The Plesner Fragment is a

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

page from 1275. It is one of the four fragments remaining, or early copy of, the original Saxo

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

. Its size is 15cm × 13cm. It consists of one page with two written sides.

History

The fragment was found in 1877 by C. U. A. Plesner in Geheime-archive (Danish National Archives), where it was used as staple-list on

Kristianstad Kristianstad ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 41,198 inhabitants in 2023. Since the 1990s, the city has gone from being a garrison town to a developed commercial city, ...

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

taxman-number (skattemandtal) list of 1623. The fragment is now owned by the

Danish Royal Library The Royal Library () in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the academic library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries. In 2017, it merged with the ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. It has Royal Library signature of ''Ny kgl. Saml. Fol. 570''. The pages correspond to page 811–813 in

Peter Erasmus Müller Peter Erasmus Müller (29 May 1776 – 4 September 1834), was a Danish historian, linguist, theologian, and bishop of the Diocese of Zealand from 1830 until his death. Career Müller studied at the University of Copenhagen, where he passed his t ...

Latin version of ''Gesta Danorum'' from 1839 or page 459.15 – 460.24 in Jørgen Olrik and H. Ræder's Latin version of ''Gesta Danorum'' from 1931.

References

* ''Apoteker Sibbernsens Saxobog'', C. A. Reitzels Forlag, Copenhagen, 1927. Medieval literature Chronicles about Denmark 13th-century manuscripts 13th-century books in Latin {{Denmark-hist-stub

History

See also

References