What were considered to be good books in the time of popular enlightenment? The view of philanthropists compared to the view of a farmer
Original version
Byberg, L. (2013). What were considered to be good books in the time of popular enlightenment? The view of philantropists compared to the view of a farmer. In: A. Navickiene, I. Mäkinen, M. Torstensson, M. Dyrbye & T. Reimo (Eds.) Good book, good library, good reading. Studies in the history of the book, libraries and reading from the network HIBOLIRE and its friends. Finland: Tampere University PressAbstract
The enlightenment movement in Denmark
-
Norway had a practical/rational orientation, but
was also religiously motivated. Towards the end of the 18th
Century a new genre of book was
established: enlightenment books, intended for the common man and woman. The farmer
Gunder Knutsen Løvsland acquired many of these. In total he had a collection of more than
160 books. At the time attitudes still differed
in terms of what farmers should be reading.
Many expressed concern that if farmers were given too much knowledge, they might no
longer wish to be farmers. On the other hand some of the philanthropists claimed that farmers
should have access to more varied
and comprehensive knowledge. The Danish Agricultural
Society shared this view and compiled a list of books suitable for farmers.
This
article reviews
Gunder Løvslands book collection and discusses similarities and differences between his
books and the Agricultural
Society’s
selection of books. There is extensive concurrence of
what constituted good books
(i.e. they are useful), however,
there are also differences. The
philanthropists did not believe that political or socially critical books were appropriate for the
common man.
Gunder’s
book collection shows that
the philanthropists
probably
underestimated the interest of the general public in such literature.