Bericht von Gröhnland, gezogen aus zwo Chroniken : einer alten Ihslandischen, und einer neuen Dänischen
Europe

Scandinavian books

The National & Academic Library (BNU) keeps more than a thousand rare documents from before 1800, either about or published in Scandinavian countries (40% of books were published in Denmark or Sweden). These books were for the most part donated when Karl August Barack, first Director of the BNU, made a public appeal to rebuilt the collections after the fire of 1870.

The collection showcases some of the most renowned Scandinavian scientists, writers and essayists, among whom Olaus Wormius, as well as prominent German authors like Albrecht Krantz.

The books are mostly written in Latin, Scandinavian languages, German, but also in English and French. The oldest documents date back to the early 16th century, and some are considered extremely rare even in Scandinavia.

In 2011, Thomas Mohnike, director of the University of Strasbourg's Department for Scandinavian Studies launched a project called Strasbourg à la découverte du Nord, "Strasbourg off to discover the North", for the digitisation of the rare Scandinavian documents kept at the BNU. The first batch for this digital collection samples about 200 documents.

98 documents printed between 1545 and 1827 are already available on Numistral.

For more information on this collection, read the 8th issue of our journal, La Revue de la BNU. Pierre-Brice Stahl, lecturer on Northern studies at the Paris-Sorbonne University and former lecturer at the University of Strasbourg, wrote an article on the history of the Scandinavian collection kept at the BNU.

These documents are part of our broader collection on Northern History & Civilisation.

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