Peder Hansen Resen
Peder Hansen Resen , also Petrus Resenius , (born June 17, 1625 in Copenhagen ; † June 1, 1688 ibid) was a Danish lawyer and historian .
Life
Peder Hansen Resen was the son of Bishop Hans Hansen Resen. After training by private tutors, he came to the Vor-Frue School in 1641 and the University of Copenhagen in 1643 . In 1645 he passed the theological exam. In 1647 he went abroad. He stayed in Leiden for four years , where he studied law and philology. In 1651 he went to Paris for a few months, then to Orléans . From there he traveled through France and Spain. Only the fear of being kidnapped by "Turks" prevented him from crossing to Africa near Gibraltar. The way back led through southern France via Genoa to Padua , where he studied law for a year. There he gained a high reputation among his fellow students, so that they appointed him Consiliarius nationis Germanicæ jurisconsultorum and Vice Syndic of the university. So he came to an audience with the Doge and Council in Venice. The news of his father's illness prompted him to return home. In Rome he learned of his death and in Florence of his mother's death. He went to Padua, resigned his honorary posts and received the legal doctorate in September 1653. He came to Copenhagen in November 1653 via Trient, Augsburg, Regensburg, through Saxony, Braunschweig and Lüneburg, via Hamburg and Lübeck. On July 8, 1655 he married Anna Meier, a widow of two from Itzehoe, daughter of a respected merchant there. The marriage remained childless. She died in Copenhagen on the night of December 5th to 6th, 1689. He fell ill with gout and died on June 1, 1688.
Career
As a member of a family highly respected in the scholarly world there, he had access to a professorship at the university. When a chair became vacant in 1657, he first became professor of ethics, then in 1662 of law. In 1664 the king appointed him mayor of Copenhagen, in 1669 he became assessor at the Supreme Court of Højesteret , where in 1676 he worked as a judge in the judgment against Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld , which is said to have depressed him because he had encouraged him very much. In 1672 he became president at the seat of government. 1672–1676 he was a member of the State College. In 1677 he became a legal advisor, in 1680 he received a letter of coat of arms and in 1684 he became a budget councilor. He took part in the preparatory work for the Danske Lov (Danish law) from 1680 to 1681 as a member of the third revision commission. In 1683 he was released from all duties outside the consistory.
Scientific activity
He was the first to give lectures on Danish law at the university. As the area of his presentations he himself named "Chronologia Juris civilis et ecclesiastici", "Fundamenta juris civilis et canonici" and "Jurisprudentia Romano-Danica" or the right knowledge of the law, according to both the Roman and the Danish law books , and he thought of it to publish his lectures on Danish law as text. He was particularly interested in the old Danish laws, some of which he published, such as the Norwegian Hirðskrá in 1675 and the corresponding Danish law of allegiance with Latin and Danish translations, in 1683 various old local laws, in 1684 a German translation of Jutian law by Hans Krabbe and the Christian law II. He was also the first to have Hávamál , Völuspá and Snorris Edda , all with a Latin translation, which Edda also printed in Danish, and thus made accessible. He also helped other people's work to print, so the edition of the Völuspá and the "Lexicon Islandicum" were essentially the work of Gudmund Andrésson. In his historical work on Christian II, which he published in 1680, most of it comes from Lyksander's legacy. But the financing of these works was a special achievement. His collection Inscriptiones Hafnienses, published in 1668, is of great importance . This also includes news about Tycho Brahe .
His main work, in which he put the most energy, is his Atlas Danicus . This should include a description of all places in Denmark with their history and monuments. As early as 1666, all clergymen in the country were asked to provide relevant information. Initially it was essentially about the story, but in further requests he also asked for information about the physical conditions of the respective landscapes, fauna and flora. On the basis of these reports, some of which have survived, he prepared this atlas, including many letters and sources in Danish. In the end, the material consisted of 30 volumes. On this basis he also created many maps and illustrations that were executed as copper or wood engravings. Such a voluminous work had never been produced and others printed excerpts from it in Latin in the last years of his life. In 1675 and 1677 he had the descriptions of Samsø and Copenhagen made as a test print . More was never published, although he received some support for the work. After his death, his widow gave Magister Christen Aarsleb the job. But since she died soon afterwards and Aarsleb became pastor in the country in 1692, nothing came of the project. This main work, including the engravings, fell victim to the flames in the fire of the university library in 1728. Only copies of a few chapters have survived.
He was an avid collector of books. At the end of his life he bequeathed his extensive library, which also included many manuscripts, some of which had already been collected by his grandfather, to the university library, where it burned in 1728. In 1686 he published a list of books, supplemented by many biographies. But he also compiled a handwritten collection of documents from the history of Copenhagen, which are now in the Copenhagen City Hall Archives and in Vartov's Archives.
literature
- GL Wad: Resen, Peder Hansen . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 14 : Resen – Saxtrup . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1900, p. 12-16 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Resen, Peder Hansen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Resenius, Peter; Resenius, Petrus Johannes; Resen, Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish lawyer and historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 17, 1625 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Copenhagen |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 1, 1688 |
| Place of death | Copenhagen |