En Ny Psalmebog 1553

Tausens, Pedersens eller Vingaards salmebok?

Abstract

Who edited the Danish hymnal En Ny Psalmebog from 1553, traditionally called «Tausen’s salmebok»? That is the question this article tries to answer. There are many reasons why the reformation bishop Hans Tausen cannot be its editor. The author argues that Chr. Pedersen, a former catholic priest and prolific publisher, is a much more likely candidate. His hymnal from 1533, the so called «Malmø-salmeboken», shows a number of similarities with the 1553 hymnal. At the time when Tausen was claimed to be the editor of the latter, Pedersen’s hymnal was not known to the Danish hymnologists since the only surviving copy belonged to a library in Christiania. Also, they have put too much trust in Hans Thomissøn’s information about Tausen’s role in his preface to the 1569 hymnal. The article points out a number of misprints and poor graphics in the 1553 hymnal, which may be due to the printer’s German origin and Pedersen’s sudden illness in 1544, the hypothetic time of the publishing of a lost edition of Malmø-salmeboken.