Open the book almost anywhere and two columns face one another: medieval runes at left, black and on many pages red; Latin at right. The runes are metal type, cut for Worm in Copenhagen. With them he could print Denmark’s oldest texts in their own script.
The source is the Codex Runicus, copied around 1300. Most of it is the Scanian Law, Denmark’s oldest provincial law code, written in runes long after other Scandinavian scribes had turned to Roman letters. At the end are a chronicle of Danish kings and a description of the border with Sweden. Worm printed those two pieces here. The manuscript sits in the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen, where it’s been digitized. Put the two side by side and you can compare them rune for rune.
Ole Worm served as physician to the Danish court, but he actually made his name in antiquities. His Museum Wormianum was one of the great curiosity cabinets of Europe. His work on runic monuments helped establish runology. The title page identifies him as Olaus Wormius, which is the exact name Lovecraft used for the scholar who translated the Necronomicon from Greek into Latin. In “History of the Necronomicon,” Lovecraft dates the translation to 1228, four centuries before the real Worm. The shared name gives this real work of runic scholarship an unexpected connection to Lovecraft’s fictional bibliography. With this book you get the historical Wormius, in a real book printed partly in runes.
Worm dedicated the book to Corfitz Ulfeldt, Christian IV’s son-in-law and, in 1642, the most powerful man in Denmark. In 1663, Ulfeldt was condemned for treason. His Copenhagen mansion was pulled down, and replaced by a column of infamy, now preserved at the National Museum of Denmark. The last pages treat of Holger Danske, or Ogier the Dane. The legends say he sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle and will wake when Denmark needs him.
This copy is complete with six preliminary leaves and 36 pages of text. It probably spent some time in France. The title leaf has edge chips. It came to us unbound and we put it into unlettered fair calf. The leather is pale and undyed, close to the parchment of the Codex Runicus. There is one fault to note. The text block was cased without sewing and sits a little loose in its covers. A binder can put this right if the buyer so wishes, and the price reflects this possibility.
WORM, Ole (Olaus Wormius). Regum Daniæ Series duplex et Limitum inter Daniam & Sveciam Descriptio. Ex vetustissimo Legum Scanicarum Literis Runicis in membrana exarato Codice eruta, et Notis illustrata. Copenhagen: Melchior Martzan for Joachim Moltke, 1642. Small quarto. [12], 36 pp., complete. Recent unlettered fair calf.
Open the book almost anywhere and two columns face one another: medieval runes at left, black and on many pages red; Latin at right. The runes are metal type, cut for Worm in Copenhagen. With them he could print Denmark’s oldest texts in their own script.
The source is the Codex Runicus, copied around 1300. Most of it is the Scanian Law, Denmark’s oldest provincial law code, written in runes long after other Scandinavian scribes had turned to Roman letters. At the end are a chronicle of Danish kings and a description of the border with Sweden. Worm printed those two pieces here. The manuscript sits in the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen, where it’s been digitized. Put the two side by side and you can compare them rune for rune.
Ole Worm served as physician to the Danish court, but he actually made his name in antiquities. His Museum Wormianum was one of the great curiosity cabinets of Europe. His work on runic monuments helped establish runology. The title page identifies him as Olaus Wormius, which is the exact name Lovecraft used for the scholar who translated the Necronomicon from Greek into Latin. In “History of the Necronomicon,” Lovecraft dates the translation to 1228, four centuries before the real Worm. The shared name gives this real work of runic scholarship an unexpected connection to Lovecraft’s fictional bibliography. With this book you get the historical Wormius, in a real book printed partly in runes.
Worm dedicated the book to Corfitz Ulfeldt, Christian IV’s son-in-law and, in 1642, the most powerful man in Denmark. In 1663, Ulfeldt was condemned for treason. His Copenhagen mansion was pulled down, and replaced by a column of infamy, now preserved at the National Museum of Denmark. The last pages treat of Holger Danske, or Ogier the Dane. The legends say he sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle and will wake when Denmark needs him.
This copy is complete with six preliminary leaves and 36 pages of text. It probably spent some time in France. The title leaf has edge chips. It came to us unbound and we put it into unlettered fair calf. The leather is pale and undyed, close to the parchment of the Codex Runicus. There is one fault to note. The text block was cased without sewing and sits a little loose in its covers. A binder can put this right if the buyer so wishes, and the price reflects this possibility.
WORM, Ole (Olaus Wormius). Regum Daniæ Series duplex et Limitum inter Daniam & Sveciam Descriptio. Ex vetustissimo Legum Scanicarum Literis Runicis in membrana exarato Codice eruta, et Notis illustrata. Copenhagen: Melchior Martzan for Joachim Moltke, 1642. Small quarto. [12], 36 pp., complete. Recent unlettered fair calf.
