PETRUS OLAI - Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen

AUTHOR
PETRUS OLAI (OFM) by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen
PETRUS OLAI (OFM)
by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen
Petrus Olai (Peder Olsen) was a Danish Franciscan Friar ca. 1490 - ca. 1570, whose historical
works in many respects build a bridge between medieval and modern historiography. Most dates of
his life must be concluded from his manuscripts.
The personal inscription on the inside of the cover of his ”Collectanea ad historiam danicam
pertinentia” reveals his identity: ”Petro Olavo Saneropio Minoritano”. Sonnerup is a parish between
Holbæk and Roskilde.
As a young man he must have entered the Franciscan Friary in Roskilde, where he seems to have
stayed during the greater part of his life, also after the dissolution of the convent by the
Reformation. – Lyschander ca. 1620 called him ”Petrus Olai Roschildensis” and mentions, that in
his older days his subsistance in Roskilde was guaranteed by the nobleman and naval hero Herluf
Trolle.
The inscription of the later historiographer Anders Sørensen Vedel on Coll. fol. 171v testifies the
destiny of the manuscript: ”Dom. Petrus Olai, previously of the Franciscan Order, has with great
diligence composed this book from various sources, and by his death handed it over to me as a
memory”. This must have happened about ca. 1570. - His ” Danorum Gesta post Chronica Saxonis
facta” must have been written in his later years, but can only through analysis of style and content
be identified as his work.
Inside this framework further details of his life can be concluded from a codicological analysis of
”Collectanea”, above all from his treatise on the history of the Franciscan Order in sheet 10 = Coll.
fol. 103-126 (Rasmussen 1976). Ca. 1515 the young friar Peder Olsen seems to have begun his
”Collectanea” as a notebook for copies and extracts of older sources about Danish history.
From ca. 1522 his historiographical interests and abilities were taken into service by his order, as
his superiors entrusted him to write a cronicle about the progress and victory of the observantine
reform-movement among the Danish Franciscans from 1468 - 1522, supplementing it with a list of
the provincial ministers of the provinca ”Dacia” etc.
Throughout the following years of growing crisis for the Catholic Church and also for the
Franciscan Order, friar Peder increased his work with contributions about Franciscan bishops, lists
of chapters of the province ”Dacia” and ca. 1533 with an important section about the foundation of
all Franciscan convents in ”Dacia”, including Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
With the legal dissolution of the mendicant orders in Denmark 1537 further work on this subject
got meaningless and stopped. His work about Danish history was however continued until ca.
1560, and bore fruits in his second work: ”Danorum Gesta”. The authorship of the Danish excerpt
of DG, ”Roskilde-årbogen”, is unknown.
WORKS
1) Ms. ”Collectanea ad historiam danicam pertinentia” AM 107,8 o. = Collections concerning
Danish history. (172 folia)
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2) Ms. ”Danorum Gesta post Chronica Saxonis facta” = UBB de la Gardie 37 fol. = Acts of the
Danes after Saxos Chronicle (86 folia) or ”Paraleipomena chronicorum” Gl.KS 2461,4 o =
Excerpts of the Cronicles (92 folia).
These manuscripts have never been edited as a whole. ”Collectanea” is as mentioned a notebook
with a very complicated codicological and textual structure (Jørgensen 1920, Rasmussen 1976).
The little volume for historical notes, copies and excerpts has when needed successively been
supplemented with extra pages or loose slips. The texts often consist of an original layer
supplemented with additions between the lines and in the margins, and are in some cases not in
Peder Olsens own hand. This character of ”Collectanea” as an aid or a tool for further studies
has made the work of the editors extremely difficult, and their editions are not always
satisfactory. – The ”Danorum Gesta” is at the other hand a well composed and coherent text,
treating the Danish history from 1191 – 1559. But is has been left forgotten and almost unedited
with the doubtful motive, that it mainly consists of materials, already known from other sources!
From ”Collectanea” J. Langebek and the other editors of ”Scriptores rerum danicarum” selected
and edited different fragments and in the most cases invented their titles. This work was in the
20. Century continued by the editors of mediæval annals, Ellen Jørgensen and Erik Kroman.
POs contributions to the history of the Franciscan Order was edited a second time by M. Cl.
Gertz in ”Scriptores minores”. A little fragment of ”Danorum Gesta” and the whole of its
Danish popularization, ”Roskilde-årbogen”, was in the 19. Century edited by H.F. Rørdam. –
In the following the partial editions of ”Collectanea” are first mentioned in their chronological
order with a roughly indication of their place in the manuscript. But this is only meant as a
survey; detailed problems cannot be discussed here.
1. ”Series et brevior historia regum Danie” SRD I, 1772, 64-68 = Coll. fol. 38. – Cfr. edition
by Gertz = nr. 16.
2. ”Chronica regum danorum , a Dano ad obitum Johannis regis”. SRD I, 1772, 68-148 = Coll.
fol. 1-39 and 68-91 (with many omissions and without the marginal notes)
3. ”Annales rerum danicarum a Cimbrorum exitu ad An. Chr. 1541”. SRD I, 1772, 171-197 =
Coll. 9-39 and 68-91 (insertions and marginal notes).
4. ”Anonymi Roskildensis Chronica Danicum ab An. 826 – 1157”. SRD I, 1772, 373-387 =
Coll. fol. 145-159 (copy by P.O.) – New edition by Gertz, vgl. Nr. 15.
5. ”Excerpta Normannica et Danica ab An. 841 ad 1050”. SRD II, 1773, 10-17 = Coll. fol. 33-
34 and 36 (partially).
6. ”Excerpta ex historicis Danorum, a Suenone Tiugskæg ad Ericum Menved”. SRD II, 1773,
203 - 265 = Coll. fol. 40-66.
7. ”Historia Martyrizationis S. Kanuti regis”. SRD III, 1774, 322-325 = Coll. fol. 8-9. Cfr.
commentaries by Gertz in: Vita Sanctorum Danorum, 1912, 51-53.
8. ”Historia de inchoatione et propagatione ordinis fratrum minorum in Dania et regionibus
septentrionalibus”. SRD V, 1783, 511-528 = Coll. fol. 106-121. - Cfr. edition by Gertz, Nr.
17.
9. ”Historia mirabilium in Ecclesia B. Petri Slesvici factorum”. SRD V, 1783, 581-582 = Coll.
fol. 75.
PETRUS OLAI (OFM) by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen
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10. ”Archiepiscopi Hamburgenses”. SRD VI, 1786, 608-610 = Coll. fol. 94-96.
11. ” Frustrum chronici Episcoporum Lundensium”. SRD VI, 1786, 638-639 = Coll. fol.81?
12. ”Episcopi Roschildenses”. SRD VII, 1792, 152-155 = Coll. fol. 102.
13. ”Duodecim excellentiæ regni Daciæ”. SRD VIII, 1834, 493-502 = Coll. fol. 133-139.
14. ”De S. Erico rege Danorum” in M. Cl. Gertz: ”Vitæ Sanctorum Danorum” 1908-1912, 423-
424 = Coll. 72. Ibd. 434-35 = Coll. 64-65.
15. ”Chronica Roschildense” M. C. Gertz: ”Scriptores minores historiæ danicæ medii ævi” I,
1918, 14-33. (Among other copies also POs) = Coll. fol. 145-159.
16. ”Series et brevior historia regum Danie”. M. Cl. Gertz in Scr. Min. I, 1918, 161-166 = Coll.
fol. 38.
17. ”De ordine fratrum minorum”. M. Cl. Gertz in Scr. Min. II, 1922, 279-324 = Coll. fol. 103-
121.
18. ”Franciskanermunken Peder Olsens Collectanea”. Ellen Jørgensen: ”Annales Danici medii
ævi”, 1920, 203-211. (Selected texts from Coll. which seem to originate from lost medieval
Works)
19. ”Annales Dano-Svecani 826-1415”. E. Jørgensen, Ann. Dan. 1920, 130-131.= Coll. fol 39c,
50, 61bis, 62, 64 and 66-67. (This text was known and partially copied by PO) Cfr. new
editions by Erik Kroman, Danmarks middelalderlige annaler, 1979, 300-306 and by Göte
Paulsson, Annales suecici medii ævi, Lund 1974, 374 ff.
20. ”Provinciale Ordinis fratrum minorum” by S. Cavallin in Bland latinska inskrifter i Ystads
klosterkyrka, Skrifter utgivna av Ystads fornminnesförening VII, Ystad 1957, 58- 59. =
Coll. fol. 112.
21. Introduction to the Danish Rhyme-Chronicle (Fortalen til den danske rimkrønike) by Helge
Toldberg: Den danske rimkrønike, 1961, 4-6 = Coll. 97-98.
22. Memorial-tablet of the Greyfriars Church in Odense (Odense-tavlen). J. Nybo Rasmussen,
Broder Peder Olsen, 1976, 159 = Coll. 109r. (POs text edited and compared with Lorez
Widows text from 1623)
23. From the ”Danorum Gesta post chronica Saxonis facta (1191-1559) ” only fragments
treating the periods 1241-1275 and 1552 – 1559 are edited by H.F.Rørdam in Monumenta
historiæ Danicæ 2. rk. 2. 1887, 1-33.
24. ”Roskildeårbogen fra 1448-1549”, the abridged Danish excerpt of ”Danorum Gesta” from
the 16. century, was edited by H.F.Rørdam in: Monumenta historiæ danicæ 1. rk. 1, 1873,
297-381.
The two manuscripts of ”Danorum Gesta” contain the same text with the exception, that UUB
de la Gardie Nr. 37 fol. begins with the year 1191, but Gl.Kgl. Saml. 1461,4o with 1319. None of
them exist in Petrus Olais own hand, they are contemporary anonymous copies. Though the greater
part of the text are copies from texts in ”Collectanea” , there are also other insertions, so from the
Skiby-chronicle. ”Danorum Gesta” in fact represents the friars own systematic synthesis of his
diligent collecting activities during his youth. The work must justly be evaluated as the first
essential essay to create the ”Continuation af Saxo”, which was later realized by Arild Hvidtfeldt It
therefore deserves a better historiographic appreciation than the actual almost contemptous silence.
PETRUS OLAI (OFM) by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen
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The influence of the two works were very different. Already in the lifetime af Petrus Olai
”Collectanea” was used by contemporary historians. It has been made credible, that the Carmelite
friar and Catholic apologetic, Paulus Heliæ, also used it as a source for his ”Skiby-chronicle”
(Bøggild–Andersen 1956). The first historian after the Reformation, Hans Svaning, took so much
advantage of the works of Petrus Olai, that they has been called the main source for his description
of the kings Hans and Christian II (Jørgensen 1931). After having aquired ”Collectanea” at the
death-bed of friar Petrus and also as the owner of the Ms. ”Paraleipomena Chronicorum”, Anders
Sørensen Vedel used them both for his historiography. Some informations by Cornelius Hamsfort
must also derive from the history of the Danish franciscans in ”Collectanea”. But about 1600 the
manuskript dieappeared, until it 1726 was aquired by Arne Magnusson, and Langebek 1772 began
the editions in SRD.
The ”Danorum Gesta” had a wider influence in older times and exist besides the two here
mentioned manuscripts in several other copies. Its greatest influence owed to the fact, that its later
part – concerning the period 1448-1559 – in an abridged version was tranlated into Danish as the
”Roskilde-annual” (Roskilde-årbogen) . According to its editor ( H.F.Rørdam 1873) Roskildeårbogen
was copied so often in the 16. century, that – despite the fact, that it was not printed – it
besides Rimkrøniken seems to have been the most wide-spread account of the later Danish history
in this century and remained so until the edition af the ”Danske Krønike” by Arild Hvidtfeldt 16oo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An exhaustive biography of Petrus Olai has until now not been written. Dispersed contributions to
his bio-bibliography can be found in the introductions and commentaries to many of the the already
mentioned editions, above all by J. Langebek in SRD, and by H.F. Rørdam, Ellen Jørgensen and
M.Cl. Gertz.
Short biographies: H.F.Rørdam in Dansk biografisk Leksikon 1. ed. vol. 8, 1899, 437-438 and Ellen
Jørgensen ibd. 2. ed. vol. 17, 1939, 447 and 3. ed. vol 8, 1975, 45. Also Ingvar Andersson in
”Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder” vol. 12, 1967, col. 265-266. -- ”Collectanea is
described in ”Katalog over den arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling”, vol. 2, 1894, 395. – POs
franciscan historiography is shortly treated in Johs. Lindbæk: ”De danske franciskanerklostre”,
1914, 258-260, and his contributions to Danish history by Ellen Jørgensen in: ”Historieforskning og
historieskrivning i Danmark indtil år 1800”, 1931, 82-85, and by C.O.Bøggild-Andersen: ”Studier
over Poul Helgesen. Nogle Skibykrønike-problemer” in Historisk tidsskrift 11. rk. vol. 5, 1956, 1-
109. An analysis of his treatment of the Franciscan Order is made by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen:
”Broder Peder Olsen som de danske franciskaneres historieskriver” = Skrifter udgivet af det
Historiske Institut ved Københavns Universitet nr. 6, 1976.
PETRUS OLAI (OFM) by Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen
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