5.3. Peder Hansen Resen (1625-88)

Peder Hansen Resen was a member of an educated Danish family; his father was Bishop Hans Hansen Resen, and his grandfather Bishop Hans Poulsen Resen (see Resen 1977, 9-10). After studying theology in Copenhagen and jurisprudence in Leiden (The Netherlands), France and Italy, he became Professor of Ethics at the University of Copenhagen in 1657, and was later appointed Professor of Jurisprudence at the same institution. He occupied several public offices as judge and was a high-ranking official.

Resen’s special area of interest was in the Old Danish law and he was the first to give lectures on Danish law at the University of Copenhagen. He published, among other things, an edition of the Norwegian Hirðskrá, the medieval law of the king’s retainers. Most of his energy was devoted to Atlas Danicus, a large compilation of historical materials of which only a few parts were later printed. The main corpus of this work was destroyed in the fire of 1728 at the university’s library. Resen was also very interested in Old Icelandic literature and was the first to publish printed editions of Vǫluspá and Hávamál. His print edition of Snorra Edda, Edda Islandorum (RE 1665; see Section 4.1.3 above) was based on a trilingual (Icelandic, Danish, Latin) compilation (now lost) by the Royal Historiographer S. J. Stephanius, which in turn was derived from a bilingual (Danish-Icelandic) version of Magnús Ólafsson’s Edda (LaufE), owned by Bishop Hans Poulsen Resen, Peder Hansen Resen’s grandfather, and from Magnús Ólafsson’s own Latin translation of LaufE (for a stemma of the different versions, see LaufE 1979, 92).

References

1. Bibliography
2. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
3. Resen 1977 = Faulkes, Anthony. 1977a. Edda Íslandorum. Völuspá. Hávamál. Vol. II of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar. 1977-9.
4. Internal references
5. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
6. Not published: do not cite ()
7. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 8 May 2024)