THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRE-1801 SCANDINAVIAN PRINTED COLLECTIONS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY
PETER C. HOGG
EARLY 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.
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 af Sflmagtcn fovjlorrcBc ©vcDciv % ^. ©trucnfec 03 €. fom grebe eftcr kronen Un 17" Sanuani 1772. ©attitale imcUcm 95cantit og ©ttuenfee.
^/ct ntaa og Hit \iaxi noF, C^rib £raii 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 KING'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 phrase- book 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 m ^Wtt imb O Bogu y O Duchach; Oaec \ Bog Syn DuchSwi^ty Svj^ Troyca Aniol Diabei Strach nbcny. on t»em|>imel unt feec^elt O Swfecie y Niebie immel Iebo b NSwiit (Stietn« 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 1976-Tom 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, [C.i20.h.6* (microfilm)] also lists a James I copy Tidmngar om Idrda saker, pt. 2 (Stockholm, of the Sententia ordmum regni Suecice (Stock- 1770), pp. 277-80. [BL, PP.4814*]. The cor- holm, 1615), but the Library's present copy respondent, J. H. Liden (1741-93), referred to [590.c.17(2)] is a Sloane item, acquired by him the library departments {in English) as ' The from the Bibliotheca Colbertina. {The Old Royal King^s Library'. He also noted with evident copy may have been disposed of as a duplicate.) pride some Swedish connections, such as the 6 C.78.a.28; C.78.a.27(1); C.77.a.32; C.75.d.i. benefactor Gustavus Brander (' born of a 7 Bibliotheca Rostgardiana (Copenhagen, 1726) Swedish father') and Dr Maty's assistant Dr [620.a.9]. Solander, who was away on a voyage. 8 The only Scandinavian item actually listed in the 2 To put the size of the early collections into Edwards catalogue of 1755 [C.i20.h.2] is perspective, they contain fewer items than the Fabris's Scienza d^arme, but of the two BL number of modern Scandinavian publications copies one is the Old Royal volume while the acquired by the Library since 1976 alone. It is other came with the King's Library [62.h.i6]. (In this case the Edwards copy was perhaps now virtually impossible to afford books from disposed of in one of the duplicate sales.) the period that is least well represented in the 9 Stockholm, [1716]. [Maps 24.b.7-9.] collections, the late fifteenth to early seventeenth 10 It was probably Sloane who acquired the first centuries. The last sixteenth-century item to be copy of the 1706 catalogue of the collection of bought, a copy of the 'Visby sjoratt' {Her oriental books donated to Uppsala University beghynt dat hogheste water recht, Copenhagen, Library by J. G. Sparfvenfelt [62O.g.i{5)]. 1505 [Cup.408.m. 10]), was acquired in March 11 442.f.io. (A second copy was later acquired with 1981. the Banks library.) 3 Of the Sloane items 480 have been positively 12 T. C. Holm, Kort beskrifning om provincien identified and another 750 inferred, while 10 Nya Swerige uti America... (Stockholm, 1702] Royal Library items have been identified and a [io6i.g.8]. A related Sloane item is Lutheri dozen may come from the Edwards library. catechismus, bfwersatt pa american-virgtniske sprd- 4 C.45.a.io(i) and (2). ket (Stockholm, 1696) [ioi8.d.7]. 5 Music K.3.f.2 (the only complete copy known to 13 Evangelia ab Ulfila... translata (Stockholm, exist); C.i35.h.i; T090.h.5. - Samuel Harper's 1671) [689.C.9J. Additional copies came with the MS. catalogue of the Old Royal Library {c. 1767) King's and Grenville Libraries. 158 14 Gautreks saga {Uppsala, 1664) [59O.c.i9{i, 2*)], edited by Gu6brandur Thorlaksson (1542- Hervarar saga (Uppsala, 1672) [590.1.7] and 1627), as well as that of 1728, and the Graduals Hjdlmters saga {Stockholm, 1720) [59o.e.4{i)]. of 1594, 1679, 1749 and 1765. It also contains the 15 Sloane may have obtained from George Hickes a first copy ofNjdPs saga (printed in Copenhagen, collection of 95 woodcuts of Swedish runestones, 1772 [868.i.6]) to arrive in the Library. (A with the MS. title 'Lapides aliqvot runici, second came fifty years later with the King's in Sveciae Gothisque regnis exstantes...' Library.) [59o.g.i(i)]. These had been produced for the 26 U. von Troil {1746-1803), Brefrorande en resa til Swedish national antiquary Johan Hadorph /.s/flKi/...{Stockholm, 1777); translated as Letters (1630-93) and were sent to England by his on Iceland {London, 1780). Von Troil later successor Johan Peringskiold (1654-1720) emulated Banks by donating 122 Icelandic books around 1701. (See n. 58.) to the diocesan library at Linkoping in 1784. 16 8o4.c.4i(2). (Another copy [280.C.15] came with 27 The name of Bjarni Palsson {1719-79) appears in the King's Library.) This abridgement of the the copy of Gu6brandur Thorlaksson's Icelandic ancient Armenian history of Moses Khorenac'i Gradual (Holar, 1594) [868.i.i] that Banks was produced in Persia by an Italian Dominican, brought back. Johannes Bartholomaeus a Sancto Hyacintho; a 28 Thorvaldur Thoroddsen, Landfrcedissaga Islands letter from him to Brenner printed in the work (Copenhagen, 1892-1904), vol. iii, pp. 131-3. was sent from Isfahan in 1699. Halldor Hermannsson, Sir Joseph Banks and 17 Philosophia botanica (Stockholm, 1751) [969.i.6]; Iceland (Ithaca, N. Y., 1928) (Islandica, vol. Species plant arum (Stockholm, 1762-3) [969.i.12, xviii), reproduces twenty-four drawings made en 13]; Materies medica (Stockholm, 1763) route by three accompanying artists, James and [546.^24]; Systema natures (Stockholm, 1766-8) John Frederick Miller and John Cleveley. These [2250.b.5]; and a work of which the loose flyleaf are now in the Department of Manuscripts of the with the above purchase date is inserted in a British Library: Add. MSS. 15511 (nos. 13, Stockholm, 1771 edition of the Mantissa planta- 15, 17, 19, 22, 23, 27, 29, 37, 43, 48, 50, 52, 53, rum [969.i. 19]. {The latter may have been a 55, 58) and 15512 {nos. i, 3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 17, 23). delayed purchase, the 1767 edition being unavail- 29 E. Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British able in early 1770. The 1767 Mantissa in the Museum {London, 1870), p. 497. Eight of the Library is a Banks copy.) Icelandic books acquired in 1772 {all religious 18 825.1.14. items, printed at the Holar press between 1600 19 II27.g.28. and 1683) do indeed contain the name of Halfdan 20 628.k.10. Einarsson {1732-85), the scholarly headmaster 21 C.ii2.b.i6; 59o.h.6; 59o.g.5-6; 59O.k.i2. of the school and supervisor of the press at 22 820.h.17. Holar. 23 562*.h.3. 30 P. R. Harris, A History of the British Museum 24 The Declaration of lames marques of Montrose... Library 1753-1973 (London, 1998), p. 19. Ac- {Gottenberge, 1649) [E.i249{3)]; three pam- cording to A. Esdaile, The British Museum phlets relating to the political affairs of 1652 Library {London, 1946), p. 49, he also donated [E.1952(6-6**)]; and an account of the great fire some in 1783. of London, Egentlig beskrifvelse om den for- 31 The majority are placed at 868.f-i, 870.3 and fardelige oc store ildebrand som hafver... edelagt... 87O.g. (The collection includes 21 items printed iowt^fw...([Copenhagen.?], 1666) [E.1958(1)]. in Copenhagen and one at Uppsala.) 25 A manuscript list of the collection, entitled 32 The collection was left unstamped, was not listed 'Catalogue of Books brought from Iceland and in GK I and was only placed (at i88i.b.46) in given to the British Museum by Joseph Banks the early twentieth century. Esq.' {compiled by Solander), is placed at 33 It was placed with Banks's Icelandic books at 980.h.32. Someone (possibly Lidderdale) has 868.h.22. marked nine missing items {18, 30, 43-49 and 34 434-C.6. ioi), of which 43, 48 and 49 were later replaced. 35 3041.b.2. (Purchased 1877.) The collection includes the first Icelandic 36 O. Worm {1588-1654), Epistolce {Copenhagen, version of the Bible (Holar, 1584) [692.i.i]. 1728) [io84.i.22]. {Copies of the fuller edition of 159 I75I came with the the Banks and King's Jonas Dryander in 1777, but added to until 1783 Libraries.) {entitled 'Catalog ofver...Lars Montins Bok 37 Tyrwhitt also gave the Library several works by Samling...'; 175 ff. [Add. MS. 8973]), came the Swedish antiquarian E. J. Biorner (including with the collection to London. Further an- his saga collection Nordiska kdmpa dater (Stock- notation, presumably also by Dryander, shows holm, 1737) [590.k.2]) and by the Danish that Banks kept most items himself (some new, historian P. H. Mallet. some 'to replace bad copies') but gave scores of From Cracherode came copies of the Abrege duplicates away, to the King's Library {34), the desouvragesd^Em. Swedenborg {StockhoXva, 1788) Royal Society (8), a Mr Salisbury {17) and [687.f.2i], F. C. Norden's Voyage d'Egypte twenty-three other persons, including C. P. et de Nubie {Copenhagen, 1755) [688.i.7, 8] and Thunberg. Montin's name occurs in two Banks J. G. C. Adler's work on Cufic coins (Copen- items, a medical address by A. Back (1765) hagen, 1792) [671.h.12]. [965.k.3{5)] and Simon PauUi's Flora danica 38 De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III. & IV. poema {Copenhagen, 1648) [988.C.19], and one King's (Copenhagen, 1815). item, an Uppsala 1747 dissertation on the Arabic 39 P. Petersen, Catalogus bibliotheca GerneriancE language by C. Aurivillius [ii7.b.5]. (Copenhagen, 1789) [82i.e.i5] (donated on 17 45 P. J. von Strahlenberg, Das nord- und ostliche July 1789) and Catalogus bibliotheccE Thottiance Theil von Europa und Asia... {Stockholm, 1730) (Copenhagen, 1788-95) [82o.e.27-38]. [982.^7]. {Another copy, but without the great 40 A handwritten list of Thorkelin's collection map, came with the King's Library.) before the sale ('Catalogue of Northern books') 46 Caroli Linnai...Skdnska resa (Stockholm, 1751) is kept in the Department of Manuscripts [982.b.5]. [King's MSS. 388, 389]. 47 P. Kalm, En resa til Norra America (Stockholm, 41 Four from Hargrave, including a Latin version 1753-61) [979.f.28-3o]. of the Swedish legal code of 1734 {Codex legum 48 F. Hasselquist, Iter palastinum... (Stockholm, svecicarum, 1743), and at least 89 items from 1757) [983-a.i6]. Moll, nearly all medical or economic works. The 49 P. Lofling, Iter hispanicum...{StocVhoXm, 1758) Moll collection, which exhausted the Edwards [C.i43.a.2]. fund, was largely dispersed within the Old 50 C. Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien (Copen- Library and confusingly stamped with the hagen, 1772) [981.e.10] and the French version Edwards stamp (no. i, red), though some items {1773) as well as the longer Reisebeschreibung contain Moll's bookplate. nach Arabien... {Copenhagen, 1774, etc.) 42 Her collection included three unique items: T. [98i.f.io-i2]. Bartholin's De eqvestris ordinis Danebrogici... 51 A. Sparrman, Resa till Goda Hopps-Udden... origine (Copenhagen, 1676) [608.1.12] and two (Stockholm, 1783, etc.) [978.d.8]. ephemeral pieces in Swedish printed in London 52 Including those of B. W. Luxdorph (1789) and for the funeral of Daniel Solander in 1782 J. T. Holmskiold (1794). For Montin items, see [i87i.e.i{i6), {17)]. n. 44. 43 The Banksian set of J. H. Liden's Cata- 53 P. F. Suhm, Forseg til et Udkast af en Historie logus disputationum... {Stockholm, 1778-80) over Folkenes Oprindelse i Almindelighed (Copen- [438.1.2-3], with supplements {1820) acquired in hagen, 1769) [212. c.i8{i)] and Om de nordiske 1844, is the Library's only copy of that indis- Folks eeldste Oprindelse {Copenhagen, 1770) pensable bibliography of early Swedish disser- [2I2.C.l8{2)]. tations. (It is still used as a shelf list for the 54 The oldest Icelandic book in the Library, an uncatalogued older dissertations in the Royal edition of Jonsbok {Logbok islendinga, Holar, Library in Stockholm.) 1578-80) [230.k.23] came with the King's 44 For a catalogue of the works of Linne in the Library. Of Icelandic sagas, apart from those in British Museum Library, see below n. 104. One Snorri's Heimskringla {1697; 1777 etc.) and the source of Scandinavian material for Banks was fourteen in Biorner's collection Nordiska kdmpa the library of Dr Lars Montin {1723-1785), a dater (1737), it contains editions of Asmundar pupil of Linne, which was offered to Banks after saga kappabana {1722), Bosa saga (1666), Egils his death. A manuscript catalogue drawn up by saga einhenda (1693), Egils saga Skallagrimssonar 160 (1782), Gautreks saga (1664), Gunnlaugs saga pre-1851. {For a catalogue of the Hannas ormstungu (1775), Hervarar saga (1672; 1785), collection, see n. 106.) Hjdlmters saga (1720), IUuga saga Gridarfostra 68 [L. Depkin], Wdrter-Buchlein...{Kig!i\ Georg. (1695), Ketils saga hcengs {1697), Njdls saga Matth. Noller, 1705) [Han.55]. (1772), Olafs saga Tryggvasonar (1689, 1691), 69 Most of the collection remained uncatalogued Sturlaugs saga starfsama (1694), Thorsteins saga for a long time. Thus the 1787 catalogue lists Vikingssonar {1680), Thorsteins pdttr bcejarmagns only around 300 and even the 1813-19 catalogue (1737) and Yngvars saga vidfdrla (1762). only around 700 Scandinavian items. 55 i53.i.4-ii, wanting vol. ix. (There is a complete 70 P. R. Harris, op. cit., pp. 74-5, 103. set at L.20.m.i, with a no. 2 stamp, completed in 71 C.24.b.i4. 1844.) Another King's item, of which there is an 72 C.iO5.k.ii. older copy in the Library (no. i stamp), is the 73 Dissertatio de libris in typographia Wisingsburgensi medieval Icelandic miscellany Rymbegla (Copen- impressis (Uppsala, 1793) [619.^18(4)]. hagen, 1780) [216.a.14]. 74 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 132. 56 S. Lagerbring, Swea rikes historia (Stockholm, 75 BL Archives, Invoices for purchases [DH5], 1769-83) [152.C.5-8]. 1833-43. {Only two dozen Scandinavian items 57 P. F. Suhm, Historien om Danmark, Norge og are invoiced 1833-8.) Holsten (Copenhagen, 1776) [151.b.i]. 76 Esdaile, op. cit., pp. 101-2. 58 J. Goransson, Bautil (Stockholm, 1750) 77 C.28.a.7. A single volume bought in May 1845 [143.g.19]. (The plates had been produced for [817.c.23] contains 48 Abo dissertations super- Goransson's predecessor Hadorph c. 1685-93. vised by Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1739-1804) See n. 15.) between 1766 and 1798. 59 Maps K.Top.iii{io7g-aa). 78 During 1844-51 Asher & Co. supplied 649 60 Maps K.Top.iii{io6). Scandinavian items, during 1852-9 altogether 61 P. Clausson, Topographia Norwegice ([Copen- 1,391, including periodical parts. {BL Archives, hagen], 1685) [i54.d.26]; P. Dass, Beskrivelse Invoices, 1844-59.) For ^ brief description of over Nordlands Amt (Copenhagen, 1763) Asher see: R. Cowtan, Memories of the British [i54.a.26]. Museum {London, 1872), pp. 327-9. 62 There is also a New Testament in the Greenland 79 D. Paisey, 'Adolphus Asher {1800-1853): Berlin Inuit language (Testamente nutak, Copenhagen, bookseller, Anglophile, and friend to Panizzi', 1766) [2i7.e.23]. A Saami New Testament {Adde BLJ, xxiii {1997), pp. i3i-53> P-150 (n-7); testament, Stockholm, 1755) [3O4o.a.29]) was P. R. Harris, op. cit., pp. 215, 264. not bought until 1957. 80 E. Edwards, op. cit., pp. 563-4; R. Cowtan, op. 63 243.b.23. cit., p. 261; P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 300. 64 G.7016-7021. 81 I. Sternberg, 'The Acquisitions Policies and 65 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 412. Nearly all are Funding of the Department of Printed Books, stamped 12 Mar. 1892. A few years ago the pre- 1837-1959', in P. R. Harris (ed.). The Library of 1801 items (around 3,000) were catalogued and the British Museum (London, 1991), pp. 103-43 placed at separate RB pressmarks. The re- at p. 105. mainder were entered as uncatalogued col- 82 Dyalogus creaturarum {Stockholm, 1483) lections, shelved in chronological order, under [IA.56203] (the only copy outside Scandinavia of the headings for the universities of Uppsala five known ones) [stamped 25 Aug. 1891]; Alain [ZA.9.b.8i8] and Lund [ZA.9.b.8i7], the Aca- de la Roche, De tmmensa et ineffabili dignitate... demia Aboensis {1801-28) [RB.23.b.62i] and psalterii... semper Virginis Marie (Mariefred Helsinki University {from 1830) [ZA.9.b.8i6]. [Gripsholm], 1498) [IA.56403] [stamped 2 Feb. 66 Dissertations under the praesidium of: S. 1866]. Klingenstierna {1739), P. Ekerman {1743, 1764), An ownership note on the flyleaf of the N. Wallerius (1746), J. Ihre (1747, 1754), C. Dyalogus has been erased but marginalia show Aurivillius (1770, 1783-86; the latter including that it belonged to one Niels Christenssen in the lists of opponents) and A. Svanborg (1796). early sixteenth century (possibly the Danish 67 The collection has been shelved together at reformer of that name c. 1530) and a century Han. 1-720. About two thirds of the items are later to a learned Icelander, particularly inter- 161 ested in gemstones, who refers to Torfi Finnsson {Trondheim, 1761-5), Borger-Vennen (Copen- (perhaps the headmaster of the Skalholt school hagen, 1788-94) and Skandinavisk Museum until 1620 and then rector of Hvamm, who died (Copenhagen, 1798-1803). in 1637) as his friend. Fragments of letters c. 92 BL Archives. King's Library exhibition, Novem- 1731/6 from Sigvaldi Halldorsson (1706-56) at ber 1953 [List]; P. R; Harris, op. cit., p. 573. Stora Asi and his brother Bjarni (1703-73) used 93 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 647. as binder's waste suggest that it was rebound in 94 A. Esdaile, op. cit., p. 187. Iceland in the eighteenth century. It eventually 95 Solander gave Banks Linne's Planta suri- came into the possession of the Kirsop family of namenses {\Jppsz\^, 1775) [8.138(16)]. Dryander Glasgow, from whom it was bought in 1891. gave him Linne's Delici(£ natura (Stockholm, The De dignitate belonged in the early sixteen- 1773) [965.k. 15(13)] and Anders Sparrman's th century to the Brothers of the Common Life memorial address for C. G. Ekeberg (Stock- at Brlihl near Hildesheim, to whom it may have holm, 1791) [965-i-8(8)]. been sent by the Carthusians of Mariefred with 96 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 85. (He was also a request for prayers to be said for the regent disappointed at not being allowed to catalogue Sten Sture (d. 1503) and his wife Ingeborg oriental manuscripts.) He may have been the Akesdotter Tott, who had arranged for the German Arabist Carl Schier (d. 1869) who printing. In the early eighteenth century the published the Fables de Loqman {Dresden, book was in Dutch, German or Swedish hands 1831-4) and other works. {See article in Allge- before being acquired by the Belgian count meine deutsche Biographie.) Charles de Cobanel (1712-70), who had it rebound. 97 E. Edwards, op. cit., p. 562; R. Cowtan, op. cit., pp. 119-20. 83 The oldest Danish item in the Library is a copy 98 According to Esdaile {op. cit., p. 365): 'Gosse of the laws of Jutland bought in 1876: [Jyske tells how he brought up a number of corrections Lov] Quedam breues exposititiones...circa leges of errors he had found in Scandinavian titles, Iucte...(R.\he, 1504) [C.ii2.b.i7]. only to receive the answer. Can't you mind your 84 C.136.C.I. own business?' 85 The collection was hsted in Catalogue no. 7 Esdaile regretted the loss to the Museum of (1889) of Carlbergs Antiqvariat in Stockholm. Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), who 'carried else- (The purchased items were placed separately, where those studies in the Scandinavian litera- mainly in tbe 8000s and gooos.) tures... which, chastened by the atmosphere of 86 L.R.27i.e.i. (Perhaps a British 'memento' from the place, would have been so useful there' {p. the Crimean War siege of Bomarsund.) 175). Cowtan (op. cit., pp. 311-15) described an^ 87 P. R. Harris, A History of the British Museum earlier transcriber, the Scot John Kesson {em- Library, p. 300. ployed 1838-57), who learned a number of 88 Foreign antiquarian purchases were suspended languages, including 'Swedish, Danish, Icelan- in 1931 and again almost entirely from 1938 to dic and other tongues', as a pastime. 1946. 89 Shelfmarks: 141.3.34; 143.^20; i44.b.ii; 99 In December 1895 the Trustees supported the 275.k. 17 (only mutilated); 276.a.i7; 276.f.8; 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... {Copen- cit., p. 402). Half a century later Esdaile de- hagen, [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 mostly been bought since 1857. {British Mu- 100 Between 1936 and 1942 (when he was seconded seum, List of Missing Scandinavian Books [1971]; to the War Office) the Assistant Cataloguer typescript in Early Printed Collections office.) David Barrett selected Finnish (P. R. Harris, 91 They include sets of Tronhiemske Samlinger op. cit., p. 546). 162 101 Since November 1998 the responsible curator 1907; 27p.); 2nd edn, by B. H. Soulsby (Lon- is Barbara Hawes. don, 1933; xi, 246, 68 p.). 102 T. W. Lidderdale, Catalogue of the Books Prin- 105 P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. 579. ted in Iceland from A.D. 1578 to 1880 in the 106 The Hannas Collection: catalogue of a collection Library of the British Museum (London, 1885) of Scandinavian dictionaries, grammars and [352 items in chronological order]. (A. Esdaile, linguistic literature presented to the British op. cit., pp. 205, 207; P. R. Harris, op. cit., p. Library by Torgrim Hannas {London, 1994). 327-) 107 I am much indebted for information to Philip 103 T. W. Lidderdale, 'Catalogue of Editions of Harris and to Lorna Arnold, David Paisey, the Edda...' (1884) in MS. [i878.f.24]. (G. K. Tom Geddes and John Hopson. {I hope that Fortescue argued in vain during 1897—9 ^^^ the post-1800 material acquired by the library special catalogues of minor languages, including up to 1975 will eventually be listed and that Icelandic. P. R. Harris, op. cit, p. 392.) pre-1801 items that have been missed, most 104 A Catalogue of the Works of Linnaus... in the likely including some in the Oriental and Libraries of the British Aluseum, Bloomsbury, Manuscripts collections, will one day be added and the British Museum, Natural History... to the short-title catalogue.) [With a preface by E. R. Lankester.] (London, 163