De Regno Daniae et Norwegiae insulisque neighboribus juxta ac de Holsatia Ducatu Sleswicensi et finitimis provincijs tractatus varij.

Autore: HANSEN STEPHANIUS, Stephan (1599 – 1650)

Tipografo: Ex officina Elzeviriana

Dati tipografici: Leiden, 1629


16° (110 x 57 mm). [XVI], 510, [4] pp. Collation: *8 A-Z⁸ Aa-Ii⁸. Contemporary stiff vellum, richly gilt panels bearing in the center unidentified crowned coat-of-arms with the initials "G B I" within a double frame, spine with gilt title and ornaments, red edges, four silk ties still present. Slightly browned, some marginal staining to the first and last leaves, but overall a very good copy. Engraved title page showing the coat-of-arms of thirteen Danish regions and woodcut historiated initials. Dedication addressed to Christen Friis (4 November 1581 – 1 October 1639, Danish nobleman, politician, and patron of arts and science) by Stephan Hansen Stephanius (July 23, 1599 – April 22, 1650, Danish historian, philologist and professor at Sorø Academy).

First edition. The volume reflects the intellectual and political concerns of Northern Europe in the early modern period, when the composite monarchy of Denmark–Norway exercised authority not only over the Danish and Norwegian kingdoms but also over Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and other North Atlantic possessions, while maintaining complex feudal and constitutional ties with the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. In particular, Schleswig (a Danish feud) and Holstein (a feud of the Holy Roman Empire) formed a politically entangled frontier zone, frequently discussed in legal and diplomatic literature. A collection of “various treatises” on these territories would typically address questions of sovereignty, dynastic rights, administrative organization, and territorial boundaries, often drawing on contemporary treaties, historical precedents, and antiquarian scholarship. Moreover, the date 1629 situates it in a period marked by the early phases of the Thirty Years' War, when the constitutional status of northern German territories and the Danish crown's involvement in imperial affairs were matters of acute relevance. In bibliographical terms, the book is relatively rare today and of interest primarily to historians of early modern Scandinavia and the German–Danish borderlands, as well as to scholars of historical geography and legal history. Its value lies less in originality—since it is a compilation—than in the way it assembles and transmits contemporary knowledge about a politically complex region at a formative moment in European history. The structure of the work is organized in eight treaties and a final Errata Corrige: De situ Daniae, Chorografia Daniae, Historia Gentis Danorum, Historia Regum Daniae, Daniae Descriptio, Daniae Regni Politicus Status, Ionas ab Elvervelt de Holsatia, Respublica Islandica. 

Willems,  320; OCLC, 310859285. 


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