Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Síða 69
CHAPTER II
49
no small difference in station between a Royal Historiographer
like Vedel or a Chancellor like Huitfeldt and an Icelandic parson.
But AJ’s views on the Utility of history are in reality the same as
theirs. This is shown by the passages already cited from the pre-
face to Crymogæa, once the formal theological phrases are re-
moved. In the first book of Crymogæa (II 20), AJ excuses him-
self for not writing on the natural history of the country or on
spirits and ghosts, but only on the people and their history, for
“hoc scriptionis genus historiam, illam vitæ magistram, plus sa-
piat, plus quoque emolumenti ad vitam communem afferat”. And
on another occasion (II 88), AJ speaks of the higher ethical
knowledge which above all is needed by society and the indivi-
dual: “quæque secundum Divinas literas ex historiis et variarum
gentium moribus, institutis, legibus invicem collatis potissimum
hauritur. Nam alioqui historia, quæ etiam leges et instituta gen-
tium complectitur, non esset vitæ humanæ magistra”.
In this last passage we can detect the influence of the famous
historian and political philosopher, Jean Bodin, whose work,
Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem1, was, as we shall
see, used by AJ. Bodin stresses especially the need for discover-
ing from history the basis of an universal law by a comparative
study of the laws, customs and institutions of different nations
and ages2. Bodin’s book had a wide circulation and his theories
had great influence precisely at this time, so that it was only
natural that AJ should have followed him rather than other
writers of the same kind. We shall see that he quotes him on a
number of occasions.
These examples are sufficient to show AJ’s general historical
outlook. There is no doubt that he adopted the basic standpoint
of the humanists—history was to be a lesson and pattern for the
age, presenting mirrored pictures of the past to serve as models
or warnings. It is also very much in the spirit of humanism when
1 First published 1566 and in several later editions. Here is used the edition Basi-
leæ 1576.—On Jean Bodin and Methodus, see e.g. Jean Bodin, La méthode de l’his-
toire traduite .. et présentée par Pierre Mesnard, Paris 1941 (Publications de la
faculté des lettres d’Alger, 2e serie, torae 14), pp. i-xxv, and the literature there
cited.
2 Bodinus, Methodus, 1576, fol. )( 4r et passim.
4 Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XII