Christiern Pedersen (c. 1480 – 16 January 1554) was a Danish canon, humanist scholar, writer, printer and publisher. Education Christiern Pedersen was born in Helsingør, Denmark. He was schooled in Roskilde and studied from 1496 at the University of Greifswald. He received a baccalaureate degree in 1498 and from 1505 was a canon at Lund Cathedral. He studied at the University of Paris from 1508 to 1515, where in 1511 he received a Master of Arts degree. During his stay in Paris he developed an interest in writing, translating and publishing. At that time Paris was the undisputed capital of the still-new printing press. While considering writing a new Latin-Danish lexicon, he wrote a replacement for the 300-year-old Latin grammar, Doctrinale, written in 1199 by Alexander of Villedieu, and still used as standard in the schools of Denmark at that time. In 1510 he published his new Latin-Danish lexicon, called Vocabularium ad usum Dacorum. Gesta Danorum He wanted to publish the huge 300-year-old chronicle of Denmark, Gesta Danorum, written by Saxo Grammaticus, but he had difficulty in gaining access to a manuscript of the work. At that time the most knowledge of this work came from a summary called Compendium Saxonis located in Chronica Jutensis, dated about 1342. Undoubtedly this is also how Pedersen knew of it. Pedersen began to send letters to friends all over Denmark, trying to locate a manuscript, but they either did not have one or did not want to release it to him. He finally travelled to Denmark to search through libraries and monasteries, but still could not find one. Unexpectedly a letter arrived from Archbishop Birger Gunnersen of Lund stating that he had found a copy in his district and it would be made available to Pedersen. With the help of Jodocus Badius Ascensius (also known as Jodocus Van Asche Badius), whose relationship with Pedersen had now grown to more than just a professional one, they published this first edition, editio princeps, of the Gesta Danorum, titled Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae, 15 March 1514, in Paris. This is today the oldest known complete copy of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum. The later years In 1516, Pedersen returned to Lund and worked for Archbishop Birger Gunnersen. In 1522, he became Kanzler under the new Archbishop, Johann Wess. However, during the reign of the next Archbishop, Aage Sparre, Pedersen was accused of treason, among other things, resulting in