Peder Hansen Resen

Peder Hansen Resen (17 June 1625 – 1 June 1688) was a Danish historian, legal scholar and president of Copenhagen. He lived in what was then Denmark–Norway.

Early life and education Peder Hansen Resen was born 17 June 1625 in Copenhagen. He was the son of the Bishop of Zealand, and Thale Vinstrup. As a young child he was privately tutored until 1641, when he began attending Vor Frue Skole. In 1643 he matriculated at the University of Copenhagen where he passed the theological exam in 1645. After graduating, he worked returned to Vor Frue Skole as a teacher.

In May 1647, accompanied by Rasmus Bartholin, he set off on a trip abroad. Resen's most famous work, however, was the . In the process of researching for the work, Resen compiled a vast collection of information, which alone comprised 30 folios. This included several copper and wood engravings that he commissioned of maps, bird's eye views of regions, and assorted images. The publication of such a substantially sized work proved difficult, and the work was never published in its entirety. As test publications, he published his work on Samsø in 1675, and Copenhagen in 1677, but no further sections of the atlas were published in full. Towards the end of Resen's life, a few abbreviated extracts were published by other scholars, including the priest . In 1685, a committee was formed to review the atlas at last, and it seemed that the work would finally be published.

After Resen's death in 1688, his will entrusted his widow, Anna Meier, with seeing to the publication of his work. She successfully made steps toward publishing the work, entrusting historian with the printing. Anna died a year after her husband, and Aarsleb took up a position as a village priest in 1692 and abandoned his intent to publish the . Resen's folios and the plate engravings he had commissioned for the atlas became part of the Copenhagen University Library. The library suffered a fire in 1728, in which a total of 39 of Resen's folios were destroyed. These contained his revised work for the atlas as well as his preliminary notes. Several of the copper engravings created by cartographer Johan Huusman which were held by the library survive to this day, including maps of Jutland, Bornholm, Møn, and Samsø.

Only a manuscript of seven volumes of folios survived, as they had been prepared for publication and privately held by . After the fire, Lerche realized that his copy had become priceless, and kept the work in his private collection, as did his son, who inherited it after him. Towards the end of his life, Lerche's son bequeathed his works to the king. A transcript of the seven surviving volumes of were briefly loaned to the architect Lauritz de Thurah, who made a copy of the work for his reference while compiling his own history of Copenhagen. In 1794, a fire at Christiansborg Palace destroyed Lerche's copy which was then part of the crown's collection. The transcribed copy created by Thurah was donated to the Royal Library, and remains intact to this day.

List of works . (1668) . (1674) . (1675) . (1685)