Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1996, Qupperneq 298

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Summary
According to Jon Porkelsson’s Latin biography, it was necessary for
Arne Magnusson to purchase the entire library of etatsråd Jens Rosen-
krantz following his death in 1695 in order to procure a single manu-
script of Heimskringla. The price is reported to have been 200 rdl.
While the printed books in Rosenkrantz’s library are known to us
through two well-preserved auction catalogues, we do not know the ex-
tern of his manuscript collection, as there is no preserved catalogue
from when it was auctioned. The manuscript collection of Jens Rosen-
krantz was widely known for its many valuable works pertaining to the
history of Scandinavia, however, and when his c. 20.000 printed books
were sold at auction in 1696 and 1697, it was the largest private collec-
tion that had ever been sold in Copenhagen. Arne Magnusson expressed
to Torfæus his wish that the king should buy Rosenkrantz’s manuscripts
so that the collection could remain together. These things suggest that
the Rosenkrantz manuscript collection must have been extensive and of
great value, and must certainly have contained as many or more manu-
scripts than the collection of Frederik Rostgaard, for example, which
when it was sold at auction in 1726 comprised c. 1050 manuscripts (and
8000 printed books). A comparison with Arne Magnusson’s manuscript
purchases at this and other auctions and the prices he paid makes it
probable that he did not buy the whole of Rosenkrantz’s manuscript
collection, but rather only a part of it, the whole collection possibly
having been broken up into lots by the heirs.
Kiøbenhavns Universitets-Journal for 1797 reports that Arne Mag-
nusson acquired from Rosenkrantz a number of Spanish and Latin
manuscripts, “hvoraf nogle faa endnu ere tilovers” (“of which a few are
left”). There is no information concerning what had become of the re-
mainder.
Arne Magnusson himself States that c. twenty manuscripts came
from the collection of Jens Rosenkrantz. In three of these there is a
characteristic auction lot number drawn with red chalk, and the same
type of mark is found in a further five manuscripts not otherwise linked
to Rosenkrantz. These auction numbers were frequently written on the
covers, which may have gone missing when the manuscripts were later
rebound. It is therefore now impossible to identify more than approxi-
mately thirty Rosenkrantz manuscripts in the collection. Arne Magnus-