Linguarum profession in the Academia Gustaviana in Tartu (Dorpat) and the Academia Gustavo-Carolina in Pärnu (Pernau)

Abstract

Of the five universities of Sweden in the 17th and 18th centuries, the history of Oriental studies has been often dealt with in the cases of Uppsala, Turku and Lund. While the University of Greifswald, though politically under Swedish rule (1648–1815), belongs more to the history of learning in Germany, it is my task here to give a short survey of the Oriental chair in Dorpat (now Tartu) and of studies connected with it. The University of Tartu (Dorpat) was founded in 1632 by Gustaf II Adold, and hence it was called the Academia Gustaviana. Its location near the frontier of ascendant Russia posed constant difficulties for the new university. After little more than twenty years it had to move to Tallinn (Reval) and soon afterwards to close its doors altogether (in 1665). In 1690 it was reopened, now as the Academia Gustavo-Carolina, but soon (in 1699) had to move to Pärnu on the west coast and after ten years once again, and this time permanently, closed its doors due to a new war.