Kompilatoren Holberg. Om patriotisk og protestantisk kompilasjon i Ludvig Holbergs Dannemarks Riges Historie

Resumé

Holberg the compiler: Patriotic and Protestant compilation in Ludvig Holberg’s History of the Kingdom of Denmark (1732)
The compilatory elements in Ludvig Holberg’s histories are discussed in light of the changing status of compilation in early modern Europe. From being a widespread and accepted writing practice in the medieval and renaissance periods, compilation came under increasing criticism during the course of the eighteenth century. A stronger demand for authorial originality, genius and, in the case of historians, direct access to primary sources rendered the compiler a problematic figure in the Republic of Letters. In the same period, however, self-conscious and assertive compilers found new ways to defend compilation, presenting it as a useful way to improve and popularize older and more inaccessible texts with a broader audience. A good compiler who, with style and acuity, improves upon the works of others could thus be construed as a useful and praiseworthy figure.
While Holberg’s histories were originally published in a period when compilation was a contested but still prevalent practice, Holberg scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were largely critical of the compilatory aspect of his histories. In recent years, however, a new generation of scholars have begun to take an interest in the creative aspects of compilation, studying the ways in which Holberg reworked and rearranged his materials and taking into account the context of the compiled work and the specific audience to be cultivated.
Holberg’s methods of compiling are here exemplified with a chapter from The History of the Kingdom of Denmark (1732), which was to a large extent based on works by historians Arild Huitfeldt and Samuel Pufendorf. Although the chapter is thus composed of fragments of existing texts, Holberg brought his own confessional and political sympathies to bear on his material, through selective edits and additions. Holberg’s compiling involved stylistic refashioning as well as the remolding of heterogeneous text fragments into coherent narratives. Holberg abbreviated Huitfeldt’s voluminous chronicle and translated Pufendorf’s text into Danish, but the reshaping of sources went further: references to the Danish king’s Catholic religiosity were consistently downplayed, while his Swedish antagonists were portrayed in theatrical terms as masked schemers who enacted tragedies in the Swedish realm.