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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector |
University Library, Norway Norway
established a university of its own in 1811, later than most other
European countries. This was because Norway had been united with the
Kingdom of Denmark for more than 400 years. They had one king in common,
the Danish king. Copenhagen was the capital of both countries and the
university and university library there had served both countries alike
since their foundation in 1479. However,
political demands for the foundation of a Norwegian university were raised
in the second half of the eighteenth century, and this goal was finally
attained in 1811. Three years later the Danish king, who sided with
Napoleon in the ongoing wars, had to surrender and cede Norway to his old
enemy, the king of Sweden. In 1814 Norway was formally united with Sweden,
and this Swedish-Norwegian union existed until 1905. The Norwegian university
founded in 1811 was named after the Danish and Norwegian king, Frederik
VI, and was called Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet, in Latin
Universitas Regia Fredericiana (the Royal Frederick's University), a name
it retained until 1939. The University Library was founded in the same
year as the university. The library received its first stamp of ownership
mark four years later in 1815; it was used in various sizes to mark all
books in the collection. The stamp shows the national coat-of-arms, the
Norwegian lion, and the abbreviation of the Latin name of the university,
"BIBL: UNIVERS: FRIDER:." The University Library, located in
Oslo, was the first Norwegian state research library of a comprehensive
nature, with national grants for annual accessions and with a number of
staff members to carry out the library functions. Previously libraries
in Norway were of a very modest size with limited collections in only a
few fields of research. These collections were established by individual
donations, and the professional services were rendered by volunteers. The new Norwegian
University Library had an extremely promising start. This was primarily
due to a number of valuable book donations by the Danish king, the Royal
Library in Copenhagen, and several individual donors. The Royal Library of
Copenhagen had some ten years earlier received a donation of approximately
100,000 volumes from the huge private collection left by the prominent
Danish historian Peter Frederik Suhm (1728-1798). This was a unique and
comprehensive collection, probably the greatest private library that has
ever existed in Denmark. But, of course, this huge donation also produced
a considerable amount of duplication in the Royal Library, as en-bloc
accessions usually do. These duplicates enabled the Royal Library in
Copenhagen to donate approximately 40,000
volumes to the Norwegian University Library. For this reason the library
owns a great number of volumes that once belonged to Suhm; he marked the
bindings of these in golden letters one centimeter high, "P. F.
Suhm." Suhm's links with Norway were so strong that one might
easily believe that the transfer of his duplicate volumes from Denmark to
Norway was planned in advance, but this was not the case. Suhm himself was
Danish, but as a young man he went to Norway, there to marry rich young
lady. Her money provided him with the means to live as an independent
scholar and author. He stayed in Norway for fifteen years, studying
history and literature and editing the first Norwegian periodical, Tronhiemske
Samlinger, vol. 1(1761) through vol. 5 (1765). He became an
outstanding spokesman and supporter of Norwegian national interests, among
them the foundation of a university and a research library in Norway. When the Norwegian
University and University Library were at last established in 1811,
Denmark (Norway) was at war with Sweden. The books that were donated to
the Norwegian library, however, were still in Copenhagen and had to remain
there until the war ended. In the summer of 1815 peace was regained, and
the books were sent by ship to Norway. By then Norway was no longer united
with Denmark: by the Peace Treaty in Kiel in 1814, Norway had been ceded
to the enemy nation, Sweden. In this new political situation it would have
been understandable if Denmark decided to keep its valuable book donations
in Copenhagen instead of sending them off to a country that had become
part of an enemy state. But
this was not the case. The books were sent to Norway as soon as it was
practically possible. We do not know if this decision was taken by the
Danes in a stubborn belief that Norway within a short time
would again belong to Denmark. The political scene in Europe had been very
unstable for nearly three decades, so it would not have been an
unrealistic expectation. However, Norway remained united with Sweden for
more than ninety years, and the king of Sweden was also the king of
Norway. During
that long period, and even thereafter when Norway acquired its own
national and political independence in 1905, the Norwegian University kept
the name of the Danish King Frederik, and the books of the University
Library continued to be marked "BIBL: UNIVERS: FRIDER:." In 1939
the university changed its name to the University of Oslo, and the library
became Univetsitetsbiblioteket I Oslo. However, it was still popularly
referred to as the Royal University Library until the 1980s. The library's
promising start has been fulfilled, and today the University of Oslo
Library holds about 4 million volumes. Gerhard
Munthe Oslo,
Norway
[Originally published in Journal of Library History, vol. 26, no. 4 (Spring 1991): 608-610.] |
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