PETRUS OLAI - Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen

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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