Books in Early Modern Norway

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20720-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 242 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Reihe: Library of the Written Word / Library of the Written Word - The Handpress World

During recent decades much has been written about early modern book distribution, but until now Norway has been absent from the discussion. Drawing on book listings, this study seeks to fill this lacuna by exploring the market for books in early modern Norway. Its approach is multifaceted: consideration of the types of books accessed by different elements of Norwegian society is set alongside developments within the book market itself, such as the extended life of popular books, the gradual replacement of Latin by the vernacular and the rise in the eighteenth century in the number of books available on the market. The study demonstrates the internationality of the Norwegian book market while acknowledging specific patterns that determine its Norwegian character.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dahl, Gina

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften Buchgeschichte, Bibliotheksgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Skandinavische Literaturen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Chapter 2 –Books and Their Distribution
2.1 Historical background
2.2 Book market regulations
2.3 Sales outlets

Chapter 3 – Books of Ordinary People
3.1 Schooling and reading
3.2 Inventories in rural areas
3.3 Books in stock in urban areas
3.4 Changes in book patterns in the late eighteenth century

Chapter 4 – Books of the Clergy
4.1 Clerical education
4.2 Books originating in Germany
4.3 Books from the Netherlands and England
4.4 Changes towards the end of the eighteenth century

Chapter 5 – Books and the Liberal Arts
5.1 The artes training
5.2 The artes reception
5.3 The variety of the classical legacy

Chapter 6 – Books on Medicine
6.1. Physicians and their educational background
6.2 The books of university-trained physicians
6.3 Medical works among other sections of society

Chapter 7 – Books on Jurisprudence
7.1 Jurists and their educational background
7.2 Books on jurisprudence circulating among the various officials
7.3 Books on jurisprudence owned by other sections of society

Chapter 8 – Enlightenment and Expansion
8.1 Enlightenment and change
8.2 The Norwegian case: structural changes in the world of books
8.3 Literary genres and ‘other worlds’

Chapter 9 – Books for Entertainment
9.1 Tales, stories and novels
9.2 Travel literature
9.3 Esoteric literature

Chapter 10 – Conclusion

Appendix 1
Bibliography
Index

Leseproben

Introduction

The last comprehensive survey of Norwegian book history was published by Harald Tveterås some sixty years ago. Since then, much has happened within the international arena of book research as various aspects of the “communication circuit”, to use Robert Darnton’s famous designation, have been examined. Given the attention that l’histoire du livre has attracted on the part of researchers internationally, it seems strange that a new survey of book occurrences in early modern Norway should be so long overdue. The field has not been empty in recent decades, but no broad scale investigation of book occurrences has been undertaken. A variety of factors may account for this lacuna.
Geographically, Norway was a periphery, located on the northern outskirts of Europe. In a country of mountains, forests and steep fjords, conditions did little to facilitate communication between the various regions. A long coastline did counteract these obstacles to some extent, for travel by sea was the main vehicle for the exchange of both people and goods. The population was small: around the year 1500, about 170,000 people resided within the borders of what then counted as Norway, a number that had risen to 440,000 by around 1660; by 1700, the number of inhabitants had grown to approximately 500,000, and in 1801, the population stood at 880,000. Norway was a predominantly rural society. Between 1660 and 1814, as many as nine out of ten Norwegians lived in the countryside, sustained by farming or fishing, or by a combination of both. The urban population, by contrast, was relatively small: before the eighteenth century, only 5 to 10 per cent of the entire population lived in a town. Norway was thus one of the less urbanised countries in Europe. A study of book history in Norway, a predominantly rural society on the fringes of Europe, may not have seemed a particularly beguiling undertaking.
Politically, Norway was also a periphery. Within the double monarchy of Denmark-Norway, the successor of a relationship established in the Middle Ages, Denmark took the political lead, resulting in a highly unequal division of powers. All the principal administrative and higher educational institutions were situated in Denmark, in Copenhagen in particular, the capital of the double monarchy. Norway’s first university opened its doors to the public as late as in 1813. Throughout the early modern period various petitions sought to reverse Norway’s subsidiarity, many of which were issued during the era of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century. Recurrent topics in these petitions included political, administrative and economic autonomy as well as the establishment of a university on Norwegian soil. Up until the turn of the eighteenth century, such demands were consistently turned down. Although it is hard to assess the extent to which a particular Norwegian national identity existed, the separation of Denmark and Norway was an almost non-existent idea during the period of this study. The absence of administrative bodies and institutions of higher education fed into the picture of a restricted intellectual life in Norway and also failed to ignite scholarly interest in undertaking book historical studies.
There has also long been a perception that Norway was sheltered from broader European intellectual life by the official religion, for the state’s two-pronged system was intended both to enforce Lutheranism and to resist foreign and indigenous ideas deemed heretical. From 1536, when Lutheranism was introduced by a single stroke of the pen, and throughout the early modern period, one of the main aims of the government was to build a Lutheran state with obedient subjects. Significant seventeenth-century decrees such as the Church Ordinance of 1607, Christian IV’s Recess of 1643, the Norwegian Law of 1687 and the Church Ritual of 1685 contributed greatly to regulating society within this religious-political framework. The very fact tha

Über Autor(innen)

Gina Dahl, Dr. Art. (2007) in History of religion, University of Bergen, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen. She has published extensively on book distribution in early modern Norway including Book Collections of Clerics in Norway, 1650–1750 (Brill, 2010).