''Diplomatarium Norvegicum'' is a series of books containing the texts of documents and letters from
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
older than 1590, verbatim and in the original language. The series consists of 22 volumes, containing the texts of approximately 20,000 documents.
The first volume was published in 1848 at the initiative of historian
Christian C. A. Lange
Christian Christoph Andreas Lange (August 13, 1810 – May 10, 1861) was a Norwegians, Norwegian historian and archivist.
Lange was born in Bærum. After his ''examen artium'' he started studying theology and he took his comprehensive exam in the ...
(1810–1861), who served as the
national archivist of Norway
The national archivist ( no, Riksarkivar) of Norway is the professional and administrative manager of the National Archives of Norway and the National Archival Services of Norway. In addition, the national archivist bears direct responsibility wit ...
(''Riksarkivar''). The work of transcribing the sources continued for over a hundred years until 1972. The oldest document is from approximately 1050, but the great mass of documents are from after 1300. The language in most of the letters is
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
,
Old Norwegian
nn, gamalnorsk
, region = Kingdom of Norway (872–1397)
, era = 11th–14th century
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = North Germanic
, fam4 = West Scandinavian
, fam5 ...
, or
Old Danish
The Danish language developed during the Middle Ages out of Old East Norse, the common predecessor of Danish and Swedish. It was a late form of common Old Norse. The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided the history of Danish into ...
. Some letters, particularly connected with the
Church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
or international correspondence are in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
.
''Diplomatarium Norvegicum'' (commonly abbreviated DN) is an indispensable source for historians of Norwegian medieval history from approximately 1300. The series has also been published as a searchable database on the internet.
See also
*
Regesta Norvegica
''Regesta Norvegica'' is a chronology, chronological inventory of all known documents relating to the history of Norway during the Middle Ages. The series contains summaries in modern Norwegian of medieval documents concerning Norway and Norwegia ...
*
Svenskt Diplomatarium {{unreferenced, date=January 2014
''Svenskt Diplomatarium'' (also known under the Latin name ''Diplomatarium Suecanum'') is a series of critical editions of medieval Swedish documents or documents pertaining to the history of Sweden (in Swedish, La ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Volume 1-21 in searchable form
Norwegian manuscripts
Medieval documents of Norway