Grundtvig's Manuscripts Online
The manuscripts have remained difficult to access, partly because of the complex system used to organize them and partly because, to decifer them, specialized training in reading Grundtvig’s Gothic handwriting is required. Consequently, only a limited portion of this extensive and rich source material has been explored.
This project aims to overcome these challenges by establishing the platform Grundtvig’s Manuscripts Online (GMO) over a four-year period, making the manuscripts publicly accessible in readable transcriptions that are digitally searchable. This new platform will become a major step towards establishing a comprehensive foundation for exploring Grundtvig’s life and work.
The project is carried out using Transkribus, a software platform for automated handwriting recognition. Owing to the sheer quantity of the materials, this task was previously considered impossible to complete.
GMO is being established on the platforms of the Transkribus consortium (Transcribus Sites) and will appear as illustrated below, where users can view a digital image of a manuscript page and its transcription.
Funding
The project is supported by the Augustinus Foundation and the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation.
Project period: 2024-2028
Cooperation
Grundtvig’s Manuscripts Online has been created in collaboration with the Royal Danish Library.
As a result of GMO, the manuscripts will become:
- Readable: The minimum 95% accurate transcription generated by Transkribus makes it possible to work with the texts, even for users who cannot read Grundtvig’s handwriting.
- User-friendly: Through various guide functions incorporated into the platform, users are provided with insight into the material groups and organizational patterns of the archive.
- Searchable: Users can efficiently explore the manuscripts by searching for topics, names, and dates.
- Research-supportive: It becomes possible to identify new texts that illuminate and nuance the existing understanding of Grundtvig’s life and the genesis of his writings, including his use of sources and interaction with contemporary society.
The platform provides access to a vast and rich body of material providing numerous new perspectives for exploring Grundtvig’s life and work. Here are some possible new approaches:
- Grundtvig’s use of sources from the past
- Grundtvig’s dialogue with his contemporaries
- The social and societal content of his sermons
- Grundtvig’s involvement in the Schleswig question and minority debates
- Grundtvig’s ideas concerning the folk high school and education
- His unknown poems and manuscript speeches
N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Archive was donated to the Danish National Archives in 1890 and transferred to the Royal Danish Library’s Manuscript Collection in 1940. The archive consists of an estimated 112,000 manuscript pages originally arranged into 565 fascicles (i.e. archival bundles). For preservation purposes, the pages have been repackaged into 200 acid-free boxes, but their categorization into the original 565 fascicles has been retained, as Grundtvig scholarship has for decades referred to the archive’s contents by fascicle numbers 1–565.
A grant from the Danish government made possible the photo-digitization of the majority of the texts in the archive, approximately 90,000 pages. This digitization is required for Transkribus handwriting recognition and platform creation.
There are still texts in Grundtvig’s Archive and in other archival collections at the Royal Danish Library and elsewhere that have yet to be digitized before they can become part of GMO. Those documents include letters to and from Grundtvig (fascicles 406–482), papers left by his father and grandfather (fascicles 536–565), and other Grundtvig manuscripts and copies of his manuscripts made by others.
The archive is divided into the following categories:
| Subject | Fascicles | Pages | Proportion |
| Sermons and ecclesiastical speeches | 1-74 | 32.100 | 35% |
| Ecclesiastical writings | 75-154 | 11.000 | 12% |
| Philosophical, literary, and political wiritings | 155-210 | 4.700 | 5% |
| Historical writings and collections | 211-250 | 8.400 | 9% |
| Mythological writings and studies | 251-287 | 3.500 | 4% |
| Studies on the Danish language | 288-305 | 3.500 | 4% |
| Studies on Anglo-Saxon language and literature | 306-331 | 3.400 | 4% |
| School / Pedagogical writings | 332-358 | 1.400 | 2% |
| Lectures and speeches | 359-379 | 6.000 | 7% |
| Hymns | 380-385 | 3.000 | 3% |
| Poetic writings | 386-405 | 8.200 | 9% |
| Letters to Grundtvig | 406-482 | omitted | |
| Personalia (in two series of fascicles) | 483-491/500-535 | 5.200 | 6% |
| Historical narratives /Accounts, etc. | 492-495 | 600 | 1% |
| Diaries | 496-499 | 1.000 | 1% |
| Johan Grundtvig’s papers | 536-565 | omitted |
Through a series of grants from the L. Zeuthen Memorial Fund and the Danish State Research Foundation and through a collaboration between the Grundtvig Society of 8 September 1947 and the Society for Danish Language and Literature, the work Registry of N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Papers was produced between 1957 and 1964. The thirty-volume Registry describes the manuscripts preserved at the Royal Danish Library.
In 2012, the Registry was digitized and OCR-processed by the Royal Danish Library at the request of the Centre for Grundtvig Studies for use in the Centre’s edition of Grundtvig’s Works. In agreement with the Centre, the Royal Danish Library retained the files, which have subsequently been used as a management tool in connection with the digitization of the archive.
The registry and the archive employ the same descriptive approach. The fascicles are presented in the registry according to their location in the archive, and each fascicle is described using a pre-printed form containing the following 12 metadata fields:
- Title (or brief indication of contents)
- Paper type (colour and possible watermark)
- Markings (“I.J.N.”, etc.)
- Orthography
- Other external criteria
- Internal criteria (allusions, quotations, etc.)
- First line of the manuscript
- Last line of the manuscript
- Publication or use
- Previous researchers’ estimated date(s)
- Bibliographical number
- Content summary
The registry thus covers several aspects of each individual text:
- Content and subject area (items 1, 6, 12)
- Identification (items 3, 7, 8)
- Dating (items 2, 4, 5, 6, 10)
- Reception and significance (items 9, 11)
The registry is the product of several researchers; therefore, it contains natural variations in both the form and precision of the descriptions.
Employees
| Name | Title | Role | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busbee, Brad | Professor, Samford University | |||
| Ebdrup, Cathrine Zander | PhD fellow, Department of Church History | +4535335916 | ||
| Holm, Anders | Associate professor, Department of Church History | Project manager | +4535323702 | |
| Llambias, Maria Gabriela | Project Assistant | |||
| Meile, Jakob K. | Special consultant, Special Collections, The Royal Danish Library | Managing Editor | ||
| Nissen, Nanna Eva | Postdoc, Department of Church History | Academic Coordinator | +4535333482 | |
| Pedersen, Kim Arne | Guest researcher, Department of Church History | Subject specialist | +4535331918 |
Student assistent, Special Collections, The Royal Danish Library
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Airey, Madeleine Brønden | |
| Dimpker, Benedikte Xenia Bjørnshauge | |
| Døcker, Louise Marie Reimann | |
| Fosner, Ghita Beepat | |
| Grove-Rasmussen, Sally | |
| Harms, Ellen Inger Fabricius | |
| Helligkilde, Malou Egede | |
| Jensen, Adrian Kvist | |
| Kloth-Jørgensen, Aske |