Peter Oluf Brøndsted (1780-1842)

The origin of this volume is an international conference held at The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2006. Its aim was to view Brøndsted´s life and scholarship from a Danish perspective and also against the background of the wide circle of European antiquarians, architects and intellectuals, of which he was a conspicuous member. Brøndsted was one of the very first Danes to travel to Greece at the beginning of the 19th century, and on his return he created almost single-handedly an enthusiasm for ancient and contemporary Greece in the Danish public of those days. Moreover, he played a pivotal role in the formation of two collections of the National Museum of Denmark: the Royal Collection of Coins and Medals and the Collection of Classical and nerar Eastern Antiquities.