Christiern Pedersen

While considering writing a new Latin-Danish lexicon, he wrote a replacement for the 300-year-old Latin grammar, Doctrinale, written in 1199 by Alexander of Villedieu,[1] and still used as standard in the schools of Denmark at that time.

He wanted to publish the huge 300-year-old chronicle of Denmark, Gesta Danorum, written by Saxo Grammaticus, but he had difficulty in gaining access to a manuscript of the work.

Unexpectedly a letter arrived from Archbishop Birger Gunnersen of Lund stating that he had found a copy in his district and it would be made available to Pedersen.

As he was loyal to King Christian II, he followed him in exile to the Netherlands in 1526, after meeting him in Berlin, where he spent the next five years in the then-Dutch city of Lier.

Consequently, Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries asked Christian II to dismiss him, but the exiled king ignored her request.

His continued loyalty towards King Christian II gained him no friends among the nobility, and it did not get better when later he actively participated in the Civil War (Grevens Fejde) on the losers' side.

Finished in 1543, but first published in 1550, this work, Biblia, was not only a masterpiece of translation, but also technically excellent, with good-quality graphics and woodcuts.