legal compilation in early modern denmark and norway the way early modern writers went about compiling. This was not limited to law but was common for all kinds of literary genres – and Holberg was a master of this technique for producing texts.56 In the early eighteenth century, we find compilations in various textbooks of natural law. Holberg’s Introduction til Naturens og Folkerettens Kundskabconsisted of a collection of text fragments compiled and translated from the German philosopher Samuel Pufendorf, along with Hugo Grotius and Christian Thomasius.57 However, in contrast to his role model, Holberg’s compilation targeted an audience with rather different expectations and background: he did not address an intellectual elite engaged in an international discourse about universal, binding principles of rational natural law or practical philosophy, but officials and legal practitioners with a very basic understanding of the theoretical foundations of law. More importantly, he deliberately composed his version of natural law by adapting it to the specific expectations and cultural preconditions in Denmark and Norway.58 This in turn contributed to the popularity of his book in the first half of the eighteenth century.59 It also explains why the Danish translation of Pufendorf ’s De Officio, published in 1742, never achieved the same popularity and never had a second edition, while Holberg’s textbook ran to six editions between 1716 and 1763, the last two published after 1742.60 This shows that compilations under 56 Knud Haakonssen, ‘Introduction, part 2: The author and work’, in Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, Learning and Literature in the Nordic Enlightenment (London: Routledge 2017) 17. 57 Ludvig Holberg, Moralske Kierne eller Introduction til Naturens og Folkerettens Kundskab, Uddragen af de fornemste Juristers besynderlig Grotii, Pufendorfs og Thoamsii Skrifter (Copenhagen, 1716). 58 Koch 2015, 440 ff.; Knud Haakonssen, ‘Holberg’s Law of Nature and Nations’, in SebastianOlden-Jørgensen & Knud Haakonssen, Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754): Learning and Literature in the Nordic Enlightenment (London: Routledge 2017) 59. 59 The book was published in six editions between 1716 and 1763. Second and third edition contained hundreds of additional pages. For the character of the additional material, see Koch 2015, 146 ff. 60 Samuel von Pufendorf, Menniskes og en Borgeres Plikter efter Naturens Lov, beskrevne I det latinske Sprog af Baron Samuel Pufendorf, siden oversatte paa Fransk af Jean Barberac og nu efter samme franske Oversættelses 4de Edition, tillege med bemeldte Barbeyracs derhos giorte Anmerkninger, trykttil Amsterdam 1718 fordanksede. Oversatt av Christian Homfred Brugman (Copenhagen, 1742). 213
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