Throughout his reign, Christian IV (1588-1648) distinguished himself as a remarkable patron of the arts and sciences. One of the projects to which he and his chancellor paid most attention was the promotion of an up-to-date account of Danish history in Latin. Considerable resources were spent on the project. As a result no less than two histories of Denmark appeared in the 1630s, the Rerum Danicarum historia by Johannes Pontanus and the Historia Danica by Johannes Meursius. They were to serve as standard works on Danish history for European politicians, diplomats and intellectuals.

Historiography at the Court of Christian IV presents a comparative study of the two histories. The interplay between the authors and the Danish government is a central theme. Important political issues, such as Denmark's relations to Sweden and the quasi-hereditary nature of the Danish monarchy, are shown to be reflected in both works. Their relation to contemporary trends in European historiography is explored, and it is argued that they are surprisingly different, in style as well as in subject matter.

In modern scholarship, the official national historiography has been a neglected area of the cultural programme of Christian IV. In Historiography at the Court of Christian IV, Skovgaard-Petersen demonstrates that these monumental national histories deserve a more prominent place within Danish intellectual history than they have hitherto been given.

Dr. Karen Skovgaard-Petersen is a senior research librarian at the Royal Library, Copenhagen. She is the author of A Journey to the Promised Land: Crusading Theology in the Historia de profectione Danorum in Hierosolymam.

Pressen skrev
"A doctor in both Latin and History, Skovgaard-Petersen is highly qualified for the double task of scrutinizing the texts and interpreting their role in a perspective of early nation-building. Little attention has been devoted to the work of Pontanus and Meursius, making the book a very valuable contribution to our knowledge of humanism and the use of history in early modern Scandinavia."
- Maria Ågren (Uppsala University, Sweden), CHOICE

"Petersen has diligently and comprehensively laid out the content and significance of these two works, leaving little to criticize. [...] Most appreciated, however, is that she has chosen to publish her book for an Anglo-phone audience."
- Joel F. Satterlee (Arizona State Univ.), The Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. XXXIV, no. 4, Winter 2003

"...humanistisk videnskab når den er bedst. Den giver nye indsigter, er reflekterende og stringent komponeret. Både sagligt og formelt er niveauet højt."
- Steffen Heiberg, Politiken

"De to lærde herrer fra 1600-tallet og deres værker beskrives med fin symmetri. Bogen er opbygget, så de skiftevis bliver holdt op mod hinanden som paralleller og som modsætninger, dels spejlet over for samtidens samfund og sat i forhold til de tidligere kongelige historieskrivere. Med imponerende stringens og dygtighed fører Karen Skovgaard-Petersen sin forskningsplan igennem, velskrivende, engageret, så læserne får lyst til at følge med."
- Kristian Hvidt, Berlingske Tidende

"minutiøst artikuleret, velstruktureret og støttet af et massivt, velbrugt fodnoteapparat"
- Massimilliano Vacis, HIST

"It is an important volume of Danish history and readers will find a valuable source for the two histories of Denmark."
- Educational Book Review

"Skovgaard-Petersen, herself both a Latinist and historian of the book, engages in the kind of critical analysis of the substance, vocabulary and style of the two works that will allow historians to appreciate their real significance as part of the self-conscious imagery of the early seventeenth-century Danish monarchy. Her analysis is aptly intended for an international audience, but also breaks genuinely new ground in terms of Danish research focusing on this crucial period."
- Thomas Munck, History. The Journal of the Historical Association