Publication of Peter Forsskål's Tankar om borgerliga friheten (1759)

3 February 2010
revised

 

Forsskål's Thoughts on Civil Liberty (Tankar om borgerliga friheten) was printed in Stockholm on 23 November 1759 in a version which Forsskål had modified in consultation with the official censor Oelreich. On the very day of publication, the Kanslikollegium met and decided to ban the book. The Rector of the University of Uppsala, Forsskål's former teacher Linnaeus (Carl von Linné), was instructed to gather in all copies. Of the 500 copies printed, only 79 could be found and destroyed. In February 1760 an official ban on the publication of the work was promulgated. Its title page is reproduced below (no. 2).

We list surviving copies of the first edition. If you know of the existence of other copies, we should be pleased to be able to add them to this list.

A new edition, prepared by David Goldberg, Gunilla Jonsson, Thomas von Vegesack, Gunnar Persson and Helena Jäderblom and published in 2009, is the first to reproduce Forsskål's original text which is preserved in the papers of the Kanslikollegium in the National Archives in Stockholm. Copies of this new edition with an introduction and English translation can be ordered from Bokförlaget Atlantis AB, Stockholm.

Further information about the new edition and translation of the original version of the Tankar om borgerliga friheten can be found in Swedish and English on the web site Peter Forsskål: Swedish social philosopher .

Texts printed in the eighteenth century

  1. 1759 (first edition)
    Tankar om borgerliga friheten.
    Stockholm: tryckt hos directeuren Lars Salvius, 1759.
    4°: [1–3] 4–8 p.; 4 leaves, signed )(2, )(3.
    Contents:
    )(1r 'Tankar | Om | Borgerliga | Friheten. | [row of type ornaments] | STOCKHOLM, | Tryckt hos Directeuren LARS SALVIUS, 1759.';
    )(1v 'Imprimatur | N. VON OLREICH.';
    )(2r '[headband, 25x104 mm] | §. 1. | J5u mera man får lefwa efter egit behag, ju mera tror man | sig wara fri. ...';
    on )(8v 'GUD den Allrahögsta, som wårdar menniskjors sällhet, föröke | wår Swenska Frihet, och beware den til | ewärdeliga tider! | [group of type ornaments]'.
    Copies recorded:
    • Sweden
      • National Library of Sweden, Stockholm (2 copies)
      • Bergius Collection, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm University Library
      • University Library, Uppsala
        1. Sv. Polit. Skr. Kaps.
        2. MS U 141, acquired in 1790, previous owner Sigfrid Lorentz Gahm (1725–1794)
      • University Library, Gothenburg
      • University Library, Lund
      • City Library, Växjö
      • Private collection
    • Finland
      • National Library of Finland, Helsinki
        1. H Cal.-Naum. B.6.21, previous owner probably Professor Christian Naumann (1810-1888)
        2. H Reenpää Filosofia Forsskål, collection donated by Professor Heikki A. Reenpää in 2004
      • Library of Parliament, Helsinki (XIX.2.c Forsskål Per)
      • University Library, Turku (PÄÄ Fennica s.Ai.II.86)
    • United Kingdom
      • British Library, London (Cup.410.f.491; acquired in 1993 from Bennett Gilbert, Los Angeles)
      • Natural History Museum, London (stamped 'Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. 23 June [19]28')
    • United States
      • Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,
        Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
    		 Title page from WikiCommons
    Title page of Tankar, 1759
    Complete facsimile in Wikimedia Commons
  2. 1760 (proclamation banning publication)
    Kongl. Maj:ts Nådiga Förbud emot en af trycket utkommen skrift, under titul: Tankar om borgerliga friheten &c. Gifwit Stockholm i Råd-Cammaren then 28. Februarii 1760.
    [Stockholm] : Tryckt uti Kongl. Tryckeriet, [1760].
    4 pages: 4°.
    		Title page of Förbud
  3. 1792 (second edition)
    Tankar om borgerliga friheten, i anledning af den nu så allmänt omtalade frihets-principen hos fransoserna.
    Stockholm: Tryckt hos Johan A. Carlbohm, 1792.
    12 pages: 8°.

The Censor's changes to Forsskål's text

Gunilla Jonsson has prepared a chart showing the variants between Forsskål's original manuscript, the 1759 printed version (as modified by negotiation with the official Censor), and the posthumous edition published in 1792, together with a brief introductory essay.
Variants in Peter Forsskål's Tankar om Borgerliga Friheten

Modern editions and translations

1970
Peter Forsskål och Tankar om borgerliga friheten. by Torsten Steinby.
Helsingfors: Hufvudstadsbladet, 1970.
115 p., 8 p. of facsim.
1979
Commemorative postage stamp issued by the Finnish Post Office with Forsskål's portrait and the title page of the Tankar om borgerliga friheten
(image from fi.wikipedia.org).
 postage stamp (Finnish Wikipedia)
1980
Tankar om borgerliga friheten.
Stockholm, 1980.
10 p.
1984
Tankar om borgerliga friheten : Peter Forsskål on civil liberty.
Facsimile with postscript by Teddy Brunius.
Stockholm : Rediviva, 1984.
32 p.
2006
'Gedanken über die Bürgerfreiheit', in: Jahrbuch für finnisch-deutsche Literaturbeziehungen, 2006: 35–39 (German translation by Gabriele Schrey-Vasara)
2009
Thoughts on Civil Liberty / Tankar om borgerliga friheten.
Edition and translation of the original manuscript, with background, by David Goldberg, Gunilla Jonsson, Helena Jäderblom, Gunnar Persson and Thomas von Vegesack.
Stockholm: Bokförlaget Atlantis AB, 2009.
40 + 40 p., soft cover. ISBN 978-91-7353-360-7.
Front cover
2010

A French translation by Jean-François and Marianne Battail

A German translation by Gabriele Schrey-Vasara

A Russian translation by Irina Novitskaya (Swedish text) and Andrei Richter (Introduction).

A Spanish translation by Carmen Montes

The original Swedish text

2011

An Arabic translation, sponsored by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States

Page created by David J. Shaw

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