Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World

by David King

  In contrast to Rudbeck, Hadorph and the College of Antiquities were quickly choosing other powerful men as patrons, including De la Gardie’s own rivals, Sten Bielke, Göran Gyllenstierna, and Claes Fleming (Schück, Hadorph, 160–62).

  CHAPTER 15: AND THEN THE SNAKE THAWED

  Olof Rudbeck’s words forming the epigraph to this chapter are found in his letter to Count de la Gardie, 29 November 1670, Annerstedt, Bref II, 77. Professor Henrik Schütz’s background comes from Annerstedt, UUH II, 207–8, as well as Annerstedt, Bref III, cxxxvi ff. The students’ dislike of Schütz is discussed by Annerstedt, including their chanting outside his window, Bref IV, ccviii, n. 1. Rudbeck’s appeal for the library position appears in his letter of 13 January 1682, Annerstedt, Bref III, 188–89. Jonas Rugman’s manuscript-hunting missions are analyzed in Schück, KVHAA I, 203ff., and in Lindroth, Stormaktstiden, 280; Hadorph and the College of Antiquities are treated also by Schück KVHAA and also Hadorph. Annerstedt’s UUH II, 208–13, discusses the struggle for the library.

  That Hadorph began to see Rudbeck as the main opponent for the college, and fear that he would put the college’s work “in the shadows,” is shown by Schück in Hadorph, 167–68. Hadorph’s vanity is also discussed, though Schück believed it was not as pronounced as in others of the day, such as Verelius, Hadorph, 87–89. The praise of Atlantica, however, “jarred the ears” of the College of Antiquities members Örnhielm and Hadorph, 170.

  Schütz’s attempt to obtain Verelius’s position and Schütz’s trip to Stockholm while Verelius was on his deathbed are found in Annerstedt, Bref III, cxxxvii. The relative who probably helped him gain the position was Johan Bergenhielm, one of the royal secretaries in Stockholm. Rudbeck’s clashes in the consistory and his defeat are shown in Annerstedt, Bref III, cxxxvii–cxxxxv. Rudbeck’s hiding of the keys is in Annerstedt, Bref III, cxxxix, n. 1. According to Annerstedt, Uppsala was in a “true state of war” (cxxxviii).

  Rudbeck’s words in the narrative come from his letter dated 13 January 1682, printed in Annerstedt, Bref III, 73–74. Rudbeck’s answer to Schütz’s demand that he return the manuscripts was printed by Gödel (1897), 168. Rudbeck’s arguments for a chance to defend himself against the charges of forged documents are found in, among other places, his letter of 26 February 1684. Some of Rudbeck’s responses to the Inquisition Commission were published in Annerstedt, Bref III, 206–26, 256–65. Another response to the chancellor, full of information about the university, is on 226–51. Rudbeck’s requests for access to university records appear as supplements to this letter. Annerstedt saw the creation of the Inquisition as a response of Rudbeck’s angered enemies (Bref III, cil). Strindberg basically agrees on this point, claiming that Schütz and Arrhenius intended to use the Inquisition to blame Rudbeck for the university’s problems (254).

  All the Inquisition’s demands are outlined by Annerstedt, Bref III, cil–cl; UUH II, 223–35; and Rudbeck was treated as their main goal, II, 230. Annerstedt called Schütz the “grand inquisitor,” Bref III, cxxxxvii; and Atterbom ([1850], 423) made a comparison to the Spanish Inquisition, not least in turning on its own members. Rudbeck’s irony about their honor is found in Annerstedt, Bref III, cil ff.

  Rudbeck describes Schütz storming the press in an undated letter of 1685, LUB, De la Gardie släktarkiven: Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie 93:1, reprinted in Annerstedt, Bref III, 266–69. Sithellius’s letter, 20 May 1684, was published in Nelson (1950), 51. Although originally written in Swedish, this letter had been translated into Latin and its claims intensified. The dispute with the College of Antiquities is found in Annerstedt’s UUH II, 235–40, and Bref III, clxii–clxvi, as well as in Schück, KVHAA III, 366–401; Atterbom, Minne II, 41ff.; Lindroth, Stormaktstiden, 299–300; and Strindberg, Bondenöd och stormaktsdröm, 259.

  Rudbeck paid the expenses for the publication of the Collections. The first one, De viri clarissimi Olavi Rudbeckii Atlantica Diversorum Testimonia, appeared in 1681; and the second, Auctarium Testimoniorum, in 1685 (Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 25 March 1685, Supplement, printed in Annerstedt, Bref III, 226–51, particularly 251). Another controversial letter in the collection was from Jena professor of law Schubartus, who claimed that Rudbeck’s theories would correct some of Schefferus’s errors about the Goths, 18 January 1683, printed in Nelson (1950), 46.

  The right to censorship was found in the 1655 constitution (Schück, KVHAA III, 373). All of these challenges set Rudbeck back in his plans. Before the crisis erupted, for instance, Rudbeck believed that the second volume would be done by the summer of 1684 (letter of 26 February 1684, RA, Kanslers embetets handlingar för Uppsala universitet arkiv E.11:8).

  Rudbeck’s economic sacrifices are clear from glancing at his letters at this time, including, for instance, 27 March 1683, RA, Kanslers embetets handlingar för Uppsala universitet arkiv E.11:8, and 23 March 1682, E.11:7. The expenses and Rudbeck’s own contributions are noted in his supplements to a letter dated 25 March 1685 (Annerstedt, Bref III, esp. 240–51). Rudbeck’s words on being too shy to beg and having no strength to quarrel come from a letter to De la Gardie, 31 March 1685, reprinted 254–56. This is also the source for not daring to string the bow any tighter. In 1685, when Rudbeck was in bad economic straits, a merchant refused to extend him any further credit. In outrage, Rudbeck immediately took off his coat in the market and used it as collateral (Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 16 July 1685, LUB, De la Gardie släktarkiven: Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie 93:1.

  On threatening to sink a second time like Plato’s Atlantis, Rudbeck certainly feared the risks of De la Gardie’s planned retirement (Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 22 October 1684, reprinted in Annerstedt, Bref III, 204).

  Jacob Arrhenius as a treasurer, Annerstedt’s UUH II, 204–7; his comments to the Bref III, cxxxv–cxxxvi. Rudbeck had moved more quickly in his career than Hadorph, and then helped him (Schück, Hadorph, 57–58, also 98). The relationship between Rudbeck and Hadorph, however, was under great strain even before the conflict over antiquities (Rudbeck’s letter of 14 December 1679, copy in KB, Örnhielmiana, and printed in Annerstedt, Bref II, 179–82). Part of the background, too, was the hostility between Verelius and Hadorph. Their relationship had moved from positive to disintegration: salary disputes, antiquarian rivalries, the Curio lawsuit, and the dispute over Verelius’s support of his nephew, Isthemius-Reenhielm, as a member of the college (as Hadorph wanted his son Johannes). Schück, Hadorph, 97–108, and the Isthemius dispute, 119–22.

  Rudbeck described his carriage accident and vertigo in a letter to the chancellor, 24 May 1684, Annerstedt, Bref III, 199. As the crisis deepened, Rudbeck’s dizziness became worse (9 May 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 274). Rudbeck’s great disappointment and the image of the snake come from his letter to the chancellor dated 1 July 1684, Annerstedt, Bref III, 202. This story is also found in an Aesop fable, in Olivia and Robert Temple’s edition of Aesop, The Complete Fables (1998), fable 82, 65.

  CHAPTER 16: THE ELYSIAN FIELDS

  This struggle is outlined in Annerstedt’s UUH II, 235–43, and Bref III, clxii–clxvi; Atterbom (1850), 425ff.; Schück’s Hadorph, 174–82; and many places in Schück’s KVHAA. Hadorph’s intentions for printing Stiernhielm’s work, De Hyperboreis, come from Schück, KVHAA III, 320; and Lindroth, Stormaktstiden, 269. Like Atterbom ([1851], 58–59), I think it would have been interesting to see what Hadorph and his friends, including the royal historiographer and natural law theorist Samuel Pufendorf, would have written.

  Arrhenius’s comparison of Rudbeck to a crow is an old device, found in Aesop, The Complete Fables, translated by R. and O. Temple (1998), fable 162, 119. Credit for founding the College of Antiquities was disputed, and both Hadorph and Rudbeck claimed the distinction. One possible resolution, offered by Schück, is that Hadorph proposed the institution and Rudbeck secured De la Gardie’s support (KVHAA II, 2–3; and Hadorph, 65).

  Rudbeck’s comparison of his response to the college’s letter and drinking the best liquor is found in his letter of 11 J
une 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 285. His response to the college attack came three days later (Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 14 June 1685, printed in Annerstedt, Bref III, 287–93). The words about the French ambassador and other praise also come from this letter (289). The king freeing Rudbeck from the censorship is noted by Annerstedt, Bref III, clxiv; and Atterbom (1851), 38–39. The college’s accusations are in a letter from the Collegium Antiquitatum Patriae to De la Gardie, 4 June 1685, copy, KB, Örnhielmiana O.20. Rudbeck’s defense was taken from his own letter to the count, 14 June 1685, in Annerstedt, Bref III, 287–93. Rudbeck’s words on the college, not wanting to obtain their subsidies, which Schück cited and believed, are on pages 173–74. De la Gardie’s response, dated 18 June 1685, was printed in C. C. Gjörwell, ed., Den svenske Mercurius, February 1760, 105–14.

  The clash between Rudbeck and the College of Antiquities is treated in Schück, KVHAA III, 366–401; Schück, Hadorph, 174–82; and Annerstedt, Bref III, clxii–clxvi. The college’s move to Stockholm was perhaps not as radical as it might seem today. After the deaths of many older members and the move of others to the capital, few were still in Uppsala (Schück, Hadorph, 118). This was not the way it appeared to De la Gardie, however.

  The tryckeritunna was a considerable fund for antiquities, the money based on 2,221 kyrkohärbärgen across the country contributing a bushel of grain (valued at three daler silvermynt) to equal some 6,000 a year. The problem, of course, was collecting the money in the large country, where many people resented the tax, if they did not outright resist it. Many disputed its legality, “revocerad” back in 1637 (Schück, Hadorph, 111–15, 122–26). Additional insight on the history of the tryckeritunna is found in Abel Ahlquist’s “The History of the Swedish Bible,” in Scandinavian Studies, vol. 9 (1926).

  Hadorph was one of the best-paid officials in Sweden, earning theoretically over 2,200 daler silvermynt, compared with a professor at 700, an assessor in court at 900, and even a landshövding at 1,500 (Schück, Hadorph, 117 and 127). A landshövding was a local governor whose power in most parts of Sweden could be compared, in the words of one observer, with a combined lord lieutenant and sheriff (John Robinson, Account of Sweden, 1688 [1998], 13). Hadorph’s official salary, though, was in reality somewhat less. Teachers reduced to begging are described in Schück, Hadorph, 188.

  The conclusion of the Curio lawsuit is described in Annerstedt, Bref III, clxvi–clxix, and the printer’s fate in Bref IV, ccx–ccxi. Valuable information on the press comes also from supplements AZ, AA, and AAA to Rudbeck’s letter of 25 March 1685 (Annerstedt, Bref III, 247–51). Rudbeck’s support of Curio is described in many places, particularly a letter of 3 August 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 295, and another letter with the same date, 296–97. Rudbeck’s pawning of copies of Atlantica comes from a letter dated 12 October 1685 (Annerstedt, Bref III, 305). The descriptions of Arrhenius and Schütz’s efforts to block Curio come from an undated letter in September 1685, probably written around the middle of the month. By 16 September, Rudbeck was writing to ask the chancellor to seek help from the king in the Curio conflict (Annerstedt, Bref III, 301).

  Rudbeck’s letters shed some light on his work with the sagas, for instance, 2 June 1680, RA, Kanslers embetets handlingar för Uppsala universitet arkiv E.11:7. Rudbeck’s printing of the Norse sagas is listed in Rudbeckius’s Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana (1918). Before printing the sagas, Rudbeck was urging manual copying to protect the manuscripts from too much handling, according to Rudbeck’s letter to De la Gardie, 20 March 1682, RA, Kanslers embetets handlingar för Uppsala universitet arkiv E.11:7.

  The attempt to secure funds from the Stockholm city treasury is discussed in Rudbeck’s letter to De la Gardie, 9 May 1685, printed in Annerstedt, Bref III, 276. His hope of following the English example by publishing Atlantica in installments and the report on the state of his debts are from a letter to De la Gardie, 9 May 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 274–76. Other fund-raising attempts, including loans from students and readers, are found in a letter dated 12 October 1685 (Annerstedt, Bref III, 306). Rumors of possible royal support were noted by Rudbeck in a letter to De la Gardie, 11 June 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 284–86. Both the archbishop and the landshöfding were privately assuring Rudbeck of success. See also Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 13 September 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 298–99. The king’s letter of 6 October 1685 and his opinion of Rudbeck’s Atlantis project are cited in part in Atl. II, 4–5, 8. The second volume of the Atlantica was dedicated to Charles XI, just as the third would be to dedicated to his son and successor, Charles XII, with more words on Rudbeck’s appreciation (III, 4).

  State funding put the search on a solid financial basis: a 200-riksdaler award, with “annually” scribbled in the margins, 13 July 1693 copy, KB, Autografsamling, printed in Annerstedt, Bref IV, 340–42; and Rasmus Nyerup, Olof Rudbeck den œldre. Et biographisk omrids. Sœrskilt aftrykt af det skandinaviske litteratur selskabs-skrifter for 1813 (1814), 59–63. The level of support is also seen in a supplement to Rudbeck’s letter to Bengt Oxenstierna, dated 13 January 1697, Annerstedt, Bref IV, 353–57. The reference to the clinking of coins was used first for De la Gardie’s subsidy, which galvanized Rudbeck back into action (Rudbeck to De la Gardie, 21 April 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 269).

  The president of the Chancery, Bengt Oxenstierna, was, at this time, a great supporter. According to Oxenstierna’s secretary, Rudbeck’s theories were “frequently the running topic” of discussion and the president “repeatedly punctuated his solemn public charges” with the reading of Atlantica. In fact he claimed that Oxenstierna’s reading of Atlantica was so vigorous that he often did not heed pressing matters of state. C. Staude, 11 November 1689, Nelson (1950), 93. Rudbeck’s victory in the Inquisition is discussed in Annerstedt, Bref III, cli–clii.

  Confucius was introduced into learned Europe with Philippe Couplet’s translation of the Analects, Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687). The questions about China were from the German oriental scholar Professor Müller (Mullerus Greiffenhagius), November 1685 in Nelson (1950), 89. See also Rudbeck’s own investigations about Swedes in China, for instance, KB, Atland tabulae med anteckningar av O Rudbecks hand (F.m.73). Rudbeck acknowledges the comments of the royal geographer Sanson, citing the discussion between Silenus and King Midas on Atlantis, found in Aelianus’s Varia Historia (Atl. II, 138). Among the reasons for Swedes in India were the Swedish names for many places he saw (Atl. III, 471–86). Rudbeck’s discussion of the various representations of the sun is the longest chapter in the entire Atlantica (II, 148–449).

  Rudbeck’s hopes for sending Peringer out on another, even more ambitious, journey around Europe were noted in a letter to Bengt Rosenhane, 20 November 1683, Annerstedt, Bref III, 194. Peringer would later succeed Örnhielm as a member of the College of Antiquities, in 1689, and publish his influential edition of Snorri’s Heimskringla. Many other trips were taken, or at least planned. The German traveler Engelbrecht Kempfer, for one, hoped to use the opportunity of accompanying the Swedish embassy to Japan to explore the Far East for more evidence of Rudbeck’s theories. His letter, dated 20 February 1683, asks Rudbeck for an itinerary (printed in Nelson [1950], 48). Visitors seeking out Rudbeck and a trip to Old Uppsala are noted by Annerstedt, Bref IV, cclxiii. The Polish resident was identified as possibly F. G. Galetzki, Annerstedt, Bref IV, cclxiv, n. 1. Rudbeck’s letter to Bengt Oxenstierna elaborates on the colorful occasion (372–74), which was discussed in Annerstedt, Bref IV, cclxiv–cclxvii; and Eriksson (2002), 614–17. The reference to the tourist industry is in Rudbeck’s letter to De la Gardie, 2 October 1685, Annerstedt, Bref III, 302.

  Rudbeck’s Campus Elysii is treated in Eriksson (2002), 250–54, and Lindroth (1975), 429–32. The romantic poet in question was P. D. A. Atterbom, his words on the Atlantica coming from Atterbom (1850), 281. The great fire of 1702 is described in Eenberg’s En utförlig relation om den grufweliga eldzwåda och skada, som sig tildrog med Uppsala stad den 16 Maii, åhr 1702 (1703), as well as in
two of Rudbeck’s letters to Oxenstierna: 17 May 1702 and 26 May 1702, printed in Annerstedt, Bref IV, 387–88 and 389–90. The fire is also described in Annerstedt, Bref IV, cclxxviii–cclxxi; and Annerstedt, UUH II, 350–52. Some manuscripts at Rudbeck’s house were lost, including an early Latin manuscript of Saxo Grammaticus, which Rudbeck refers to in various places in Atlantica, such as II, 83, and III, 675–76. Klemming (1863) has noted a list of manuscripts cited in Rudbeck’s work that are no longer in existence. Another manuscript lost in the fire was a codex of Heimskringla (Gödel [1897], 166).

  Rudbeck’s part in rebuilding Uppsala is noted in Eriksson (2002), 620; Annerstedt, Bref IV, cclxxxi–cclxxxii; Annerstedt, UUH II, 353; Atterbom (1851), 117; and Fries (1896), 30.

  EPILOGUE

  Charles XII had grown up with Norse sagas and Rudbeck’s Atlantica (Atterbom [1851], 64; Strindberg [1937], 316ff.). Victories of this warrior king were sometimes celebrated in Rudbeckian terms, for instance making him Sweden’s Hyperborean king (Strindberg, 329–30); Charles XII’s officers searching for Rudbeck’s theories are noted (401). The Battle of Narva has received quite a bit of attention in Swedish and European sources, as noted, for instance, by Hatton (1968), especially 152–54, and Voltaire, 48–54. Rudbeck’s words on the hands black from chemistry and the back aching from stargazing come from a letter cited in Annerstedt, Bref IV, cxcv. Rudbeckia was named by Carl Linnaeus in honor of the Rudbecks, Olof and Olof junior.