Bogi Thorarensen Melsteð (born Klausturhólar 4 May 1860, died 12 November 1929) was an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic historian. He wrote articles and books on Icelandic history. He was Member of the

Icelandic Parliament The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what lat ...

(Althing) for

Árnessýsla Iceland was historically divided into 23 County, counties known as ''sýslur'' (), and 23 independent towns known as ''kaupstaðir'' (). Iceland is now split up between 24 sýslumaður, sýslumenn (magistrates) that are the highest authority ov ...

from 1892 to 1893.

Early life

Melsteð was the son of Jón Melsteð. He graduated from Reykjavík's Lærði skólinn in 1882 and completed his master's degree in history from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

in 1890. He remained in Copenhagen thereafter.

Career

He was an assistant at the

Danish National Archives The Danish National Archives () is the national archive system of Denmark. Its primary purpose is to collect, preserve and archive historically valuable records from central authorities, such as ministries, agencies and national organisations and ...

1893-1903 and a fellow of the

Arnamagnæan Institute The Arnamagnæan Institute (, formerly ) is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, the collection bequeathed by the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian ...

for over twenty years. In 1904 he obtained a grant to write a history of Iceland. Along with other Icelandic scholars in Copenhagen, he founded Hið íslenska fræðafélag í Kaupmannahöfn in 1912. He was its president until his death, and the editor of its journal from 1916. By the time of his death, the Society had a fund of 70,000 kroner. As a member of parliament in 1893, he argued successfully that Iceland's top official must reside there rather than in Denmark.

Works

Among Bogi's books are ''Saga Íslendinga'' (1903), ''Stutt kennslubók í Íslendinga sögu handa byrjendum'' (1904) and ''Sögukver handa börnum ásamt nokkrum ættjarðarljóðum og kvæðum'' (1910). He wrote journal and newspaper articles on Icelandic language, history, education, the co-operative movement and governance.

Library

He owned a large book collection which was bought by the Brotherton Library of the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, partly through the ministrations of E. V. Gordon.Eiríkur Benedikz, ''Melsted-bókasafnið í Leeds'' ([s.l.: s.n., 193-?); ''A Catalogue of the Icelandic Collection, University Library, Leeds'', ed. by Anne C. Farr (Leeds: The Library, 1978). Bogi donated the majority of the proceeds to a scholarship for Icelandic historians at the university.

References

* * Æviágrip á vef Alþingis 19. apríl, 2011.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melsted, Bogi Thorarensen 1860 births 1929 deaths Icelandic historians, Bogi Thorarensen Melsted Members of the Althing, Bogi Thorarensen Melsted Icelandic people with family names, Bogi Thorarensen Melsted