Christiern Pedersen
Encyclopedia
Christiern Pedersen was a canon
, humanist
scholar, writer, printer and publisher.
, Denmark
. He was schooled in Roskilde
and studied from 1496 at the University of Greifswald. He received a baccalaureate
degree in 1498 and from 1505 was a canon
at Lund Cathedral
.
He studied at the University of Paris
from 1508 to 1515, where in 1511 he received a Master of Arts degree
. During his stay in Paris he developed an interest in writing, translating and publishing. At that time Paris was the undisputed capital of the still-new printing press
. While considering writing a new Latin
-Danish
lexicon
, he wrote a replacement for the 300-year-old Latin grammar, Doctrinale, written in 1199 by Alexander of Villedieu
, and still used as standard in the schools of Denmark at that time. In 1510 he published his new Latin-Danish lexicon, called Vocabularium ad usum Dacorum.
He wanted to re-publish the huge 300-year-old chronicle of Denmark, Gesta Danorum
, written by Saxo Grammaticus
, but he did not know the location of the original manuscript. At that time the most knowledge of this work came from a summary called Compendium Saxonis
located in Chronica Jutensis
, dated about 1342. Undoubtedly this is also how Pedersen knew of it.
Pedersen began to send letters to friends all over Denmark, trying to locate the original Saxo work, but they either did not have it or did not want to release it to him. He finally travelled to Denmark to search through libraries and monasteries, but still could not find one. Unexpectedly a letter arrived from Archbishop
Birger Gunnersen of Lund
stating that he had found a copy in his district and it would be made available to Pedersen.
With the help of Jodocus Badius Ascensius (also known as 'Josse Bades'), whose relationship with Pedersen had now grown to more than just a professional one, they published this new work-over of Gesta Danorum, titled Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae, 15 May 1514, in Paris. This is today the oldest known complete copy of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum.
and worked for Archbishop Birger Gunnersen. In 1522, he became Kanzler
under the new Archbishop, Johann Wess. However, during the reign of the next Archbishop, Aage Sparre, Pedersen was accused of treason, among other things, resulting in Pedersen leaving for Germany. As he was loyal to King Christian II, he followed him in exile to the Netherlands in 1526, after meeting him in Berlin
, where he spent the next five years in the then-Dutch city of Lier
.
In 1529, he renounced his Catholicism
(and his canon status) and became Lutheran. Consequently, Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries asked Christian II to dismiss him, but the exiled king ignored her request.
He did not return to Denmark before 1532, and got permission to settle in Malmø
, where he opened a printing press
shop. His continued loyalty towards King Christian II gained him no friends among the nobility, and it did not get better when later he actively participated in the Civil War (Grevens Fejde
) on the losers' side.
He married Else Jacobsdatter in 1534 in Malmø, who died during childbirth in 1539. Pedersen sold his printing press shop and moved to Copenhagen
in 1541. During these years he translated the Bible
to Danish. This was to become his life's work, which sometimes earns him the title "the father of Danish literature". Finished in 1543, but first published in 1550, this work, Biblia, was not only a masterpiece of translation, but also technically excellent, with good-quality graphics and woodcuts. This is the first complete Danish Bible translation. 3000 copies were printed by Ludwig Dietz.
Pedersen was ill during the last 10 years of his life, but he continued to work until his death in 1554, while he was living with relatives in Helsinge
.
Additionally, a revised edition of the Danish "Rimkrøniken" and a Danish translation of Saxo’s "Gesta Danorum" were produced. It was never published and was lost in the library fire
at Copenhagen University in 1728.
He has published and/or written many other smaller works.
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
, humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
scholar, writer, printer and publisher.
Education
Christiern Pedersen was born in HelsingørElsinore
Helsingør is a city and the municipal seat of Helsingør municipality on the northeast coast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. Helsingør has a population of 46,279 including the southern suburbs of Snekkersten and Espergærde...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. He was schooled in Roskilde
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
and studied from 1496 at the University of Greifswald. He received a baccalaureate
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
degree in 1498 and from 1505 was a canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
at Lund Cathedral
Lund Cathedral
The Lund Cathedral is the Lutheran cathedral in Lund, Scania, Sweden. It is the seat of the bishop of Lund of the Church of Sweden.- History :...
.
He studied at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
from 1508 to 1515, where in 1511 he received a Master of Arts degree
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
. During his stay in Paris he developed an interest in writing, translating and publishing. At that time Paris was the undisputed capital of the still-new printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
. While considering writing a new Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
-Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
, he wrote a replacement for the 300-year-old Latin grammar, Doctrinale, written in 1199 by Alexander of Villedieu
Alexander of Villedieu
Alexander of Villedieu was a French author, teacher and poet, who wrote text books on Latin grammar and arithmetic, everything in verse. He was born around 1175 in Villedieu-les-Poêles in Normandy, studied in Paris, and later taught at Dol in Brittany. His greatest fame stems from his versified...
, and still used as standard in the schools of Denmark at that time. In 1510 he published his new Latin-Danish lexicon, called Vocabularium ad usum Dacorum.
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
, written by Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
, but he did not know the location of the original manuscript. At that time the most knowledge of this work came from a summary called Compendium Saxonis
Compendium Saxonis
Compendium Saxonis is a summary located in Chronica Jutensis. It contains a summary of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, about one-fourth the size of the original. It is written in Latin....
located in Chronica Jutensis
Chronica Jutensis
Chronica Jutensis also known as Continuatio compendii Saxonis or Chronica Danorum, is a small Danish historical work from the middle of the 14th century, written in Latin....
, dated about 1342. Undoubtedly this is also how Pedersen knew of it.
Pedersen began to send letters to friends all over Denmark, trying to locate the original Saxo work, but they either did not have it or did not want to release it to him. He finally travelled to Denmark to search through libraries and monasteries, but still could not find one. Unexpectedly a letter arrived from Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
Birger Gunnersen of Lund
Lund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
stating that he had found a copy in his district and it would be made available to Pedersen.
With the help of Jodocus Badius Ascensius (also known as 'Josse Bades'), whose relationship with Pedersen had now grown to more than just a professional one, they published this new work-over of Gesta Danorum, titled Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae, 15 May 1514, in Paris. This is today the oldest known complete copy of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum.
The later years
In 1516, Pedersen returned to LundLund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
and worked for Archbishop Birger Gunnersen. In 1522, he became Kanzler
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
under the new Archbishop, Johann Wess. However, during the reign of the next Archbishop, Aage Sparre, Pedersen was accused of treason, among other things, resulting in Pedersen leaving for Germany. As he was loyal to King Christian II, he followed him in exile to the Netherlands in 1526, after meeting him in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he spent the next five years in the then-Dutch city of Lier
Lier, Belgium
Lier is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the city of Lier proper and the village of Koningshooikt. On January 1, 2010 Lier had a total population of 33,930. The total area is 49.70 km² which gives a population density of 669 inhabitants per...
.
In 1529, he renounced his Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
(and his canon status) and became Lutheran. Consequently, Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries asked Christian II to dismiss him, but the exiled king ignored her request.
He did not return to Denmark before 1532, and got permission to settle in Malmø
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, where he opened a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
shop. His continued loyalty towards King Christian II gained him no friends among the nobility, and it did not get better when later he actively participated in the Civil War (Grevens Fejde
Count's Feud
The Count's Feud , also called the Count's War, was a civil war that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark...
) on the losers' side.
He married Else Jacobsdatter in 1534 in Malmø, who died during childbirth in 1539. Pedersen sold his printing press shop and moved to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in 1541. During these years he translated the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
to Danish. This was to become his life's work, which sometimes earns him the title "the father of Danish literature". Finished in 1543, but first published in 1550, this work, Biblia, was not only a masterpiece of translation, but also technically excellent, with good-quality graphics and woodcuts. This is the first complete Danish Bible translation. 3000 copies were printed by Ludwig Dietz.
Pedersen was ill during the last 10 years of his life, but he continued to work until his death in 1554, while he was living with relatives in Helsinge
Helsinge
Until 1 January 2007, Helsinge was a municipality in Frederiksborg County on the north coast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. It had a total population of 19,473 , but in the summer months the population grew to over 36.000 people. Its last mayor was Claus Lange, a member of the...
.
Publications
Pedersen's notable works include:- 1510, Vocabularium ad usum Dacorum (A Latin-to-Danish Lexicon)
- 1514, Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae (re-publishing of Saxo's Gesta Danorum)
- 1515, "Jærtegnspostil"
- 1529, "Det Ny Testamente" (A translation of the New Testament)
- 1533, "Nøttelig Legebog faar Fattige och Rige Unge och Gamle" (A medical book)
- 1534, "Karl Magnus Krønike" (A free re-write of CharlemagneCharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
legends) - 1534, "Kong Holger Danskes Krønike" (A free re-write based on the French 15th century 'Ogier le Dannoys')
- 1550, "Biblia - Christian d.3.s Bibel" (Translation of the Bible,- this is the first complete Danish Bible translation)
Additionally, a revised edition of the Danish "Rimkrøniken" and a Danish translation of Saxo’s "Gesta Danorum" were produced. It was never published and was lost in the library fire
Copenhagen Fire of 1728
The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of October 20, 1728, and continued to burn until the morning of October 23. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city , left 20% of the population homeless, and the reconstruction lasted...
at Copenhagen University in 1728.
He has published and/or written many other smaller works.