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”The 43 questions”
In 1743 the Danish-Norwegian government distributed a questionaire to all government
officials. 43 questions were to be answered. As the clergy was reckoned to be the
learned class, the questionaire was also sent on to the clergy all the way from the
bishops to the vicars. The answers from bailiffs of the time, however, also show a
sound knowledge of the topics in question.
Some of the descriptions are missing today, but we still have 172 left. They will be
published in five or six volumes at The compartment of sources, The national archives of
Norway. Volume I comes in the end of this year 2003, if everything go as planned. The
original intention of the questionaire at the time was to collect material for a 9-volumes
work on norwegian circumstances, a socalled topographical work. Only one volume saw
daylight.
The questions are open, that means, they state the subject of interest, but leave it much
to the interviewee to formulate the answers and give details. The answers consequently
bear the stamp of the officials personality and in a body give an impression of what
occupied the wellbred, cultured and educated class in the early 18th century. The subject
matter is in other words a piece of history of learning in this springtime of enlightenment.
Seen in this way the questionaire shows a change of pattern in way of thought.
Our time has had the great advantage to see from the
beginning of this century the progress of science caused
by more important discoveries than many of the earlier
secula seen together.
A short view of the previous world of thought shows:
In the middle ages, roughly, the universe was seen as not understandable for man. It was
subject to the great wisdom and unscrutableness of God – or the intermediation of the
devil, inscrutable that too. The church, only, had the right to state how the world was built
and how it functioned. People were subjected to believe in a symbolic and hierachical
order of the world. A more down - to - earth inquiring attitude to the surroundings was
suppressed.
But, however, the map seemed to differ from the real world. Slowly, slowly, with many
reactions and setbacks (the new thoughts were, of course, seen as dangerous, devastating
and disintegrating on society), one worked towards a new understanding, also thanks to
the Arabic learned world. Slowly the new thoughts were accepted all over. The project of
the 43 questions shows that the thoughts of the renaissance became common amongst the
educated in Denmark-Norway too.
The nature was no longer symbolic and hierarchical. God was really present. God was
the reason for dealing with science. And science was dealt with. Getting to learn the
nature was the way to get to know the creation of God and God himself. The bishop Erik
Pontoppidan continues:
And God’s acts were the world of reality, a down-to-earth conception of our
surroundings. By studying the real world, we learned Housekeeping, the Housekeeping
of God, and the Housekeeping of man.
The Place
Ideally each place was a unit containing everything those who lived there needed and
themselves and their habitat. An example: On one of the questions concerning herbs
and deceases, one of the officials answered:
I think that God has given each and every place the herbs
they need to cure or relieve any decease they might have.
In spite of years of hunger, in 1740 to 1742, or may be because of them, one believed in
God’s reason and order, God’s plan. It was man’s duty to find this reason and this order
and his plan. God has created the world in such a way that ideally each place should
contain people enough to live from what the place could offer, or said in the opposite
way: There should be resources enough in each place so that the people in that place
could live. Therefore it is man’s duty to study the creation in order to understand Gods
Housekeeping. Each phenomenon had to be studied apart on each place. God’s plan
was fundamentally the same everywhere, but creation was infinitely rich with local
variations in countless combinations. This made it necessary to understand difference.
Each environment, each part had its duty and contributed to the whole.
The Journey
The journey got a special meaning in this context. The journey gave a continuous
experience of places and their difference. There was an obligation to tell others about it
afterwards, very often in print. There are quite a few books of travel from this time.