Background
An increasing body of scholarship on early modern female book ownership in Europe is emerging, shedding light on the book collecting and reading practices of early modern women. However, the role of Scandinavian women as book owners and readers has been overlooked in the scholarship thus far. This is despite a rich tradition of book ownership among women of the Danish nobility and a strong tradition of female learning, despite women’s lack of access to formal education and centres of learning.
This research project examines Danish women’s participation in the circulation, transmission, and reception of knowledge in early modern Europe by way of their book ownership and reading practices, taking as a case study the private library of the Danish noblewoman and book collector Karen Brahe (1657-1736). Established by Brahe’s great-aunt Anne Gøye (1609-1681), the Brahe collection is a rare example of an early modern private library gathered by women and intended for the use of other women. The collection is extensive in scope (with approximately 3,400 printed items and 1,150 manuscripts) and includes a diverse range of material, including theological texts, history writing, and literary works. Brahe donated her library to the Odense Adelige Jomfrukloster, a secular convent for unmarried noblewomen founded by her in 1716. The collection is now housed in Roskilde Library.
The project adopts a distant reading of the library by way of a digital analysis of its catalogues, mapping the contents of the Brahe collection to provide an overview of the texts that were owned and read, connecting women readers in Scandinavia with the printing and publishing networks of Europe, and facilitating their engagement with and participation in European intellectual culture.
Partners
Reading Women is led by Lucie Duggan and involves the support of the following project partners at the University of Southern Denmark: Karol Jan Borowiecki, Sofie Kluge, and Anne-Marie Mai. The project received the further support of the following external research affiliates: Martine van Elk (California State University, Long Beach), Marie-Louise Coolahan (National University of Ireland, Galway), Sabrina Ebbersmeyer (University of Copenhagen), Lasse Horne Kjældgaard (University of Southern Denmark 2020-2022).
Acknowledgments
Technical assistance for the project, including data cleaning, visualisation, mapping, and website output was guided by project partner Karol Jan Borowiecki and involved the following members: Sofus Hesseldahl Laubel, Martin Hørlyk Kristensen, Shahedul Alam Khan, and Jonas Bork Jørgensen.
Access to the Karen Brahe Library in Roskilde has been kindly facilitated by Søren Lyder Jacobsen (Klosterforvalter, Roskilde Kloster) and Hans Michelsen (librarian, Roskilde Library).
The project has been funded 2022-2024 by Augustinus Fonden with a grant in support of cultural heritage research (2021). The project has been hosted at the University of Southern Denmark.
