The Development of the Pre-1801 Scandinavian

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRE-1801
SCANDINAVIAN PRINTED COLLECTIONS IN
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
PETER C. HOGG
in 1770 a Swedish journal published a brief account by a visitor of the public
galleries of the British Museum. Describing the Harley rooms, he remarked that copies
of the Harleian manuscript catalogue published by the Museum in 1759 had been sent
to Uppsala University Library and to the Royal Library in Stockholm. He admired the
nine rooms of printed books and praised the reference service: 'One sits very
comfortably in a so-called Reading Room., with all the catalogues around one. One orders
whatever book one wishes, while an attendant stands ready to fetch it as if it were one's
own. It is all truly royal.'^
The visitor did not mention the fact that there were already some Scandinavian books
in the Library. Today the size of the British Library's early Scandinavian holdings, that
is to the end of 1850, can be estimated as around 20,000 items, of which over half were
pubhshed before 1801. At least eighty per cent of the latter were acquired before 1914,
since when it has become progressively more difficult to add to the collections owing to
the rising prices for early books and to the relative decline in recent years in the funding
of foreign antiquarian purchases.^
The pre-1851 Scandinavian collections of the British Library are nevertheless likely
to remain unequalled in any single library outside the five Nordic countries themselves.
That is largely due to a handful of private collectors - principally Sloane, Banks,
Thorkelin, George III, Grenville and Hannas - but ultimately to the collection policy
established by Anthony Panizzi, with the support of Thomas Watts, and to its execution
by Watts and his successors as selectors in the Department of Printed Books of the
British Museum and subsequently the British Library.
EARLY
THE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS
When the British Museum opened in January 1759 only around 1,250 of the perhaps
75,000 works in the foundation collections of its Department of Printed Books were
Scandinavian. Most of them were in Latin and nearly all formed part of the Sloane
collection, with mere handfuls each in the Old Royal and Edwards libraries.^
Among the books from the Old Royal Library are two Reformation works with
Danish imprints from 1537 and 1538 with personal dedications to Henry VIII by the
144
Lutheran reformer Johann Bugenhagen (1485-1558).* Abraham Praetorius's Harmonia
gratulatoria on the marriage of James VI to Anne of Denmark (1590), the Scienza e
pratica d'arme by Salvatore Fabris (Copenhagen, 1606) and Tycho Brahe's oration De
disciplinis mathematicis (r6io)^ are assigned to the reign of James I, while Charles II
acquired three historical works from Sweden and Denmark, by Johannes Messenius and
Johannes Meursius, and Ole Worm's antiquarian tract of 1641 on the golden horn found
at Gallehus,^ all in Latin. The latest Old Royal item appears to be a Danish auction
catalogue for the sale of the great Rostgaard hbrary in 1726, which originally belonged
to the royal librarian Richard Bentley.' The few works that are attributable to the
Edwards library focus on the classics.^
Sir Hans Sloane's Scandinavian books are largely on subjects that were of professional
interest to him, principally in the fields of medicine (with many works by the Danish
anatomists Caspar and Thomas Bartholin) and of the natural sciences, including four
books by Linne published 1740-5, but also in those of antiquities, history and
topography (among them a set of the Suecia antiqua et hodiernaf and of philosophy,
theology and law. In addition he acquired several dozen Scandinavian museum, library^**
and book-auction catalogues, the latter mainly from Copenhagen sales of private libraries
between 1686 and 1732. He also collected dictionaries, including Gu6mundur
Andresson's Lexicon islandicum (Copenhagen, 1683), and current scientific serials such
as Swedenborg's Dcedalus hyperboreus (Uppsala, 1716-17) ^"^ the Schwedische
Bibliothec (Stockholm, 1728-44).
A notable item from the Sloane library is a Danish herbal, Buchwald's Specimen
medico-practico-botanicum (Copenhagen, 1720), with actual plant specimens pasted in
blank spaces on each leaf.^^ Probably also a Sloane item is the account of the former
colony of New Sweden pubhshed in 1702 by Thomas Campanius Holm {c. 1670-1702),
with an appendix of model dialogues for the settlers in the local Delaware (Lenape)
language.^^ In the area of what was then called 'Septentrional' studies Sloane acquired
the Stockholm or 'national' edition by Georg Stiernhielm of the Gothic Gospels printed
in 1671 from the Codex Argenteus in Uppsala University Library,^^ several of the early
editions of Icelandic sagas printed in Sweden between 1664 and 1720,^* Ari Thorgilsson's
Islendingabok (Copenhagen, 1733) and other works. ^^ One example of a number of
Scandinavian orientalist works in the Library is the Sloane copy of the Epitome
commentariorum Moysis Armeni edited by Henrik Brenner (Stockholm, 1723).^^
THE OLD LIBRARY
During the early years of the British Museum there was no regular acquisitions grant and
each purchase had to be approved in advance by the Trustees. Identifiable examples of
Scandinavian purchases in that period are those of fv\t works by Linne^^ and Johan
Ihre's new etymological dictionary Glossartum sviogothicum (Uppsala, 1769),^^ all
'Purchased by Order of Committee De'r. 22 1769', when the Edwards fund had finally
become available; a copy of Stiernhook's Dejure Sveonum (Stockholm, 1672)^^ 'bought
145
Fig. I. Frontispiece of Regenfuss's Auserlesne Scknecken^ Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere^
glorifying King Frederik V of Denmark. BL, 562*.h.3
146
at Payne's Sale by D** Maty' by 'Order of Committee Febry i. 1774'; Erik Lindahl's
Lexicon lapponicum (Stockholm, 1780)^^ bought on 24 November 1786; four important
antiquarian works, namely two thirteenth-century texts - the Danish laws of Jutland
{Quedam breues expositiones, printed in Copenhagen in 1508) and the Norwegian
Konungs skuggsjd, a 'speculum regale' (printed at Sore in 1768) - the Icelandic Annalar
compiled by Bjorn a SkarQsa in the mid-seventeenth century and printed at Hrappsey
in Iceland in 1774-5 and a collection of Danish memorial inscriptions, Marmora danica
selectiora (Copenhagen, 1739-41),^^ all purchased on 27 February 1789; and, finally, a
copy of Stiernman's Bibliotheca suiogothica (Stockholm, 1731)1^^ which was bought on
8 February 1794.
The majority of the Scandinavian books added to the Library in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century were probably donations, however. An early example is the
work on molluscs by F. M. Regenfuss with hand-coloured illustrations {Auserlesne
Schnecken, Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere., printed in Copenhagen, 1758),^^ one of the
most exquisite books in the early Scandinavian collections, which was presented by King
Frederik V of Denmark on 6 February 1762 (fig. i). In the same year five Scandinavian
items came to the Library with the Thomason Tracts.^*
The best recorded donation of northern works in that period were the 121 printed
books and thirty-one manuscripts^^ acquired by Joseph Banks during a short tour in
south-eastern Iceland in September 1772 with an entourage of nine, including his
Swedish librarian Daniel Solander and a future archbishop of Uppsala, Uno von Troil,
who later published an account of the journey. ^^ After landing at Hafnarfjord they
travelled to the Geysir, Hekla and Skalholt before turning back, collecting natural
specimens and artifacts, books and manuscripts. Bjarni Palsson at Nes gave Banks several
books^^ and the local administrator Olafur Stefansson sent people up to Holar for more
books and manuscripts.^^ According to Edward Edwards, Banks 'bought the Library of
Halfdan Einarsson, the hterary historian of Iceland, and made other large and choice
collections.'^^ He presented his Icelandic books and manuscripts to the British Museum
on 3 December 1773, followed by a few further items in January 1778 and March 1781.^^
Banks's 1772 collection is especially interesting as a sample of the kind of books to be
found in Icelandic homes at that particular time. Over half are religious works, a number
of them translated from German or Danish originals, with a few examples each of law,
history, fiction, verse and practical manuals. Many contain the names of their former
Icelandic owners. About half of the books were printed between 1740 and 1760, the
earliest one with an Icelandic imprint being the Bible of 1584 and the latest a volume of
sermons by J. T. Vidali'n printed at Hdlar in 1771.^^
A collection of political ephemera from the same period, unstamped but acquired at
an early date, contains sixty-six broadsides, leaflets and engravings relating to the arrest,
trial and execution for high treason of Count Struensee and printed in Copenhagen
between January and April 1772 (fig. 2). The scandal led to to the divorce of King
Christian VII from his wife Caroline Matilda, daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince
of Wales. A note at the front of the volume in which the collection is bound refers to it as
147
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Fig. 2. Den Almcegttges Varetagt over Dannemark (*The Almighty's Protection over Denmark'),
a contemporary broadside with a doggerel colloquy between Brandt and Struensee and the reply
of the subjects of the Crown. BL, i88i.b.46(37)
*all Grub Street Papers about Strunsee Bro*: from Copenhagen / Given by M"" Ernst',
who may have been the Swedish businessman and bibliophile Johan Adolf Ernst
On 3 November 1775 a 'M"" Mathesius'- the Finland-born Aron Mathesius
(1736-1808), pastor of the Swedish church in London 1771-84-donated to the
Museum a Finnish hymn book (the Uusi suomenkiejinen wirsi-kirja^ Turku, 1772), which
had been sent to him by Bishop Mennander of Abo.^^ In October 1779 a copy oi En
dansk og engelsk Ord-Bog (London, 1779) was presented to Mathesius by its author, the
Norwegian timber merchant Ernst Wolff. He appears to have passed it on to Banks, as
it came to the Library with the latter*s collections.^* A century later the Library bought
a copy of the 1720 edition of the Swedish Bible that had once been owned by
Mathesius.^^
It was also a common practice for Trustees to present books to the Library, and some
thirty Scandinavian items were acquired in that way in the late eighteenth century, half
of them from Thomas Birch (1766), Thomas Tyrwhitt (1786) and William Musgrave
(1790) and half from C. M. Cracherode (1799). Birch presented an edition of Ole
Worm's correspondence (1728),^^ while both Tyrwhitt and Cracherode donated a
number of important antiquarian works, including editions of Saxo*s Historia danica
(Sor0, 1644) and Snorri's prose Edda (Copenhagen, 1665), the Gothic Fragmenta
versionis UlphilancB of Romans edited by Johan Ihre (Uppsala, 1763) and the Copenhagen
edition of three medieval British historical works, the Britannicarum gentium histories
antiques scriptores tres, produced by Charles Bertram (1757).^^
In 1787 the Icelandic scholar Grimur Jonsson Thorkelin (1752-1829) came to Britain
with an official commission to seek out documents relating to the history and antiquities
of Denmark. Among the Cotton manuscripts in the British Museum he devoted special
attention to the unique Beowulf text, which he later published. ^^ Thorkelin donated two
important catalogues of Danish private libraries^^ and a few other books to the Museum,
but his main contribution to the Library was the sale to George III in June 1788 of over
seven hundred Scandinavian works from his own collection which were to arrive in the
Museum with the King's Library thirty-five years later.*^
Over ninety Scandinavian items were added to the Old Library between 1813 and
1816 with the Hargrave and Moll collections^^ and with the library of Sophia Sarah
Banks, sister of Joseph Banks, which was given to the Museum in
THE BANKS LIBRARY
The most significant single increase in the Scandinavian holdings in this period,
however, came with the gift of Sir Joseph Banks's library, which was bequeathed to the
Museum in 1820 though it was not physically transferred there until 1827. Around 1,350
of the Banksian items published before 1801 (about nine per cent of the entire collection)
were Scandinavian, very largely on natural history subjects, including numerous
dissertations by the Bartholins, Torbern Bergman, C. P. Thunberg and others.^^ In
most cases these are the Library's only copies, unlike the frequent duplication in the
humanities between the Sloane, King's and Grenville collections. The Banks Library
149
^mr.
13
••••
J. Swedish runestones illustrated in Goransson's Bautil, p. 13. BL, I43.g.i9
150
also included nearly a dozen Scandinavian scientific journals, among them the
proceedings of the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian royal academies of science as well
as of other societies. Banks's i88 publications by Linne, added to those already in the
Library, created the core of its extensive collection of Linnaeana, which remained in
Bloomsbury when the Natural History Museum was hived off in 1880.**
Banks also collected works on travel, topography - including several dozen Danish
maps and charts, especially of Iceland - political economy and biography. Examples of
Scandinavian travel literature were Strahlenberg's pioneering description of Siberia in
1730,*^ Linne's journey in southern Sweden in 1749,^^ the account of Pehr Kalm's
journeys in North America*' and those of Fredrik Hasselquist in Palestine,^® of Pehr
Lofling in Spanish America,*^ of Carsten Niebuhr in Arabia^*' and of Anders Sparrman
in southern Africa.^^
THE K I N G ' S LIBRARY
The vast King's Library of some 85,000 works, acquired in 1823 after the death of
George III, finally arrived in the Museum in 1828. It contained almost 1,450
Scandinavian books and pamphlets printed before 1801, mostly in the humanities. Over
half of these had been acquired from Thorkelin, though George Ill's librarian Sir
Frederick Barnard had clearly also bought books at the sales of other Danish private
libraries between 1778 and 1812, judging by the bindings.^^ Two works by Suhm^^ were
gifts from King Christian VII of Denmark, who died in 1808.
The Scandinavian material in the King's Library was carefully selected, with
particular strengths in history and biography, topography and law and - largely due to
Thorkelin - in Icelandic literature.^^ It includes a dozen scholarly journals, hundreds of
university theses, catalogues, bibliographies and text collections ranging from Langebek's
Scriptores rerum danicarum medii avi (Copenhagen, 1772-92)^^ to an anthology of Danish
medieval ballads, Levninger af Middel-Alderens Digtekunst (Copenhagen, 1780—4). The
histories extend from the editions of Ari's Islendingabok and the Landndmabok, both
printed at Skalholt in 1688, through the first Icelandic edition of Snorri's Heimskringla
(Stockholm, 1697) to the contemporary Swedish and Danish histories of Lagerbring^^
and Suhm.^^ The King's Library also contains a copy of Bauttl, the collection of 1,173
illustrations of Swedish runestones pubhshed by the Swedish national antiquary Johan
Goransson in 1750 (fig. 3).^^
Half of the early Scandinavian maps in the Library came with the topographical
collection in the King's Library, including the Swedish maps and town plans produced
by or for Lantmaterikontoret 1739-90, the series of maps produced by Det Kongelige
Danske Videnskabernes Selskab from 1771 and the charts of Danish, Norwegian and
Icelandic waters published by Det Kongelige Soe Kaarte Archiv from 1785 onward. Of
particular interest are Nicodemus Tessin's set of engraved plans, elevations and sections
of the new royal palace in Stockholm (1712-14)'^^ and Peter Wallrave's large plan of
Stockholm (1733).^*' Among the topographical books are those of Peder Clausson
(d. 1614) and Petter Dass (d. 1707) on Norway^^ as well as many others.
There are Bibles in most of the northern languages including Finnish, beginning with
the first Danish Bible of 1550 and the Swedish New Testament of 1541/^ as well as law
codes for Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The linguistic items include Erik
Pontoppidan's Glossarium norvagicum (Bergen, 1749) and J. N. Wilse's Norsk Ordbog
(Christiania, 1780), two of the first works on the Norwegian language to be published in
Norway. Among the most attractively illustrated works is G. C. Oeder's Flora danica
(Copenhagen, 1770). A rather surprising item is a small tract volume containing fourteen
Danish chapbooks from the years 1689-1736.^^
THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY
The acquisition of the Grenville Library early in 1847 added another ninety-one rare
Scandinavian items dating from before 1801, though some of these duplicated titles
already in the Museum. Among the most significant new aquisitions was a set of Olof
Rudbeck's Atlantica (published in Uppsala 1679-1702)*'* that includes a manuscript
copy of the fourth and final volume, of which most of the printed sheets were destroyed
in the Uppsala fire of 1702, as well as Rudbeck's Testimonia of 1681 and 1692. Other new
items included Runolfur Jonsson's Lingua septentrionalis elementa (Copenhagen, 1651),
Johannes Loccenius's Rerum svecicarum historia (Stockholm, 1654), Johannes Alnander's
dissertation Historiola artis typographicce in Svecia (Uppsala, 1722) and Ivar Kraak's
Essay on a methodological English grammar (Gbteborg, 1748).
LATER DONATIONS
•»
In 1892 a duplicate collection of 8,092 university dissertations was donated to the British
Museum by Uppsala University Library. Most of these were left uncatalogued, first in
the Sanskrit Library and then at Woolwich, for a century.®^ The collection contains a
substantial proportion of the dissertations produced at the universities of Uppsala and
Lund in Sweden and Abo (Turku) in Finland from the late seventeenth century onward.
Of particular interest are nine interleaved Uppsala dissertations with manuscript drafts
of the arguments of the opponents in disputations held between 1739 and 1796.
The latest major donation of Scandinavian material is that of the Hannas collection of
linguistic Uterature given to the Library in 1984 by Torgrim Hannas, a Norwegian-born
antiquarian bookseller living in Britain. After excluding several hundred duplicates, the
Library accepted 720 items, of which 235 date from before 1801. Just over half of the
collection consists of dictionaries, the rest being divided between grammars, textbooks,
readers, phrase books and linguistic monographs.^' One rare item is a pocket phrasebook in four languages, including PoUsh and Latvian, printed in Riga and issued to the
Swedish army for the Polish campaign in 1705 (fig. 4).^^
152
O Bogu y O Duchach;
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immel
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Fig. 4. Worter-Biichlein, a Swedish military phrase-book of 1705 in Swedish, German, Polish
and Latvian. BL, Han.55
RETROSPECTIVE PURCHASING
Despite the duplication of some Sloane material by the acquisition of the Banks and
King's Libraries, the latter two collections did considerably expand the Scandinavian
holdings, which must have numbered at least 4,500 items by the mid-i82os.^^ In 1829,
however, the Keeper of Printed Books, Henry Baber, pointed out in a report on the state
of the collections that the Museum had acquired very little published 'in recent years'
in Scandinavia. The main supplier at that time was Treuttel & Wlirtz of Soho Square.
Baber was asked to draw up desiderata lists in 1833, while the enquiry by a
parliamentary Select Committee during 1835-6 gave a further impetus to the
Department to adopt a more deliberate collection policy. Baber affirmed his willingness
to acquire material in minor European languages if he were provided with the means
although he thought that there was little demand for German or Scandinavian books. ^"^
At the Heber sales (1834-6), however, seven antiquarian Swedish items were
153
purchased. They included a copy of the controversial Swedish liturgy of 1576 and a
clerical protest against it,'^ a collection of engravings from drawings by Nicodemus
Tessin and Carl Harleman of Swedish royal funerals between 1693 and 1741'^ and
Samuel Gestrin's 1793 dissertation on Kankel's press on Visingso.^^
In October 1837 the new Keeper, Panizzi, proposed that the Museum should acquire
more standard foreign works, including 'literary journals, transactions of learned
societies...newspapers and collections of laws'.'^ That approach was clearly reflected in
the retrospective purchase of precisely such materials from Scandinavia during the next
few years, through London booksellers such as Black & Armstrong, Bailliere, Wacey and
Nutt, who between them supplied at least sixty-six Scandinavian items in 1839 though
far fewer in the following years.'^
The reshelving of the Old Library in a new classified order by Thomas Watts during
1838-40, together with the creation of the 'sUp' catalogue, prepared the way for the
future systematic expansion of the collections. Once the rearrangement of the Old
Library had been completed in 1841 Watts went right through it, checking the holdings
against the best available bibliographies. As a result of that work Panizzi was able to
present a report to the Trustees in January 1845 that outlined the historical development
of the collections, including a section on Scandinavian literature, and made the case for
increased funding to acquire 'the necessary means of information on all branches of
human learning from all countries, in all languages'.'®
Even before the annual purchase grant was increased in 1846, however, gaps were
being filled in the older holdings, for example by the acquisition of Bible editions at the
sale of the library of the Duke of Sussex in November 1844, which added nine
eighteenth-century Scandinavian items to the collections, including an Inuit New
Testament of 1799. The first Swedish Bible (Stockholm, 1541) was bought in October
1843 and the earUest Finnish Bible (printed in Stockholm in 1642) separately in
November 1844. A curious item bought in 1847 was a copy of Erik Pontoppidan's,
Grammatica danica (Copenhagen, 1668) with a note on the flyleaf: 'Presentation copy
from the present Poet Laureate Dr Wordsworth to the late Poet Laureate Dr Southey."'
The strengthening of the Scandinavian collections owes much to the engagement from
1844 of Adolphus Asher, of Berlin and London, as the Library's principal purchasing
agent for North European books, including retrospective gap-filUng.'^ That function was
continued by Asher's partner Albert Cohn from 1853 to 1874,'^ though antiquarian (that
is, pre-nineteenth century) items were always suppUed by a wide range of dealers and
individuals.
In a report to Panizzi on the growth of the foreign collections since 1838, written on
20 February 1861, Watts claimed that 'Every future student of those literatures will find
riches where I found poverty.'^** That is certainly true of the post-1800 Scandinavian
holdings, though the foundations of the earlier collections had already been firmly laid
by 1823 with the acquisition of the King's Library.
As early as 1851 Winter Jones urged that more attention should be paid to the printing
history of all countries.^^ As Keeper and as Principal Librarian (1856-78) he was able
154
at times to allocate up to twenty per cent of the grant to pre-1700 books. The earliest
Swedish incunable, printed in 1483, was bought in 1891 by the then Keeper, Richard
Garnett, but a later one, printed in 1498, had already been obtained by Jones in 1866.^^
No more have been acquired since then, however, leaving Danish printing unrepresented
before 1504.®^
A magnificent purchase in 1864 was that of an extra-illustrated set of Tycho de
Hofman's collection of biographies of notable Danes, Portraits historiques des hommes
illustres de Dannemark (Copenhagen, 1746),*^ with almost 2,600 additional engraved
portraits, views, maps and plans from the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. About 120 Scandinavian maps and views printed before 1801 are held by the
Map Library. These date mainly from the eighteenth century, more than half of them
from the period 1780-1800, including the Baltic charts prepared by Admiral J.
Nordenankar from 1788 and the series of maps of Sweden and Finland financed by
S. G. Hermelin from 1796 onward. About half of the maps came to the Museum with
the King's Library but most of the others were bought between 1851 and 1873 by
R. H. Major.
The Music Library possesses some seventy pieces of music printed in Denmark and
Sweden before 1801, including songs as well as opera, ballet and piano music. Apart from
the Harmonia of Praetorius in the Old Royal Library, however, all of them date from the
eighteenth century and were purchased from 1859 onward, two thirds of them indeed
after 1945. Of Danish composers those best represented are Schulz, Schall and Kunzen,
of the Swedes Bellman and Vogler, with one 1727 sonata by Roman.
On 2 June 1890 Garnett bought through Asher & Co. a collection of sixty-three items
relating to Swedish history betwen 1650 and 1800. Most of them bear the pencilled
monogram 'CK', in one case dated to 1853. The collector has not been identified, but
half of the items relate to the reign of Charles XII and the collection includes interesting
examples of Swedish official propaganda during the wars with Russia in 1700—19, 1741
and 1788.^^ A very different acquisition in 1904 was that of a file of Swedish post office
circulars, both printed and manuscript, addressed to Kastelholm on Aland between 1722
and 1807,^* which provides detailed information about the Swedish postal administration
during that period.
MAINTAINING THE COLLECTIONS
In his report of 1861 Watts expressed the view that the Museum should aim to build up
'the best collections of books in every European language outside the countries of
origin'.^' That ambition was realized in respect of Scandinavian literature over the next
few generations, despite severe financial restrictions, especially during the period
1887-1946.^^ Fortunately current Scandinavian publications, which are essential for
interpreting the early collections, continue to be acquired.
When the King's Library was damaged by a bomb in September 1940 five pre-1801
155
Danish and two Swedish books were destroyed.^^ In the bombing of May 1941, 302 out
of a total of 1,769 Scandinavian items subsequently listed as 'missing' dated from before
1851, the worst single loss being that of a set of 148 volumes of Danish laws and
ordinances issued between 1670 and 1838.^^ The allied governments exiled in London
at the time, including that of Norway, were allowed to borrow books from the
British Museum Library. In return a gathering of their Ministers of Education pledged
to help to replace its losses after the war. Some antiquarian Danish replacements were
likewise received as early as 1946, especially duplicates provided by StatsbibUoteket i
To celebrate the bicentenary of Sloane's death in 1953 the British Museum arranged
a monthly series of exhibitions in the King's Library. In November a selection of Dutch,
Scandinavian and Slavonic books and manuscripts was displayed. Of the seventy-four
Scandinavian items selected and shown in eight cases thirty-four were printed between
1483 and 1791.^^
The purchase grant was restored to its 1887 level of £10,000 in 1946 and then rapidly
increased, but for a number of years the proportion available for retrospective purchases
was largely used to replace the destroyed books. About three per cent of the purchase
grant had been spent on Scandinavian acquisitions, both current and antiquarian, since
the 1860s. The percentage was still the same - after reaching a peak of four per cent in
the 1950s - in the last year of the British Museum Library, 1972/3.^^
By the latter year the overall grant was £240,000, though the proportion spent at that
time on foreign antiquarian material was smaller than it had been in the nineteenth
century. Nonetheless, the period from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s - especially after
the creation of the foreign language sections (including a Scandinavian one), informally
in 1969, formally in 1976-was a real 'Indian summer' for foreign retrospective
purchasing.
In addition to some antiquarian acquisitions, microfilms were obtained of destroyed^
books that could not be replaced, and the extensive Scandinavian Culture Series
of pre-1700 literature on microfilm began to be received. Facsimile editions of rare
early publications continued to be bought, as they had been since the late nineteenth
century. From 1987, however, the initially generous staffing and financial resourcing of
the new language sections began to be reduced and antiquarian selection had to be
curtailed in favour of current.
LIBRARY STAFF
Samuel Harper {c. 1733-1803), who was in charge of the Department of Printed Books
for thirty-eight years, from 1765 until 1803, catalogued a large part of the foundation
collections. The entries in the 1787 catalogue, for which he was responsible, show that
he had a good grasp of German but tended to garble the Scandinavian entries. In the
same year that Harper became Under Librarian the Swede Daniel Solander (1733-82),
a pupil of Linne, was employed as an Assistant in the Natural History Department,
156
where he stayed for three years before leaving to join Cook's first expedition to the
Pacific. He later became Banks's librarian and was succeeded in that post by another
Swede, Jonas Dryander (1748-1810), who produced the catalogue of Banks's library that
was printed between 1798 and 1800.^^ Both presented their employer with a few
Linnaean items which later came to the Museum with the Banks collection.^'^
The transcription of Scandinavian names and vernacular titles in the 1813-19
catalogue was still unsatisfactory. In August 1834 an orientalist, Dr Schier, was
employed to catalogue German and Scandinavian acquisitions but he was discouraged by
the difficulties presented by Icelandic and Finnish among the northern languages and left
early in 1836.^^ In 1838, however, Scandinavian selection and cataloguing benefited
greatly from the appointment of the Rev. Richard Garnett (1789-1850) as the Assistant
Keeper in the Department of Printed Books and of Thomas Watts (1811-69) as a
supernumerary Assistant, both of whom had some linguistic competence in North
European languages.
While he was still moving the Old Library to the new Museum building Watts began
to select Scandinavian (as well as Slavonic and Hungarian) material for Panizzi and to
catalogue the Icelandic books in the Library, including those donated by Banks over sixty
years earlier, which had remained unrecorded until then.^' Watts certainly continued
with Scandinavian selection until 1861 and possibly until his death in 1869. Between 1870
and 1887 early Scandinavian material was selected for the Keepers who confirmed the
orders (Rye and Bullen) by the Assistant Keeper George W. Porter (d. 1887). His
successor until 1896, Russell Martineau (1831-98), also dealt with Finnish.
In Porter's time two Assistants who may have had a better knowledge than he did of
Scandinavian languages - Thomas Lidderdale (1856-84) and Henry Wilson (1867-82)
- were engaged only in cataloguing, while another member of staff with Scandinavian
interests, Edmund Gosse (1867-75), was employed merely as a transcriber.^^ From 1896
onward, however, basic selection of Scandinavian material was delegated by the more
liberal Keepers Garnett and Fortescue to Assistants. The first of these was Robert Bain
(1854-1909), followed until 1918 by Richard Streatfield (d. 1919).^^
By the 1930s Scandinavian retrospective (though very Uttle antiquarian) selection was
again carried out by Assistant Keepers. Those responsible for the Scandinavian
languages since then have included Noel Sharp (to 1952),^^^ Hugo Townsend (to 1954),
Angus Wilson (to 1955), Lorna Arnold (to 1967), assisted until 1966 by Alexander
('Sandy') Cain, who visited Iceland in 1959, Brian Holt (to 1975) and finally - as head
of the Scandinavian section from 1 9 7 6 - T o m Geddes, the first linguistically qualified
selector. At the end of 1989, having also become head of the German and Dutch sections,
he devolved Scandinavian antiquarian selection to the present writer. ^'^^
CATALOGUES
A beginning was made on the bibliographical recording of the Library's Scandinavian
holdings with the posthumous publication in 1885 of a list of the Icelandic books in the
157
Library compiled by Lidderdale,^*^^ but that work was never followed up within the
Library, his manuscript catalogue of Edda literature remaining unpubUshed.^**^ The only
other catalogue containing early Scandinavian material to be published by the British
Museum was the Catalogue of the works of Linnceus^ first issued in 1907, with a second,
much expanded edition in 1933.^^*
Offers by the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation in December 1950 to catalogue the
Swedish books in the Library with imprints from 1880 onward and by the Norwegian
Office of Cultural Relations in December 1956 to continue a catalogue of Norwegian
books in the Library from 1954 onward^^^ came to nothing. Both proposals were
presumably related to the joint slip catalogue of accessions maintained by the library of
the Scandinavian department at University College, London, which was discontinued in
the 1970s.
A catalogue of the Hannas collection was produced by the Scandinavian section for the
British Library in 1994,^*^^ and a short-title catalogue of its Scandinavian holdings to
1800, compiled between 1992 and 1999, is now also available as a database.^"^^
1 Anonymous letter dated London, 10 Dec. 1769,
Tidmngar om Idrda saker, pt. 2 (Stockholm,
1770), pp. 277-80. [BL, PP.4814*]. The correspondent, J. H. Liden (1741-93), referred to
the library departments {in English) as ' The
King^s Library'. He also noted with evident
pride some Swedish connections, such as the
benefactor Gustavus Brander (' born of a
Swedish father') and Dr Maty's assistant Dr
Solander, who was away on a voyage.
2 To put the size of the early collections into
perspective, they contain fewer items than the
number of modern Scandinavian publications
acquired by the Library since 1976 alone. It is
now virtually impossible to afford books from
the period that is least well represented in the
collections, the late fifteenth to early seventeenth
centuries. The last sixteenth-century item to be
bought, a copy of the 'Visby sjoratt' {Her
beghynt dat hogheste water recht, Copenhagen,
1505 [Cup.408.m. 10]), was acquired in March
1981.
3 Of the Sloane items 480 have been positively
identified and another 750 inferred, while 10
Royal Library items have been identified and a
dozen may come from the Edwards library.
4 C.45.a.io(i) and (2).
5 Music K.3.f.2 (the only complete copy known to
exist); C.i35.h.i; T090.h.5. - Samuel Harper's
MS. catalogue of the Old Royal Library {c. 1767)
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
158
[C.i20.h.6* (microfilm)] also lists a James I copy
of the Sententia ordmum regni Suecice (Stockholm, 1615), but the Library's present copy
[590.c.17(2)] is a Sloane item, acquired by him
from the Bibliotheca Colbertina. {The Old Royal
copy may have been disposed of as a duplicate.)
C.78.a.28; C.78.a.27(1); C.77.a.32; C.75.d.i.
Bibliotheca Rostgardiana (Copenhagen, 1726)
[620.a.9].
The only Scandinavian item actually listed in the
Edwards catalogue of 1755 [C.i20.h.2] is
Fabris's Scienza d^arme, but of the two BL
copies one is the Old Royal volume while the
other came with the King's Library [62.h.i6].
(In this case the Edwards copy was perhaps
disposed of in one of the duplicate sales.)
Stockholm, [1716]. [Maps 24.b.7-9.]
It was probably Sloane who acquired the first
copy of the 1706 catalogue of the collection of
oriental books donated to Uppsala University
Library by J. G. Sparfvenfelt [62O.g.i{5)].
442.f.io. (A second copy was later acquired with
the Banks library.)
T. C. Holm, Kort beskrifning om provincien
Nya Swerige uti America... (Stockholm, 1702]
[io6i.g.8]. A related Sloane item is Lutheri
catechismus, bfwersatt pa american-virgtniske sprdket (Stockholm, 1696) [ioi8.d.7].
Evangelia ab Ulfila... translata (Stockholm,
1671) [689.C.9J. Additional copies came with the
King's and Grenville Libraries.
14 Gautreks saga {Uppsala, 1664) [59O.c.i9{i, 2*)],
Hervarar saga (Uppsala, 1672) [590.1.7] and
Hjdlmters saga {Stockholm, 1720) [59o.e.4{i)].
15 Sloane may have obtained from George Hickes a
collection of 95 woodcuts of Swedish runestones,
with the MS. title 'Lapides aliqvot runici,
in Sveciae Gothisque regnis exstantes...'
[59o.g.i(i)]. These had been produced for the
Swedish national antiquary Johan Hadorph
(1630-93) and were sent to England by his
successor Johan Peringskiold (1654-1720)
around 1701. (See n. 58.)
16 8o4.c.4i(2). (Another copy [280.C.15] came with
the King's Library.) This abridgement of the
ancient Armenian history of Moses Khorenac'i
was produced in Persia by an Italian Dominican,
Johannes Bartholomaeus a Sancto Hyacintho; a
letter from him to Brenner printed in the work
was sent from Isfahan in 1699.
17 Philosophia botanica (Stockholm, 1751) [969.i.6];
Species plant arum (Stockholm, 1762-3) [969.i.12,
13]; Materies medica (Stockholm,
1763)
[546.^24]; Systema natures (Stockholm, 1766-8)
[2250.b.5]; and a work of which the loose flyleaf
with the above purchase date is inserted in a
Stockholm, 1771 edition of the Mantissa plantarum [969.i. 19]. {The latter may have been a
delayed purchase, the 1767 edition being unavailable in early 1770. The 1767 Mantissa in the
Library is a Banks copy.)
18 825.1.14.
19 II27.g.28.
20 628.k.10.
21 C.ii2.b.i6; 59o.h.6; 59o.g.5-6; 59O.k.i2.
22 820.h.17.
23 562*.h.3.
24 The Declaration of lames marques of Montrose...
{Gottenberge, 1649) [E.i249{3)]; three pamphlets relating to the political affairs of 1652
[E.1952(6-6**)]; and an account of the great fire
of London, Egentlig beskrifvelse om den forfardelige oc store ildebrand som hafver... edelagt...
iowt^fw...([Copenhagen.?], 1666) [E.1958(1)].
25 A manuscript list of the collection, entitled
'Catalogue of Books brought from Iceland and
given to the British Museum by Joseph Banks
Esq.' {compiled by Solander), is placed at
980.h.32. Someone (possibly Lidderdale) has
marked nine missing items {18, 30, 43-49 and
ioi), of which 43, 48 and 49 were later replaced.
The collection includes the first Icelandic
version of the Bible (Holar, 1584) [692.i.i].
edited by Gu6brandur Thorlaksson (15421627), as well as that of 1728, and the Graduals
of 1594, 1679, 1749 and 1765. It also contains the
first copy ofNjdPs saga (printed in Copenhagen,
1772 [868.i.6]) to arrive in the Library. (A
second came fifty years later with the King's
Library.)
26 U. von Troil {1746-1803), Brefrorande en resa til
/.s/flKi/...{Stockholm, 1777); translated as Letters
on Iceland {London, 1780). Von Troil later
emulated Banks by donating 122 Icelandic books
to the diocesan library at Linkoping in 1784.
27 T h e name of Bjarni Palsson {1719-79) appears in
the copy of Gu6brandur Thorlaksson's Icelandic
Gradual (Holar, 1594) [868.i.i] that Banks
brought back.
28 Thorvaldur Thoroddsen, Landfrcedissaga Islands
(Copenhagen, 1892-1904), vol. iii, pp. 131-3.
Halldor Hermannsson, Sir Joseph Banks and
Iceland (Ithaca, N . Y., 1928) (Islandica, vol.
xviii), reproduces twenty-four drawings made en
route by three accompanying artists, James and
John Frederick Miller and John Cleveley. These
are now in the Department of Manuscripts of the
British Library: Add. M S S . 15511 (nos. 13,
15, 17, 19, 22, 23, 27, 29, 37, 43, 48, 50, 52, 53,
55, 58) and 15512 {nos. i, 3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 17, 23).
29 E. Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British
Museum {London, 1870), p. 497. Eight of the
Icelandic books acquired in 1772 {all religious
items, printed at the Holar press between 1600
and 1683) do indeed contain the name of Halfdan
Einarsson {1732-85), the scholarly headmaster
of the school and supervisor of the press at
Holar.
30 P. R. Harris, A History of the British Museum
Library 1753-1973 (London, 1998), p. 19. According to A. Esdaile, The British
Museum
Library {London, 1946), p. 49, he also donated
some in 1783.
31 The majority are placed at 868.f-i, 870.3 and
87O.g. (The collection includes 21 items printed
in Copenhagen and one at Uppsala.)
32 The collection was left unstamped, was not listed
in G K I and was only placed (at i88i.b.46) in
the early twentieth century.
33 It was placed with Banks's Icelandic books at
868.h.22.
34 434-C.6.
35 3041.b.2. (Purchased 1877.)
36 O. Worm {1588-1654), Epistolce {Copenhagen,
1728) [io84.i.22]. {Copies of the fuller edition of
159
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
I75I came with the the Banks and King's
Libraries.)
Tyrwhitt also gave the Library several works by
the Swedish antiquarian E. J. Biorner (including
his saga collection Nordiska kdmpa dater (Stockholm, 1737) [590.k.2]) and by the Danish
historian P. H. Mallet.
From Cracherode came copies of the Abrege
desouvragesd^Em. Swedenborg {StockhoXva, 1788)
[687.f.2i], F. C. Norden's Voyage d'Egypte
et de Nubie {Copenhagen, 1755) [688.i.7, 8] and
J. G. C. Adler's work on Cufic coins (Copenhagen, 1792) [671.h.12].
De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III. & IV. poema
(Copenhagen, 1815).
P. Petersen, Catalogus bibliotheca GerneriancE
(Copenhagen, 1789) [82i.e.i5] (donated on 17
July 1789) and Catalogus bibliotheccE Thottiance
(Copenhagen, 1788-95) [82o.e.27-38].
A handwritten list of Thorkelin's collection
before the sale ('Catalogue of Northern books')
is kept in the Department of Manuscripts
[King's MSS. 388, 389].
Four from Hargrave, including a Latin version
of the Swedish legal code of 1734 {Codex legum
svecicarum, 1743), and at least 89 items from
Moll, nearly all medical or economic works. The
Moll collection, which exhausted the Edwards
fund, was largely dispersed within the Old
Library and confusingly stamped with the
Edwards stamp (no. i, red), though some items
contain Moll's bookplate.
Her collection included three unique items: T.
Bartholin's De eqvestris ordinis Danebrogici...
origine (Copenhagen, 1676) [608.1.12] and two
ephemeral pieces in Swedish printed in London
for the funeral of Daniel Solander in 1782
[i87i.e.i{i6), {17)].
The Banksian set of J. H. Liden's Catalogus disputationum... {Stockholm, 1778-80)
[438.1.2-3], with supplements {1820) acquired in
1844, is the Library's only copy of that indispensable bibliography of early Swedish dissertations. (It is still used as a shelf list for the
uncatalogued older dissertations in the Royal
Library in Stockholm.)
For a catalogue of the works of Linne in the
British Museum Library, see below n. 104. One
source of Scandinavian material for Banks was
the library of Dr Lars Montin {1723-1785), a
pupil of Linne, which was offered to Banks after
his death. A manuscript catalogue drawn up by
Jonas Dryander in 1777, but added to until 1783
{entitled 'Catalog ofver...Lars Montins Bok
Samling...'; 175 ff. [Add. MS. 8973]), came
with the collection to London. Further annotation, presumably also by Dryander, shows
that Banks kept most items himself (some new,
some 'to replace bad copies') but gave scores of
duplicates away, to the King's Library {34), the
Royal Society (8), a Mr Salisbury {17) and
twenty-three other persons, including C. P.
Thunberg. Montin's name occurs in two Banks
items, a medical address by A. Back (1765)
[965.k.3{5)] and Simon PauUi's Flora danica
{Copenhagen, 1648) [988.C.19], and one King's
item, an Uppsala 1747 dissertation on the Arabic
language by C. Aurivillius [ii7.b.5].
45 P. J. von Strahlenberg, Das nord- und ostliche
Theil von Europa und Asia... {Stockholm, 1730)
[982.^7]. {Another copy, but without the great
map, came with the King's Library.)
46 Caroli Linnai...Skdnska resa (Stockholm, 1751)
[982.b.5].
47 P. Kalm, En resa til Norra America (Stockholm,
1753-61) [979.f.28-3o].
48 F. Hasselquist, Iter palastinum... (Stockholm,
1757) [983-a.i6].
49 P. Lofling, Iter hispanicum...{StocVhoXm, 1758)
[C.i43.a.2].
50 C. Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien (Copenhagen, 1772) [981.e.10] and the French version
{1773) as well as the longer Reisebeschreibung
nach Arabien... {Copenhagen, 1774, etc.)
[98i.f.io-i2].
51 A. Sparrman, Resa till Goda Hopps-Udden...
(Stockholm, 1783, etc.) [978.d.8].
52 Including those of B. W. Luxdorph (1789) and
J. T. Holmskiold (1794). For Montin items, see
n. 44.
53 P. F. Suhm, Forseg til et Udkast af en Historie
over Folkenes Oprindelse i Almindelighed (Copenhagen, 1769) [212. c.i8{i)] and Om de nordiske
Folks eeldste Oprindelse {Copenhagen, 1770)
[2I2.C.l8{2)].
54 The oldest Icelandic book in the Library, an
edition of Jonsbok {Logbok islendinga, Holar,
1578-80) [230.k.23] came with the King's
Library. Of Icelandic sagas, apart from those in
Snorri's Heimskringla {1697; 1777 etc.) and the
fourteen in Biorner's collection Nordiska kdmpa
dater (1737), it contains editions of Asmundar
saga kappabana {1722), Bosa saga (1666), Egils
saga einhenda (1693), Egils saga Skallagrimssonar
160
(1782), Gautreks saga (1664), Gunnlaugs saga
ormstungu (1775), Hervarar saga (1672; 1785),
Hjdlmters saga (1720), IUuga saga Gridarfostra
(1695), Ketils saga hcengs {1697), Njdls saga
(1772), Olafs saga Tryggvasonar (1689, 1691),
Sturlaugs saga starfsama (1694), Thorsteins saga
Vikingssonar {1680), Thorsteins pdttr bcejarmagns
(1737) and Yngvars saga vidfdrla (1762).
55 i53.i.4-ii, wanting vol. ix. (There is a complete
set at L.20.m.i, with a no. 2 stamp, completed in
1844.) Another King's item, of which there is an
older copy in the Library (no. i stamp), is the
medieval Icelandic miscellany Rymbegla (Copenhagen, 1780) [216.a.14].
56 S. Lagerbring, Swea rikes historia (Stockholm,
1769-83) [152.C.5-8].
57 P. F. Suhm, Historien om Danmark, Norge og
Holsten (Copenhagen, 1776) [151.b.i].
58 J. Goransson,
Bautil
(Stockholm,
1750)
[143.g.19]. (The plates had been produced for
Goransson's predecessor Hadorph c. 1685-93.
See n. 15.)
59 Maps K.Top.iii{io7g-aa).
60 Maps K.Top.iii{io6).
61 P. Clausson, Topographia Norwegice ([Copenhagen], 1685) [i54.d.26]; P. Dass, Beskrivelse
over Nordlands Amt (Copenhagen, 1763)
[i54.a.26].
62 There is also a New Testament in the Greenland
Inuit language (Testamente nutak, Copenhagen,
1766) [2i7.e.23]. A Saami New Testament {Adde
testament, Stockholm, 1755) [3O4o.a.29]) was
not bought until 1957.
63 243.b.23.
64 G.7016-7021.
65 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 412. Nearly all are
stamped 12 Mar. 1892. A few years ago the pre1801 items (around 3,000) were catalogued and
placed at separate RB pressmarks. The remainder were entered as uncatalogued collections, shelved in chronological order, under
the headings for the universities of Uppsala
[ZA.9.b.8i8] and Lund [ZA.9.b.8i7], the Academia Aboensis {1801-28) [RB.23.b.62i] and
Helsinki University {from 1830) [ZA.9.b.8i6].
66 Dissertations under the praesidium of: S.
Klingenstierna {1739), P. Ekerman {1743, 1764),
N. Wallerius (1746), J. Ihre (1747, 1754), C.
Aurivillius (1770, 1783-86; the latter including
lists of opponents) and A. Svanborg (1796).
67 The collection has been shelved together at
Han. 1-720. About two thirds of the items are
161
pre-1851. {For a catalogue of the Hannas
collection, see n. 106.)
68 [L. Depkin], Wdrter-Buchlein...{Kig!i\ Georg.
Matth. Noller, 1705) [Han.55].
69 Most of the collection remained uncatalogued
for a long time. Thus the 1787 catalogue lists
only around 300 and even the 1813-19 catalogue
only around 700 Scandinavian items.
70 P. R. Harris, op. cit., pp. 74-5, 103.
71 C.24.b.i4.
72 C.iO5.k.ii.
73 Dissertatio de libris in typographia Wisingsburgensi
impressis (Uppsala, 1793) [619.^18(4)].
74 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 132.
75 BL Archives, Invoices for purchases [DH5],
1833-43. {Only two dozen Scandinavian items
are invoiced 1833-8.)
76 Esdaile, op. cit., pp. 101-2.
77 C.28.a.7. A single volume bought in May 1845
[817.c.23] contains 48 Abo dissertations supervised by Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1739-1804)
between 1766 and 1798.
78 During 1844-51 Asher & Co. supplied 649
Scandinavian items, during 1852-9 altogether
1,391, including periodical parts. {BL Archives,
Invoices, 1844-59.) For ^ brief description of
Asher see: R. Cowtan, Memories of the British
Museum {London, 1872), pp. 327-9.
79 D. Paisey, 'Adolphus Asher {1800-1853): Berlin
bookseller, Anglophile, and friend to Panizzi',
BLJ, xxiii {1997), pp. i3i-53> P-150 (n-7);
P. R. Harris, op. cit., pp. 215, 264.
80 E. Edwards, op. cit., pp. 563-4; R. Cowtan, op.
cit., p. 261; P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 300.
81 I. Sternberg, 'The Acquisitions Policies and
Funding of the Department of Printed Books,
1837-1959', in P. R. Harris (ed.). The Library of
the British Museum (London, 1991), pp. 103-43
at p. 105.
82 Dyalogus creaturarum {Stockholm,
1483)
[IA.56203] (the only copy outside Scandinavia of
five known ones) [stamped 25 Aug. 1891]; Alain
de la Roche, De tmmensa et ineffabili dignitate...
psalterii... semper Virginis Marie (Mariefred
[Gripsholm], 1498) [IA.56403] [stamped 2 Feb.
1866].
An ownership note on the flyleaf of the
Dyalogus has been erased but marginalia show
that it belonged to one Niels Christenssen in the
early sixteenth century (possibly the Danish
reformer of that name c. 1530) and a century
later to a learned Icelander, particularly inter-
ested in gemstones, who refers to Torfi Finnsson
(perhaps the headmaster of the Skalholt school
until 1620 and then rector of Hvamm, who died
in 1637) as his friend. Fragments of letters c.
1731/6 from Sigvaldi Halldorsson (1706-56) at
Stora Asi and his brother Bjarni (1703-73) used
as binder's waste suggest that it was rebound in
Iceland in the eighteenth century. It eventually
came into the possession of the Kirsop family of
Glasgow, from whom it was bought in 1891.
The De dignitate belonged in the early sixteenth century to the Brothers of the Common Life
at Brlihl near Hildesheim, to whom it may have
been sent by the Carthusians of Mariefred with
a request for prayers to be said for the regent
Sten Sture (d. 1503) and his wife Ingeborg
Akesdotter Tott, who had arranged for the
printing. In the early eighteenth century the
book was in Dutch, German or Swedish hands
before being acquired by the Belgian count
Charles de Cobanel (1712-70), who had it
rebound.
92
93
94
95
96
97
{Trondheim, 1761-5), Borger-Vennen (Copenhagen, 1788-94) and Skandinavisk Museum
(Copenhagen, 1798-1803).
BL Archives. King's Library exhibition, November 1953 [List]; P. R; Harris, op. cit., p. 573.
P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 647.
A. Esdaile, op. cit., p. 187.
Solander gave Banks Linne's Planta surinamenses {\Jppsz\^, 1775) [8.138(16)]. Dryander
gave him Linne's Delici(£ natura (Stockholm,
1773) [965.k. 15(13)] and Anders Sparrman's
memorial address for C. G. Ekeberg (Stockholm, 1791) [965-i-8(8)].
P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 85. (He was also
disappointed at not being allowed to catalogue
oriental manuscripts.) He may have been the
German Arabist Carl Schier (d. 1869) who
published the Fables de Loqman {Dresden,
1831-4) and other works. {See article in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.)
E. Edwards, op. cit., p. 562; R. Cowtan, op. cit.,
pp. 119-20.
83 The oldest Danish item in the Library is a copy
of the laws of Jutland bought in 1876: [Jyske
Lov] Quedam breues exposititiones...circa leges
Iucte...(R.\he, 1504) [C.ii2.b.i7].
84 C.136.C.I.
85 The collection was hsted in Catalogue no. 7
(1889) of Carlbergs Antiqvariat in Stockholm.
(The purchased items were placed separately,
mainly in tbe 8000s and gooos.)
86 L.R.27i.e.i. (Perhaps a British 'memento' from
the Crimean War siege of Bomarsund.)
87 P. R. Harris, A History of the British Museum
Library, p. 300.
88 Foreign antiquarian purchases were suspended
in 1931 and again almost entirely from 1938 to
1946.
89 Shelfmarks: 141.3.34; 143.^20; i44.b.ii;
275.k. 17 (only mutilated); 276.a.i7; 276.f.8;
98 According to Esdaile {op. cit., p. 365): 'Gosse
tells how he brought up a number of corrections
of errors he had found in Scandinavian titles,
only to receive the answer. Can't you mind your
own business?'
Esdaile regretted the loss to the Museum of
Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), who 'carried elsewhere those studies in the Scandinavian literatures... which, chastened by the atmosphere of
the place, would have been so useful there' {p.
175). Cowtan (op. cit., pp. 311-15) described an^
earlier transcriber, the Scot John Kesson {employed 1838-57), who learned a number of
languages, including 'Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and other tongues', as a pastime.
99 In December 1895 the Trustees supported the
Director's proposal 'that Assistants with special
knowledge [of foreign languages] should be
7
employed in selection work' (P. R. Harris, op.
90 Kongel. Forardninger og aabne Breve... {Copencit., p. 402). Half a century later Esdaile dehagen, [1750-1839]) [5705 b.5-ii]- The figures
scribed the system that operated until 1976: 'the
for pre-1801 books lost in 1941 (with the
work of selection is divided among the Stafi... by
numbers of those replaced by 1970 shown in
languages. Each man so detailed is expected to
brackets) are: Danish 92 [11], Swedish 45 [22];
become expert in the literature chosen...' (loc.
the figures for 1801-1850 are: Danish 103 [13],
cit.).
Norwegian 26 [2], Swedish 36 [2]. These had
100 Between 1936 and 1942 (when he was seconded
mostly been bought since 1857. {British Muto the War Office) the Assistant Cataloguer
seum, List of Missing Scandinavian Books [1971];
David Barrett selected Finnish (P. R. Harris,
typescript in Early Printed Collections office.)
op. cit., p. 546).
91 They include sets of Tronhiemske Samlinger
162
101 Since November 1998 the responsible curator
is Barbara Hawes.
102 T. W. Lidderdale, Catalogue of the Books Printed in Iceland from A.D. 1578 to 1880 in the
Library of the British Museum (London, 1885)
[352 items in chronological order]. (A. Esdaile,
op. cit., pp. 205, 207; P. R. Harris, op. cit., p.
327-)
103 T. W. Lidderdale, 'Catalogue of Editions of
the Edda...' (1884) in MS. [i878.f.24]. (G. K.
Fortescue argued in vain during 1897—9 ^^^
special catalogues of minor languages, including
Icelandic. P. R. Harris, op. cit, p. 392.)
104 A Catalogue of the Works of Linnaus... in the
Libraries of the British Aluseum, Bloomsbury,
and the British Museum, Natural History...
[With a preface by E. R. Lankester.] (London,
163
1907; 27p.); 2nd edn, by B. H. Soulsby (London, 1933; xi, 246, 68 p.).
105 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 579.
106 The Hannas Collection: catalogue of a collection
of Scandinavian dictionaries, grammars and
linguistic literature presented to the British
Library by Torgrim Hannas {London, 1994).
107 I am much indebted for information to Philip
Harris and to Lorna Arnold, David Paisey,
Tom Geddes and John Hopson. {I hope that
the post-1800 material acquired by the library
up to 1975 will eventually be listed and that
pre-1801 items that have been missed, most
likely including some in the Oriental and
Manuscripts collections, will one day be added
to the short-title catalogue.)