finally, increased production of neutral-sized, long-like paper became possible. Acidic paper breaks down under ordinary storage conditions of room temperature and a certain degree of air humidity. Librarians and archivists throughout the Western world face a major challenge in the preservation of this relatively unstable material. To meet this challenge, various mass deacidification processes have been developed that, by deacidifying the paper, extend its lifetime three to four times. On the basis of a national report on the preservation of Danish cultural heritage, a committee was set up in 2004 to examine more closely the extent of acidic paper in the collections and whether mass deacidification of the country’s collections of unique national significance could be recommended. The committee had various sample tests done, including of the Royal Library’s collections. It was found that 70% of the Library’s collections date from 1800 to 1985 and that 93% of the objects concerned are more or less acidic. On the basis of the sample tests, it was possible to establish a rough prognosis as to how long the Library’s collections would be able to withstand ordinary physical handling, given that the paper, over time, will inevitably become so brittle that it disintegrates with use. If the collections are preserved in a climate, as was historically the case, at room temperature and varying humidity throughout the year, then half of the collections will have severely deteriorated in a hundred years. In order to ensure a longer lifetime, the collections can either be mass deacidified or the temperature and air humidity can be reduced so as to inhibit the breakdown processes. The committee and the Royal Library chose to work to ensure the collections’ long-term life by focusing on cool, dry storerooms, since this solution is, both from the financial point of view and with respect to preservation ethics, the most competitive. Lowering the temperature and the air humidity also makes it possible to extend the collections’ lifetime far more than with deacidification alone.
Anmeldelser
Authors: Skovgaard-Petersen Karen , Heiberg Steffen , Jørgensen Jesper Düring
Published: March 2020

Karen Skovgaard-Petersen anmelder: Catalogue of Scandinavian Books in the British Library printed before 1801. By Peter Hogg. London: London: British Library 2007. 3 vols. Xxi + 2184 pp. ISBN 978-0-7123-0898-4.   Steffen Heiberg anmelder: Jørgen Hein: The Treasure Collection at Rosenborg Castle I-III. The Inventories of 1696 and 1718. Royal Heritage and Collecting in Denmark-Norway 1500-1900. 2009, 849 s., indb. Kassette med tre bind, ca. 1050 farveillustrationer. ISBN 978-87-635-0131-6.   Jesper Düring Jørgensen anmelder: Michael H. Clemmesen: Den lange vej imod 9. april Historien om de fyrre år før den tyske operation mod Norge og Danmark i 1940. Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2010, 679 s. ISBN 978-87-7674-464-9.
Representation and Reception : Women in the Copenhagen Bohun Hours Ms. Thott 547 4º
Authors: Vidas Marina
Published: March 2020

Marina Vidas: Representation and reception. Women in the Copenhagen Bohun Hours. Ms. Thott 547 4º   This article presents and analyzes depictions of women in the Copenhagen Bohun Hours (Copenhagen, Royal Library, Ms. Thott 547 4º), an exquisitely illuminated fourteenth-century English manuscript, made for a young female member of the Bohun family, and focuses on meanings images could have had for their primary viewer. The representations which are examined are of: the book owner, the Virgin Mary, shown on nine of the fully illuminated folia, St. Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, Job’s wife, a group of nuns as well as of three mothers who appear in the bas-de-pages. Firstly, it is argued that the painted portrait of the book owner is flattering in its presentation of the subject’s beauty, status and character. Attention is drawn to the fact that in her portrait, the book owner resembles the Virgin shown on the same folio. Secondly, it is suggested that the representations of the armorials of the heiress’s natal family, dominant in the manuscript, are evidence of pride in her noble lineage and her succession to the family titles as countess in her own right while the arms of the crown, depicted on her surcoat in her portrait and on one of the fully-illuminated folios, proclaim her royal connections. Thirdly, representations of holy women are discussed and it is suggested that they offered the viewer a variety of relevant role models and experiences to admire, inspire, and imitate. It is also proposed that some of the tales and scenes in the bas-de-pages could have had a cautionary purpose. Finally, it is observed that there is a substantial interest not only in individual women but a more general preoccupation with women’s relationships with the divine, with children and with other women.
Ejermærker i Danmarks Kunstbiblioteks ældre samling 1754 til 1810
Authors: Kragelund Patrick
Published: March 2020

Patrick Kragelund: Owners Marks in Early Aquisitions of the Danish National Art Library   The article provides a historical survey of owners’ marks, of exlibrises and superexlibrises in the early section (acquisitions 1754–1810) of the holdings of the Danish National Art Library. From the early part of this period a few royal gifts have been preserved, but the largest part of the material of relevance entered the library with the acquisition of the painter Nicolai Abildgaard’s books in 1810. It includes items with the superexlibris of King Charles XI of Sweden and Duke Friedrich III of Slesvig-Holstein-Gottorp (the latter a gift from Athanasius Kircher) and books from Danish 17th century private libraries, among which the author and translator Birgitta Thott. In the Royal Academy context, books once belonging to three of the early Dutch and German immigrant artists active in early 18th century Denmark such as Johann Coning, Otto de Willarts and Marcus Tuscher are of particular interest.
Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708–76) and Copenhagen
Authors: Hauge Peter
Published: March 2020

Peter Hauge: J.A. Scheibe and Copenhagen   Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708−1776), a German composer and theorist, settled in Denmark in 1740 employed as Christian VI’s new chapel master. He is, in particular, known for his periodical Critischer Musikus published during the years 1737−40 in which he includes a famous critique of J.S. Bach’s musical style. Though Scheibe was indeed a highly productive and popular composer in his day his works are rather unknown and the majority of them are only available in manuscript in the collections of The Royal Library, among other places.   The first part of the article deals with Scheibe’s connections with members of the the circle of intellectual immigrants that settled in Copenhagen during the eighteenth century, which included J.E. Schlegel, F.G. Klopstock, H.W. Gerstenberg, J.A. Cramer and J.B. Basedow. The subjects in which they showed a great interest were for instance the relationship between text and music, but also subjects such as education, history (Scandinavian), language, religion and philology were given due attention.   The second part of the article discusses the problems involved in establishing a complete list of Scheibe’s works, in particular his compositions. For instance, should the list only include works that have survived or should it also include those which are referred to in contemporary sources such as newspapers, journals and published booklets but have since been lost? And how may such a list reflect Scheibe’s importance for the musical environment in Copenhagen during the second half of the eighteenth century?
Carl Nielsens ‘Maskarade’ og Det Kongelige Teaters scenemusik til Holbergs komedier
Authors: Foltmann Niels Bo
Published: March 2020

Niels Bo Foltmann: Carl Nielsen’s ‘Masquerade’ and the Royal Theatre’s stage music for Holberg’s comedies.   The article examines the relationship between Carl Nielsen’s opera Masquerade (1906) and the opera’s literary precedent – Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Masquerade (1724), and the stage music for the comedy, which had been used at the Royal Theatre before the opera’s creation and for some 10 years after its first performance. Not surprisingly, Carl Nielsen made use of the references to music that appear in Holberg’s comedies, particularly references to various pieces of dance music, such as Magdelone’s dance scene in the first act and the Dance of the Cockerel in the third act. The author also illustrates how it is highly likely that Carl Nielsen was aware of the traditional stage music for Holberg’s comedies and, on this background, makes a comparison of various compositions from the stage music and the corresponding section in the opera. It thus appears that, in several passages, the composer worked within a musical tradition – this applies especially to the overture, to the Dance of the Cockerel and to various dance-like passages in the third act. In several instances, Carl Nielsen adopted a musical idea or motif and transformed it into his own personal style. The extent to which the composer consciously adopted the Holberg music is not clear. He apparently wanted to create a Holberg tone or, perhaps, this style simply “flowed from his pen” since he must have been very familiar with this repertoire. The former was most likely the case, and we can imagine that the references to the stage music perhaps were thought of as a teasing, humorous salute to musical colleagues in the orchestra and to an audience that was already familiar with traditional Holberg stage music.
Johannes Pedersen, Encyclopaedia of Islam og den muslimske verden
Authors: Simonsen Jørgen Bæk
Published: March 2020

Jørgen Bæk Simonsen: Johannes Pedersen, Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World.   The manuscript collection at the Royal Library consists of a very large collection of papers by the Danish Orientalist Johannes Pedersen (1883–1977). Pedersen’s works were of great importance to the study of Islam and Muslim culture and, in 1949, he was therefore appointed by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters to represent Danish Orientalist research in a joint European initiative to publish a new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, which had first been published between 1910 and 1934, with a supplementary volume in German, English and French in 1930.   Pedersen was the host of an editorial meeting held in Copenhagen in September, 1955. Pedersen’s papers illustrate how the group of European Orientalists at the meeting was required to deal with criticism from Muslim groups. In the summer of 1955, a small pamphlet was published in Pakistan with the title No Muslim Participation??? that criticised the manner in which the editorial board behind the new publication of the Encyclopaedia of Islam was established. The pamphlet was followed up by protests directed against the editorial board that, at its meeting in Copenhagen, was obliged to address the issue.   Pedersen’s papers also show that individual German Orientalists felt left out of the joint European initiative to prepare a new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and it is concluded that letters sent to Pedersen are evidence of the fact that it was German Orientalists who mobilised groups in Pakistan to criticise the composition of the editorial board.
Den første ‘grænseredder’: Ejnar Vaaben og den berlinske linie
Authors: Lauridsen John T.
Published: March 2020

John T. Lauridsen: The first “border saver”. Ejnar Vaaben and the Berlin Line.   Ejnar Vaaben was a Danish Nazi at a relatively early point in time and established contacts with the prototype of the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party) and some of its leaders in Germany before Hitler took power in January 1933. These contacts were of such significance at the time, and later, that Vaaben attributed to himself the honour of having led the German Nazis to maintain the Danish-German border as it was. According to him, he also attempted to work for a change of the border in Denmark’s favour. The article examines the limited material on Vaaben’s presumed border-change activities and alleged close contact with, and influence on, the Nazi leaders, just as his later efforts during the German occupation are viewed in this light, since his memoirs, written later, are compared with material from the same period. The conclusion drawn is that this was a self-centred, self-aggrandising assessment on the part of Vaaben, masking the attempt of an insignificant political fantasist and traitor to earn a place in Danish history.
Menneskerettighedspolitik fra neden? Sakharovhøringen i København oktober 1975
Authors: Boel Bent
Published: March 2020

Bent Boel: Human Rights Policy From Below? The International Sakharov Hearing, Copenhagen, October 1975.   The International Sakharov Hearings (1975–1985), have been hailed as “one of the most established tools for informing the West” about the human rights situation in the USSR, and yet very little has been written about them. This article tries to shed light on the origins of the process, i.e., the First International Sakharov Hearing, which was held in response to Andrei Sakharov’s “Moscow Appeal” (February 1974). The hearing was originally suggested in June 1974, but it only took place after a lengthy process in Copenhagen, October 1975. The existing, rather sparse, literature focuses on the travails of the hearing, and, in particular, Soviet counter-measures. It also tends to highlight the relative success of such policies in the short term: the KGB managed to influence the Danish media coverage and Soviet pressure may have been instrumental in ensuring that the Danish Social Democratic government kept a low profile during the hearing. Such a narrative, however, needs to be amended. Firstly, the International Sakharov Hearing was an amazing success story: a tiny, obscure, and allegedly rather dubious group (the “Common Committee of East Exiles in Denmark”), initially without any parliamentary support, managed to gather significant establishment support and to obtain the privilege of holding a hearing in Christiansborg, the Danish Parliament building, about a theme likely to cause trouble in Denmark’s relationship with the Soviet Union. Secondly, while Anker Jørgensens government kept a low profile, his party was actually first among the major Danish parties to accept the proposal to hold the meeting. Thirdly, the hearing’s key opponent was the Liberal Party (“Venstre”), which was hostile both while it was in government and after it lost power in the January 1975 elections. Fourthly, while the hearing, certainly, was harshly criticized in the media, such coverage is most likely better explained by what happened at the gathering than by KGB manipulation or political bias in the press. Finally, a number of issues are in need of further investigation, including the concrete impact of real (KGB) or alleged (CIA) actions taken by foreign secret services on the Sakharov Hearing and the role of transnational Eastern European exile networks.
“I offentligt ærinde”. Vognægtregnskaber i 1600-tallet
Authors: Dahl Bjørn Westerbeek
Published: March 2020

Für die Jahre 1614 bis 1658 lassen sich für die drei dänischen Städte Helsingör, Kopenhagen und Köge die Reisewege von Reisenden verfolgen, die Fuhrwagen in Anspruch nahmen. Seit dem Mittelalter hatte der König das Recht, Wagen in den Städte anzufordern, wenn er, Mitglieder seiner Familie oder seiner Kanzlei sie benötigten. Mit der Zeit wurde das Recht auf andere Personengruppen erweitert, und um 1600 umfasste es alle königlichen und staatlichen Beamten – von Briefträgern bis zu Reichsräten.Über diesen Reisen wurde in den Städten genau Rechenschaft gehalten: Von Tag zu Tag sieht man hier die Namen der Reisenden, die Anzahl der gelieferten Wagen und Pferde, die Namen der Fuhrmänner – und natürlich wie weit diese für die Reisenden gefahren sind.Das Material ist überaus umfangreich: Eine vorläufige Aufarbeitung zeigt, dass über 25.000 Reisen in den Rechnungsbüchern der drei Städte eingetragen sind.Die Fahrt wurde über Bestellscheine oder königliche Pässe gewährt, die für mehrere Jahre noch vorhanden sind, bzw. in Original und Kopie. Sie ergänzten die Rechnungen mit Auskünften über den Zweck der Reise, die Reiseroute, von wo bis wo die Reise sich erstreckte usw.Mit den Abrechnungen, Scheinen und Pässen folgt man Amtmännern, Gesandten, Ingenieuren, Tischlern, Musikern und bildenden Künstlern und vielen anderen auf ihren Reisen. Die Abrechnungen geben ein buntes und detailliertes Bild der Gesellschaft der dänischen Spätrenaissance und des Lebens auf den Landwegen des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Otto Sperlings 1.399 lærde kvinder og hans kilder
Authors: Alenius Marianne
Published: March 2020

Otto Sperling (the younger, 1634–1715), the learned Danish historian and numismatist left an unfinished catalogue of 1,399 learned women from all countries and periods of world history – a so-called gynæceum. At his death Sperling’s manuscripts and papers remained with his colleagues, and most of them were included in the collections of The Royal Library in Copenhagen in 1721. However, the gynæceum together with Sperling’s bulky correspondence with numerous European scholars remained in the private collection of Hans Gram, the Chief Librarian of the Royal Library, and not until after his death in 1748 were they included in the Old Royal Collection; the gynæceum was kept under the title of Collectanea de foeminis doctis as GKS 2110 a-b 4o and bound in two volumes during the middle of the 19th century. Some loose papers closely related to Sperling’s project were later included in the New Royal Collection as NKS 596 4o as Adversaria ad foeminas doctas. Sperling’s gynæceum was the largest of his time, and colleagues at large urged him to publish it, which he had considered doing as early as 1688 (mentioned by Morhof in his Polyhistor). However, it seems that Sperling continued to collect more and more learned women rather than turning to the final editing process of his Collectanea. The planned biographical dictionary thus remained unpublished, but its international fame stimulated at least six Danish scholars to publish gynæcea of more limited, Danish-Norwegian scope. In modern times, Sperling’s magnum opus has raised little interest. The author of the present paper gives a general introduction to the two manuscripts, focusing on the kinds of ‘learnedness’ of the women collected by Sperling, on his working methods, and on the many types of sources he used, including small autobiographies solicited by Sperling from contemporary learned women. Besides a case-study of a ‘typical’ biography (Isabella Andreini), particular attention is given to Sperling’s treatment of the Danish-Norwegian learned women of his Collectanea.
Basedow på dansk. En 200-årig misforståelse i pædagogikkens historie
Authors: Fink-Jensen Morten
Published: March 2020

The educational ideas of the Enlightenment gained marked acceptance in Denmark towards the end of the 18th century in the form of the so-called philanthropic movement.The dominant figure in this movement was the German educational theorist Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–90), and since the 19th century it has been generally believed that Basedow’s book entitled Effective guidelines for the optimal education of children  was a telling expression of the movement’s influence in Denmark. This work has in reality nothing to do with Basedow, but is rather a translation of a 17th century French educational handbook. Contrary to what has hitherto been believed, a Danish translation of Baselow could not therefore be helpful in raising interest in philanthropism.
Christian Gottlob Proft og de utilladelige skrifter. Bogforbud i årene efter trykkefrihedsperioden
Authors: Jakobsen Jesper
Published: March 2020

In 1770 Christian VII’s personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee exploited the king’s feeble condition to seize power in Denmark and one of his first acts was to introduce unrestricted freedom of the press. Two years later in January 1772, Struensee was himself toppled from power and subsequently executed in April of the same year. It was soon clear that the new regime aimed to reintroduce a form of control over book publication and the present article how these new restrictions were viewed from the perspective of the Copenhagen bookseller Christian Gottlob Proft (1736–1793).In the years 1773–76 Proft twice found himself the object of the authorities’ suspicions, as he had distributed printed matter which the authorities regarded as impermissible.In 1773, Proft was convicted of having provided the itinerant bookseller Hermann Ludolph Bardewyck with forbidden writings which the new rulers regarded as dangerous as they espoused Struensee’s cause and potentially could undermine the legitimacy of the new rulers. Three years later, Proft announced that he intended to publish Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers in a Danish translation, but its publication was blocked for religious and moral reasons.These two court cases brought against Proft show that, even though the abolished censorship was not reintroduced, actual practice had changed very little. The abolished law of censorship was still applied in legal judgements, just as the government made no bones about banning the translation of a work it did not wish to see circulated among the common people. Further, they resorted to the well-tried method of inflicting severe sentences on representatives of the book trade rather than carrying out comprehensive control of the authors.
Teori og praksis i blomstermaler I.L. Jensens tegneundervisning
Authors: Berner Marie-Louise
Published: March 2020

Through close analysis of an unpublished body of drawings and teaching material kept at the Norwegian manor of Rosendal, close to Bergen, as well as material from the Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Danish Art Library, it is possible to reconstruct step-by-step the process by which Danish flower painter Johan Lauritz Jensen (1800–1856) taught drawing to his many pupils during the first half of the nineteenth century. This allows us to conclude that Jensen closely followed academic tradition as he had learned it at the Royal Academy of Art in his youth, where instruction followed very precise stipulations, proceeding from the simple to the more complex, with the aim to produce idealised images closely based on tightly controlled reference material such as prints and drawings. The underlying philosophy at the time was that the purpose of art was to capture the ideal beyond the temporal world. In the case of flower painting, this was best achieved by working systematically to construct arrangements that would be entirely implausible in reality. The Norwegian material furthermore includes a number of prints and drawings by I.L. Jensen that must have been acquired by the daughters of the estate while they were studying in Copenhagen in the years 1831–35. The evidence provided by this material makes it clear that they were taught not by Jensen, as has previously been assumed, but rather by the contemporary flower painter Christine Løvmand (1803–1872).
Den farlige biografi. Om Lis Jacobsens arkiv og den historiske biografis udfordringer
Authors: Possing Birgitte
Published: March 2020

The article describes an unusually large private archive kept in the Royal Library’s Department of Manuscripts. It is precisely registered, accessible and contains letters, pocket diaries and notebooks, manuscripts and files, treatises and records, accounts, songs and newspaper clippings. It leaves the impression of someone who was aware of her worth and had the resources to the have the traces of her life’s work ordered and preserved. The scheme reflects the archive creator’s self-image. It consists of 193 boxes, which corresponds to 20 shelf meters. What is unusual is that the archive was left by a woman, namely Lis Jacobsen (1882–1961), who was one of Denmark’s few great female scientific personalities in the 20th century. She was a fundraiser, editor, researcher, organizer and founder of The Danish Society for Language and Literature.The article ascertains her historical importance, describes the research possibilities inherent in the archive, and argues that an historical biography of her life and work would be justified. The author accordingly welcomes Kristian Hvidt’s biography Researcher. Furie. Front Soldier (2011), but is puzzled by the reviewers’ reception of it.Proceeding both from the critical reviews and from LJ’s archive and historical importance, the author analyses the historical biography in question. Her aim is to understand why the reception of the biography was so critical. She reviews some of the methodological and analytical stipulations made on a modern biography and argues that the present biographer has ignored several of these. The article is thus an essay that combines an objectively critical review with an account of a valuable cultural treasure at The Royal Library, and also an introduction to modern biographical method.Other recent biographical works are referred to as counter-examples of the LJ-biography under review.
Skriftsprogskompetence og skriftsprogsvalg hos to kommandanter på Kronborg i 2. halvdel af 1600-tallet
Authors: Christensen Birgit
Published: March 2020

It is a rule of thumb that the army’s command language was German until 1773 andafter that Danish. But along with the language of the army, the army’s administrationalso had a written language, and that is the subject of this brief empirical study. Thestudy will discuss the written language skills and the choice of written language by twocommandants of the same age at Kronborg, who were otherwise very different people,each holding the position of commandant at the fortress for a number of years in thesecond half of 17th century, in a selection of letters from them to the king and thecentral administration. The letters are often about the construction work, which tookplace at Kronborg at the time. The following questions are asked: Which language wasused when writing to whom? And what language did they allow to be written to whom,when they used professional writers? In what situations did they use professional writers?Was the choice of language determined by the recipient? The first is the Danishnobleman Eiller Holck (1627–1696). The letters examined are from 1660–1664. EillerHolck, who was quite well-educated, was skilled at writing in both Danish and German,but mostly used a writer, and when writing himself, he seldomly wrote more than ashort text near his signature. When he himself wrote to the king, he wrote Danish,but when writing to the king using a writer, the writer used German. This was also thecase when writing to the Danish/Norwegian nobleman Jørgen Bielke. This is perhapslinked with the language skills of the writer that was available. Holck took into accountthe fact that his superior, Danish Field Marshall Hans Schack, preferred German. BothHans Schack and Eiller Holck used translations in communications with their troops.The second is Jacob Geueke, son of a commoner from Burg on the German island ofFemern (1617–1699). The letters examined are from 1688–1692. He used German language writers, only wrote amendments on the letters himself and only in Germanand was not satisfied with his own standard of writing. Perhaps he understood Danish.It is of vital importance that many of the recipients of the letters in the central administrationwere from Holsten. Perhaps the delivered correspondence would have beenin Danish to a greater extent had Jørgen Bielke been more involved in the administration?
Armeniske bøger fra 15-1700-tallet i Det Kongelige Biblioteks samlinger
Authors: Lehmann Henning
Published: March 2020

In 2012, through various presentations and exhibitions, the 500th anniversary of thefirst printed book in Armenian was celebrated. Thus, 19 Armenian books printed from1565 to 1745, belonging to the collections of the Royal Library, were on display in theBlack Diamond.These books are described in their original historical contexts above. It is underlinedthat initiatives taken by the Armenian Church were important in the early historyof Armenian printing. For example, the Armenian Catholicos was active in establishinga printing house in Amsterdam, and quite a few of the early books were intendedto meet ecclesiastical needs for books of ritual and pious practices, including the Psaltereditions: Venice 1565, Amsterdam 1664, Marseille 1677; a Hymn Book: Amsterdam1664; and a Breviary: Amsterdam 1705.On the other hand, the publishing of certain books must be seen in the context ofRoman Catholic missionary endeavours, e.g. the publication of documents concerningthe Gregorian Calendar, translated into Armenian as early as 1584 (printed in Rome),a translation of Thomas à Kempis’ Imitatio Christi (printed in Constantinople 1700),and a collection of fourteenth century Dominican sermons (printed in Venice 1704).The collection also contains early editions of important works by medieval Armenianauthors, including Moses Khorenatsi (Amsterdam 1695), Gregory Narekatsi(Constantinople 1701) and Nerses Shnorhali (Venice 1660). In addition, there area couple of contemporary Armenian works: Arakel’s ‘histories’ about seventeenthcentury Armenian history (Amsterdam 1669) and eighteenth century Constantinoplepatriarch Yakob Nalean’s Commentary on Gregory Narekatsi (Constantinople 1745).In some cases, various owners’ ex libris or marginal notes allow glimpses into theuse of the books by Western scholars and their routes through the hands of booktraders and collectors. To name just a few: 1) M.V. de la Croze, the famous orientalist,on the basis of a Lipsian manuscript, added a fairly large number of collational notesto the text of the 1695 Moses Khorenatsi edition; 2) one of the two copies of the 1664Psalter is dedicated to Frederik III of Denmark by Theodore Petraeus, a Danish scholarwho was active in the Armenian-Dutch publishing world in the 1660s; 3) and some150 years after Theodore, another Danish Orientalist, Bishop Fr. Münter, is seen tohave acquired an old Armenian grammar (Amsterdam 1666).The 19 books do not represent a collection that has been systematically built upaccording to a master plan by any librarian or scholar of the time. However, it can beconsidered to be broadly illustrative of the Armenian culture of that period, not leastof its early links with Western printers, binders, artists and authorities, and the trendthat shows Eastern centres (Constantinople and others) gaining ever increasing importancethroughout the centuries in focus.
Musiklivet på Fuglsang 1892 til 1931
Authors: Sørensen Inger
Published: March 2020

In 1891, squire Viggo de Neergaard (1837–1915) from Fuglsang on Lolland and hisyoung wife Bodil (1867–1959), who was the daughter of composer Emil Hartmannand granddaughter of J.P.E. Hartmann, met the German-Dutch composer, pianist andconductor Julius Röntgen (1855–1932) and his family on a trip in Norway. When theyparted, they agreed to visit one another in Amsterdam and at Fuglsang respectively.It was the start of a unique life of music at the manor on Lolland from the Röntgenfamily’s first visit the following year and up until Bodil Neergaard’s death as a widowin 1959. Almost every year up until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, JuliusRöntgen along with this wife and children, who were all musicians, spent the month ofAugust at Fuglsang, where he was the driving force in a cornucopia of house concerts.There was chamber music with a varied program every single evening. Julius Roentgenplanned “the season” as they called it before he left Holland and wrote programs eachyear for every single concert. These programs, which cover the years 1893, 1897–1914,1916, 1923, 1931, 1940, 1944, 1946–1958 and 1978, were recently found among thesurviving papers of presiding judge Fritz Michael Hartmann (1909–2000). In 2012they were donated to the Royal Danish Library by the Hartmann family. These programsprovide an excellent insight into what was played, and form the basis of thisarticle that covers the period from 1893 to 1931, which was the last time Julius Röntgenwas at Fuglsang before his death the following year. The music was performed partlyby the Röntgen family and partly by members of the Hartmann family and the otherguests, who came to Fuglsang during the summer. Among these were Carl Nielsen,who in 1906 performed his string quartet in F-major, opus 19 for the very first time atFuglsang. During these years, the program consisted of music by 113 different composers,music ranging from Baroque and up to what at the time was contemporarymusic. Because even though the main emphasis was on music by the classics, especiallyBeethoven, 47 of the composers were still alive at the time of performance.
"Jeg er et højst fuldstændigt og fejlfrit eksemplar af racen, så jeg blev modtaget som en kostbar skat". Om amtsforvalter Poul Andræ (1843-1928), kontrærsexualiteten og lægerne
Authors: Pedersen Karl Peder
Published: March 2020

The Danish lawyer and public official Poul Georg Andræ (1843-1928) was born intoan affluent officer family, where his father, C.C.G. Andræ came to play a central politicalrole after the abolition of the absolute monarchy both as a minister and governmenthead. It was obvious that Poul and the younger brother Victor Andræ wouldstudy, and after they had become lawyers from the University of Copenhagen in themiddle of the 1860s, they were employed as public officials in the central administration.They were both unmarried, and with regards to Poul Andræ, it was clear to himearly on that his feelings and sexuality were only directed towards men. Throughsurviving diaries and a number of the letters that he wrote and received, we canfollow his struggle against his ”unfortunate love” as he called it quite closely. It tookplace through an ongoing dialogue with Danish doctors and psychiatrists, who in the1870s and 1880s were more or less at a loss to understand these new phenomena. In1891, Andræ travelled to Vienna to consult with the leading psychiatrist and sexologistof the time, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, and although he was not able to offer himany treatment, he confirmed him to have been born contrasexual, in other words awoman in a man’s body, and in this way took away some of Andræ’s deep feelings ofguilt.In 1889, Poul Andræ applied for and received the position as county administratorin the small market town of Skanderborg in Jutland, but he soon regretted itbitterly. It was mainly to certify that he absolutely had to live in a large city that hesought out Krafft-Ebing two years later. With this certificate in hand, he resigned in1894 and moved back to Copenhagen, where he lived until his death at the age of84. Throughout his entire life he continued to struggle for sexual information andsexual equality; in particular, he became involved with the Wissenschaftlich HumanitarianCommittee, which was founded in 1897, and in his will he left considerablefunds to both the committee and to a number of books in Danish.
Fra bondedans til karakterstykke for klaver. Musik i et proprietærlignende miljø i mellemkrigstiden
Authors: Koudal Jens Henrik
Published: March 2020

Although squires, proprietors and larger farmers played an important cultural andpolitical role in Denmark between 1870 and 1940, only very little is know about musicin their private homes in the countryside. The article is a perspective of musical lifeon the farm Torpelund in Northwest Zealand during the interwar period. It examinesa previously unresearched aspect of Danish music culture in the 20th century on thebasis of comprehensive source studies and a contemplation of forms of music and cultureswithin that spectrum, of which the researched subject matter forms a part. Thecore of this is an in-depth analysis of the publication Gamle Danse fra Nordvestsjælland(Old Dances from Northwest Zealand), 1–3 (1923–28). It was created and used at Torpelundin a cooperation between two siblings from the farm, namely folklore collectorand columnist Christian Olsen, who collected and published the melodies, and thepianist Christiane Rützou, who put them to piano. The publication is a key to understandingthe importance of music in the environment at Torpelund.The article characterises the cultural transformation, which these dance melodiesunderwent from string and brass accompanied peasant dances that were played by thefather of the two siblings in Northwest Zeland in the 19th century to becoming pianopieces in the living rooms of the larger farms during the interwar period. With themusical analysis, the author would like to develop analytical grips on this type of repertoireused, which respect the musical characteristics of these repertoires. The studydiscusses the special nature of Christiane Rützou’s piano arrangements and comparesthem with a couple of Louis Glass’ rural pieces, which the composer and his wife performedthemselves at Torpelund. Is this dance music, educational teaching material,popular music or romantic character pieces? The answer is that Christiane Rützou’s piano arrangements merge elements from popular dance music with romantic pianomusic of the 19th century in a special way.For Christian Olsen, the dance version was part of a conservative cultural struggle,which at one and the same time desired to oppose the introduction of modern Americandancing while creating progressive, cheerful music to be used by farmers andlarger landowners. He wanted to transform the old dance music of the peasants in orderto preserve the values of the farmer and proprietary culture.
Dansk Europamission, bibelsmugling og menneskerettigheder under den kolde krig
Authors: Boel Bent
Published: March 2020

This article addresses an issue that, until now, has attracted very little interest in the historicalliterature: the smuggling of religious literature to Soviet Bloc countries. It makestwo claims. Firstly, that bible smuggling is a topic that historians ought to investigate.There are indeed a number of reasons to presume that bible smuggling was a significantCold War phenomenon. In a Western context, it involved numerous groups andindividuals in many different countries, it led to the establishment of transnational networkscooperating in terms of bible translation, production and distribution, and someof these groups and networks got involved in broader human rights related issues, suchas the International Sakharov Hearings, 1975-1985. Bible smuggling also mattered in theEast, as is testified by the propaganda efforts of the Soviet authorities in denouncing thisactivity. Documents from the Statsi archives indicate that East German authorities wereworried about the impact and the contacts established by the so-called Eastern Missions.Secondly, the need for scholarly research in this field is illustrated by the case of theDanish European Mission (DEM), established by Reverend Hans Kristian Neerskov in1964. DEM was the only Danish group to specialise in bible smuggling to the East duringthe Cold War. Impressive claims have been made in the Danish press concerning theallegedly huge effort made by Neerskov (“the Soviet Union’s ideological enemy no. 1”)and his group to help the religiously oppressed in the East. While this article does notseek to tell ‘the real’ story of the Danish European Mission, it does try to introduce somenuances into this ‘official’ story, demonstrating that some of the claims made on DEM’sbehalf are either wrong or at the very least unsubstantiated. The role and the impact ofbible smuggling has become yet another issue in the struggle about the Cold War, andserious enquiries into this field are called for.
Paul von Klenau og hans niende symfoni. Kilderne, værket, receptionen
Authors: Krabbe Niels
Published: March 2020

Niels Krabbe: Paul von Klenau and his ninth Symphony – the sources, the work, the reception

In 2001, the Royal Library learned about a comprehensive private collection in Vienna that contained music, letters and lecture manuscripts, photographs and other archive materials of the Danish composer Paul von Klenau (1883–1946). A preliminary survey of the collection revealed that the contents included a number of music manuscripts (symphonies, chamber music concerts and more), which were not known from the rest of the library’s major collection of Klenau works. The collection’s greatest and most interesting work was a major complete “Ninth Symphony” for orchestra, choir and four soloists in eight movements, for a Latin text with a mix of liturgical texts from the Catholic requiem and texts of unknown provenance.In 2005, the library succeeded in acquiring the collection and it was transferred to the Royal Library. Subsequently, the Danish Centre for Music Publication (DCM) organised a philological adaptation and published Symphony No. 9 for the purpose of the premier performance of the work, which duly took place 70 years after it was written, performed as a Thursday Concert in March 2014 and conducted by Michael Schønwandt.Klenau had worked in Germany as a composer and conductor in the 1920s and 1930s. He returned to Denmark in 1939 where he stayed for the rest of his life. Because of his extensive German background he did not receive high recognition in Danish music, despite the range and nature of his musical output. This was mainly because of his relationship with the Third Reich and Nazism, which affected his last years and his posthumous reputation.Symphony No. 9 was composed in the years 1944–45, and is a mix of requiem and a symphony, each in four movements. Due to the text, the work is both a traditional requiem and a requiem about the war. Both in its expression and in its length, it is probably the greatest symphony ever written by a Danish composer.The premier in 2014 received mixed reviews, and Klenau’s attitude to Nazism was discussed once again. The work was criticised for its eclectic character with its mix of late romantic forms of expression on the one side and its accomplished dodecaphonic passages on the other.The newly available Klenau collection from Vienna, including the treated Symphony No. 9, has nuanced and problematised Klenau’s position in Danish music history.