SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Danorum Regum heroumque Historie. (Issued by Christiern Pedersen).

      - Paris, Iodocus (Josse) Badius Ascensius, 1514 (on colophon). Small folio. Bound in a very nice Danish Cambridge style-binding (Danish "mirror-binding") from ab. 1720-30 w. five raised bands on richly gilt back. Some scratches and overall wear, but well-preserved. Title-page printed in red w. large woodcut ornamental border and large woodcut depicting a Danish king in front of his army (signed C.P.). Numerous beautiful large and small woodcut initials throughout. Title-page repaired at margin w. very minor loss, none to woodcuts or text on verso; occasional later colouring in red to parts of the woodcuts of the title-page border. Minor browning an waterstaining (mostly marginal) throughout. One leaf (xiii) w. a tear, no loss. Cont. ownership-inscriptions to title-page and colophon. All in all a very nice and handsome copy. 107 ff. + final blank (being a1-(8) - z1-(8) + A1-(8) - B(1-(7) + 1 blank; quire aa bound first, aa1 being the title-page). The seminal first edition of Saxo's "History of Denmark", the edition that preserved the first full history of Denmark for posterity and to this day the most important of all Danish historical publications. The work furthermore contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet. No complete manuscript of the work has survived, merely a few loose leaves have been preserved, and thus "Pedersen's edition is indeed our only source to Saxo's history" (Thesaurus, 190). "[I]t is this edition that saved Saxo's work, because as mentioned earlier, during the course of time, all manuscripts have disappeared". ([own translation] Carl S. Petersen). The present copy is the A issue without the words "Venundantur in ædibus Ascensius" underneath the woodcut of the Danish King on the title-page; according to Thesaurus, "[p]resumably the B issue was for sale in Paris and the A issue for export". Saxo Grammaticus (ab. 1150-1220) was probably a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the great Danish churchman, statesman and warrior. Saxo is remembered today as the author of the first full history of Denmark, in which he modelled himself on the classical authors (e.g. Virgil, Plato, Cicero) in order to glorify his fatherland. The work dates from the end of the 12th century and was edited by Christiern Pedersen, a Canon of Lund, and printed by Jodocus Badius Ascendius in Paris in 1514 (the present copy) with 16th century re-issues following in 1534 (Basel) and 1576 (Frankfurt). Only with the first printing of this seminal work did the work become known throughout academic circles. The work soon received international fame and is to this day renowned as not only being immensely important historically, but also being extremely well written (Saxo is praised by Erasmus, for instance, for possessing great power of eloquence). The work consists of sixteen books that cover the time from the founders of the Danish people (Dan I of Denmark) till Saxo's own time, ending around 1185 (with the submission of Pomerania), when the last part is supposedly written. The work thus covers the entire history of Denmark until Saxo's own time, seen under a somewhat glorified perspective, from heathen times with tales of Odin and the gods of Valhalla to the times of Absalon, who probably directly influenced the sections on the history of his own time, working closely with Saxo himself. Apart from that, the work contains the first known written narration of the legend of Hamlet (Amleth, the son who took revenge for his murdered father). It is most likely this narrative of Saxo's, which he based on an oral tale, that forms the basis for Shakespeare's "Hamlet", which takes place in Helsinore in Denmark. There is fairly certain evidence that Shakespeare knew Saxo's work on the History of Denmark and thus the legend of Amleth.Laur.Nielsen 240. - Thesaurus 190. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]