Book Collections of Clerics in Norway, 1650-1750

This study of clerical book collections in Norway 1650-1750 provides detailed evidence about the circulation of books among one specific layer of the educated classes in a peripheral part of Europe. The wide range of authors and works included in these book collections proves that the Norwegian clergy partook in the European flow of information across borders, a flow that was marked by expansion and exchange rather than narrowness and rigidity. Three core source areas stand out in terms of book acquisition, namely Germany, the Netherlands and England. This wide range of book distribution is indicative of the early modern transmission of knowledge across borders which took place in all areas of academic debate in the wake of Gutenberg.