From a photograph reproduced in the Opuscula Academica (ed. 1887) and in the Nordisk Tidskrift, Ser. II, vol. viii; p. 319 infra. CHAPTER XXXVIII. SCANDINAVIA. Denmark: university of Copenhagen Copenhagen, DENMARK, Norway and Sweden, the three constituent portions of the ancient Scandinavia, formed a single kingdom from 1397 to 1523, that is, from the accession of queen Margaret, the Semiramis of the North, to the proclamation of Gustavus Vasa as king of Sweden. the capital of Denmark in and after 1443, became the seat of a university founded in 1479 by Christian I under the sanction of Sixtus IV (1475). The statutes which it received from the archbishop of Lund were modelled on those of Cologne. Sweden (as already implied) became a separate kingdom in 1523; from 1523 to 1560 Gustavus Vasa was king of Sweden, and Frederic I and Christian III successively kings of Denmark and Norway, and in 1527-36 protestantism was established in all three countries. In 1539 the university of Copenhagen, which had collapsed during a time of civil and religious commotion, was refounded by Christian III on the model of the protestant university of Wittenberg. It was destroyed in the great fire of 1728, and rebuilt and reorganised in 1732 under Christian VI, who was also the patron of the 'Society of Sciences" founded in 1742. The university was finally reorganised in 17882. Nearly three centuries before the foundation of that university, the Latin secretary of the archbishop of Lund, and the earliest authority for the tragic story of Hamlet, was known by the name of Saxo Grammaticus3, and we shall see in the sequel that the preparation of text-books of Latin Grammar 1 Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Cp. p. 314 infra. 2 Cp. Matzen's Retshistorie (1879); Rashdall, ii 291 f; and Minerva, 11. His elegantly written Danorum Regum Heroumque Historia (c. 1200) was first published by the Danish man of letters, C. Pedersen (Paris, 1514). was a prominent part of the work of scholars in Denmark from the days of Jersin and Bang, Ancherson and Baden, down to those of Madvig. Our list of scholars begins with Thomas Bang (1600-1661), Bang who, after spending three years abroad in the study of Latin, Hebrew and Theology at Franeker and Wittenberg, became professor of Hebrew, librarian, and professor of Theology in the university of Copenhagen. An orientalist by profession, he was a layman in Latin, but he was convinced of the supreme importance of maintaining that language in the schools of Denmark. As a Latin scholar, he is best known for having revised at the royal command the Latin Grammar (1623) of J. D. Jersin, rector of the school at Sorö and ultimately bishop of Ribe. Bang's praecepta minora and majora of 1636-40 were followed in the latter year by his principal grammatical work, the Observationes Philologicae, in two volumes of more than 700 pages each. He also published a Latin primer under the attractive title of Aurora Latinitatis (1638). Oriental languages are the main theme of two of his other works:-the Coelum orientis et prisci mundi (1657), and the Exercitationes litterariae antiquitatis (1638-48)'. In the latter he starts from Pliny's phrase, aeternus litterarum usus2, and discourses at large on the 'book of Enoch' and the language of the angels. In accordance with the general belief of his time, he holds that all languages (as well as all alphabets) have their source in Hebrew3. Lauremberg Bang's contemporary, Johan Lauremberg (c. 1588-1658), professor of Latin Poetry at Rostock, left Germany for Denmark in 1623, and was mathematical master at Sorö for the remaining 22 years of his life. His edition of the Sphaera of Proclus (1611), his Latin Antiquarius, or vocabulary of archaic and antiquarian words and phrases (1624), and his collection of maps of ancient Greece', are now of little note in 1 Reprinted at Cracow, Exercitationes...de ortu et progressu litterarum, 1691. 2 vii 193. 3 Professor M.,C. Gertz, in Bricka's Dansk Biografisk Lexikon (18871904). Prof. Gertz has also written on most of the scholars mentioned below; all these articles have been carefully consulted. Ed. Pufendorf, 1660. comparison with the literary interest of his Danish and Latin Satires1. Oluf Borch In the same century Oluf Borch, or Olaus Borrichius (16291690), after studying medicine at Copenhagen, travelled in Holland, England, France and Italy, and, on his return in 1666, became professor in the university, and physician to the king. He was one of the most versatile of men. He lectured on philology, as well as on medicine, botany and chemistry, besides filling (late in life) the office of librarian. In philology his earliest work was a compendious guide to Latin versification, quaintly named Parnassus in nuce (1654). His dissertatio de lexicis Latinis et Graecis (1660) was followed by his principal work in this line of study:-the Cogitationes de variis linguae Latinae actatibus (1675). This was supplemented by his Analecta, and by his dissertation De studio purae Latinitatis. The historical side of scholarship is represented by his notable Conspectus of the principal Latin authors, and by his Academic dissertations' on the Greek and Latin poets, and on the topography of Rome and the oracles of the ancients. The science of language is exemplified in his Dissertatio de causis diversitatis linguarum (1675). The primitive lan Language, in his view, was originally given to man by God, and there was the closest correspondence between the original words, as images of things, and the things themselves. Man had also received the gift of an aptitude for inventing new words, on which common custom impressed certain meanings; hence the further developement of languages. After the building of the tower of Babel, there was a confusion of tongues. guage was preserved completely among the Hebrews, and only partially among other nations. Hence in all languages there were some words which were related to Hebrew, but these languages had diverged in different directions. This was due to a variety of causes, such as diversities of climate and of modes of living, which affected the organs of speech. In the conception of language which is here presented, onomatopoeia plays an important part. 1 Ed. Lappenberg, Stuttgart, 1861 (Bursian, i 320); cp. L. Daae, Om Humanisten og Satirikeren, Johan Lauremberg, Chr. 1884. His Satires were not without influence on that versatile man of genius, Holberg (1684—1754), the Molière of Denmark, who, in his Comedies, owed much to Plautus. One of those Comedies, Niels Klims' subterranean journey, was actually written in Latin (1741). 2 1676-87; ed. 2, 1714-5. In the rest of Borch's views there is much that is obscure, and, as a whole, they are out of date; but they are not devoid of interest, while they have the advantage of being clothed in an attractive form1. Gram In the first half of the next century Hans Gram (1685-1748) was appointed professor of Greek (1714), as well as historiographer, librarian and archivist of Copenhagen (1730 f). We still possess the rectorial oration in which he dilated on the literary history of Denmark and Norway down to the foundation of the university. It was in his time that the university was rebuilt and reopened, and it was owing to his influence that the 'Society of Sciences' was founded in 1742. He was specially interested in Greek science and in Greek history. He wrote on the 'Egyptian origin of geometry', and published observations on Archytas and Aratus. He carefully studied the works of Xenophon and the scholia on Thucydides, and edited the Characters of Theophrastus. He also published a brief history of Greek literature, and he is the reputed author of a Latin-Danish and Danish-Latin Dictionary, called the Nucleus Latinitatis, which remained in use until it was superseded by the work of Jacob Baden. Gram never left his native land, but he counted Fabricius, Havercamp and Duker among his correspondents abroad. It was once the fashion to describe him as 'the greatest man in Denmark', but he never produced any magnum opus. He buried his extensive learning in a considerable number of minor lucubrations, and he was only too apt to lose himself in mazes of minute detail. Nevertheless he did good service to his country by the organisation of learning and by the critical examination of its ancient history'. Falster Gram's contemporary Christian Falster (1690-1752) was interested in Greek and Roman literature and criticism. He produced at Flensborg his supplement to Latin lexicons (1717) and a comprehensive introduction to the study of Latin literature entitled Quaestiones Romanae (1718). At Ribe he prepared his notes on Gellius. When the com1 Gertz, in Bricka. 2 1745; Altes und Neues aus Dännemark, i (1768) 439–518. 3 Cp. Harless, Vitae Philol., iii 146–156; Nouvelle Biographie Générale, s.v.; and esp. Gertz, in Bricka. • Vigilia prima noctium Ripensium (1721). |