Week 36



Allegorical entertainments during festivities held in Stuttgart in 1616 by Duke Johann Friedrich of Württemberg on the occasion of his son's baptism. Princely festivities with tournaments and carnival-like parades with imaginative tableaux served a ceremonial function and were attended by numerous invited guests from other princely courts. The festivities at Stuttgart lasted for eight days and resulted in a publication of 77 plates, most of them done by the engraver Matthæus Merian, who later became famous as a publisher of topographical works. It was published in 1616 by the artist Esaias van Hulsen with the title Repræsentatio der furstlichen Aufzug und Ritterspiel.
University Library Department, signatur 15, - 146, oblong.

Week 37



Illustrated Mongolian manuscript from the nineteenth century of the legend of the pious monk Molon Toyin, who journeys to the underworld to save his mother and has to pass through the Buddhist hells, eight hot and eight cold, in which the damned suffer their punishments. Acquired through Kaare Grønbech.
Oriental Collection, Mong. 417.

Week 38



A small manuscript of the Koran, presented to Frederik III and inscribed in Latin, Greek and Arabic by the Danish Orientalist, Theodor Petræus. The king had provided financial support for Petræus's studies in the Orient 1655-60.
Oriental Collection, Cod. Arab. XIX. See more about the manuscript.

Week 39



Letters to Mads Lange (1807-56) - The King of Bali - written on plam leaves. Lange was a Danish sailor and merchant. He originated from Rudkøbing, Denmark and he established himself as a merchant at Æp,bpl in 1834, in 1839 at Bali. His merchant house exported coffee, spices and tobacco and imported textiles and weapons. On the palm lead from his Balinese wife, he has written with a pencil: "Fra min Balli Kone til Mig" (from my Balli wife to me).
Oriental Collection, Malay (Bal) 1.

Week 40



Fine illustrations of fish and shell fish, one of the earliest examples of multicolour printing produced in Japan. From Umi no sachi (The blessing of the sea), an anthology of poetry printed in 1776 with illustrations by Katsuma Ryuusui. The first edition appeared in 1762.
Oriental Collection, OA 93-125, kvarto. See more about the book

Week 41



Kirsten Klein (b. 1945). From the series Stæreflok ved nattesæde, Tøndermarsken 1998. Silver-gelantine,
420 x 583 mm.
The National Museum of Photography, acc. Nr. 2000-40/6 .

Week 42



Manuscript of the Pahlavi text Bundahish, one of the basic texts in the teachings of Zoroastrianism. One of many Pahlavi and Avesta manuscripts brought back to Denmark by the philologist Rasmus Rask from his journey to India and Ceylon 1816-1823. This is from c. 1330 and is viewed as the most important one known to have survived.
Oriental Collection, Cod. Iran. 20.

Week 43



Bartholomæus Anglicus: Van den proprieteyten der dinghen (On the properties of things), printed in Low German in Haarlem by Jacob Bellaert in 1485. The work is an encyclopedia based on the Bible and covers in particular the natural sciences. Written in Latin by an English Franciscan in the 1200s, the book is one example among many of how the old medieval writings had their life extended by the printing presses. Of about 25 known editions from before 1500, the Royal Library owns nine copies in Latin, Low German and French, but only in the Low German edition are the woodcuts partly coloured. The land animals depicted on this woodcut correspond to the zoological plates in a modern encyclopedia.
The Manuscript Department, Rare Book Collections, Ink. Nr. 577, folio.

Week 44



Robertus Valturius: De re militari (On military matters), printed in Verona by Johannes Nicolai de Verona 1472. Valturius was an Italien military officer of the time, and his book is not only the first edition of the first up-to-date work on military arts in moderne times, but also the first book with illustrations of a technical subject. Often military books present depictions of contemporary technology, and these pictures of military machinery provide an instructive contribution to the history of technology.
Manuscript Department, Rare Book Collections, Ink. Nr. 4083 folio.

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