Kristina of Sweden and 17th Century European Reading

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Kristina of Sweden and 17th Century European
Reading

• By Mara Egherman, M.A.
• School of Library and Information Science
• University of Iowa

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• Kristina of Sweden was one of the most
  important, controversial, and enigmatic figures
  in the seventeenth century. What she did was
  extraordinary as a Protestant, she converted to
  Catholicism as a queen, she abdicated her throne
  and left her country as a patron, she supported
  one of the most active intellectual circles in
  Europe and corresponded with the foremost
  thinkers of her day. From her contemporaries,
  she provoked ridicule and admiration, inspired
  controversy and fear. For the twentieth century
  scholar, she creates an enormous problem. The
  information that we inherit is inconsistent, the
  views of her contemporaries and subsequent
  biographers contradictory
• -Christia Mercer on Susanna Åkerman

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• The contributors mainly ignore Christina and
  Charles XII...
• thus providing the first intelligible study of
  Sweden
• Review by Raymond E. Lindgren

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• How can the existence of such a complicated and
  extraordinary mortal be summed up? Possibly Pope
  Innocent XI came closest to characterizing her
  most succinctly when he once called attention to
  her exasperating personality by exclaiming E
  Donna
• cest une femme!

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Buckley, Veronica. Christina, Queen of Sweden
the restless life of a European eccentric.
(2004) Englund, Peter. Silvermasken en kort
biografi över Drottning Kristina. (2006) Gobry,
Ivan. La Reine Christine. (2001) Lanoye,
Diederik. Christina van Zweden koningin op het
schaakbord Europa, 1626-1689. (2001) Lekeby,
Kjell. Kung Kristina drottningen som ville byta
kön. (2000)
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Gossip movie about ten Swedish actresses vying
for the role of Kristina in a new play (2000)
Dines, Carol. The Queens Soprano. (2006) Teen
fiction book about a singer in Rome who is
persecuted by the pope and takes refuge in
Kristinas palace
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Lockhart, Paul Douglas. Sweden in the Seventeenth
Century. (2004)
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Communication Circuit (1982) --Robert Darnton,
now head of Harvard Library
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Luis-Michel Dumesnils Kristina and her Academy
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Chanut
Mersenne
Elisabeth
Kristina
Descartes
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Some of Kristinas reading and book-related
contacts on the continent

• Booty from Hradcany Palace (Prague)
• Descartes (correspondent, visitor from Paris)
• Isaac Vossius (her librarian from Amsterdam)
• Cardinal Mazarin (Rome, Paris)
• Diego Teixeira (Born in Lisbon, living in
  Hamburg)
• Benedict de Castro (her personal physician,
  Hamburg)
• Gerard Salian (Portugese living in Antwerp)
• Menassah ben Israel (Amsterdam, knew Vossius)

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Menasseh ben Israels correspondents

• Henry Jessey, Nathaniel Holmes (England)
• Edward Winslow (American missionary)
• Gerhard Vossius (Amsterdam professor)
• Claude de Saumaise (Paris classical scholar)
• Abraham Issac Pereira (from Venice, started
  yeshiva in Amsterdam)
• Joseph ben Israel (Menassehs son, traded books
  in Poland for him)
• Frankfurt book fair 1634
• Emperor Ferdinand III (Spain)

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Kristinas route after abdication
TO ROME
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Festivities in honor of Kristina embracing the
true faith in Rome
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Thanks for your attention! Please take a card!

• Mara M J Egherman, M.A.
• mara-egherman_at_uiowa.edu