Renæssanceforum 12 • 2017
Sofie Kluge
"Qu'assi Saxo le nombra": Reappropriating the theatrum historiae Danorum in Rebolledo's First Selva Dánica
"Qu'assi Saxo le nombra": Reappropriating the theatrum historiae Danorum in Rebolledo's First Selva Dánica
In 1655, the Spanish soldier and diplomat Bernardino de Rebolledo (1597-1676), ambassador to Philip IV in Denmark from 1648 to 1661, published his versified history of Denmark, the first Selva dánica [Danish Wilderniss] with Peter Morsing in Copenhagen. In this poem, a Catholic reappropriation of Danish history vis-ŕ-vis the more factual, protomodern and, above all, Protestant accounts proposed by Christian IV's royal Dutch historiographers, Johannes Meursius and Johannes Pontanus, the Spanish poet-historiographer can be seen to enter into a more or less conscious elective affinity with the father of Danish historiography: the great – Catholic – Saxo Grammaticus.