This study of clerical book collections in Norway 1650–1750 provides detailed evidence about the circulation of books among one specific layer of the educated classes in a peripheral part of Europe. The wide range of authors and works included in these book collections proves that the Norwegian clergy partook in the European flow of information across borders, a flow that was marked by expansion and exchange rather than narrowness and rigidity. Three core source areas stand out in terms of book acquisition, namely Germany, the Netherlands and England. This wide range of book distribution is indicative of the early modern transmission of knowledge across borders which took place in all areas of academic debate in the wake of Gutenberg.
Gina Dahl, Dr. Art. (2007) in history of religion, University of Bergen, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen. She has published numerous articles on book distribution in early modern Norway.
Acknowledgements
Chapter I Introduction
Part I Books in clerical inventories in the Bergen bishopric Chapter II Book collections belonging to parsons in the Bergen bishopric 1685–1714
Chapter III Books belonging to other sections of the Bergen bishopric clergy 1685–1714
Part II Books in clerical inventories in Trondheim Chapter IV Clerical inventories in Trondheim 1697–1732
Chapter V Clerical inventories in Trondheim 1732–1743
Part III Books in clerical inventories in Jarlsberg, Nedenes, Hedmark & Østerdalen, Troms & Senja and Salten Chapter VI Clerical inventories in Jarlsberg 1704–1738 and Nedenes 1693–1740
Chapter VII Clerical inventories in Hedmark & Østerdalen, Troms & Senja and Salten
Chapter VIII Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Author’s index
All those interested in book history, religious history, ecclesiastical history, intellectual history and cultural studies in the early modern period.