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656 NOTES TO VOLUME I.
NOTE 46.
BENGT BERGIUS.
a
Bengt Bergius was born in 1723, and died in 1784. He became
a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1766, and was its president
in 1760, and again in 1780. He was also member of several learned
societies abroad. While a student at Lund in 1741, he was encouraged
by Prof. Lagerbring to make collections of historical articles and
papers; and throughout the whole of his life he was a great antiquarian,
and collected much useful information in history and the natural
sciences. Concerning the Collection of Letters from which Docu
ments 7 and 8, and many other documents in Sections III and IX ,
are taken, we read in the "Swedish Biographical Lexicon ," under
the head of Bengt Bergius, as follows: “Besides many historical
contributions in manuscript, which were among the books in his
library, Bergius left a collection of papers and letters which throw
light on Swedish history, and the history of literature. These letters
are in his own hand -writing, and are mostly very beautifully written,
and they fill twenty thick quarto volumes. The collection consists
altogether of such papers as had never been printed before, and most
of the letters are copied from the originals, their orthography being
carefully preserved. Each document is furnished with a notice of
whence it has been taken . There are documents extending over
several centuries, but for the most part they belong to the times in
which Bergius himself lived . Agreeably to his wishes, which were
complied with by his surviving brother, this collection became the
property of the Academy of Sciences. In obedience to his directions,
it was placed in a box, sealed with the Academy’s and his brother’s
seal, and deposited in the Riksens Ständer Bank, where it was to
remain unopened until after the lapse of fifty years, when the Academy
of Sciences might remove it and have it opened. In the year 1835,
the seals were broken, and the collection was handed over by the
Academy of Sciences to Professor Geijer, with instructions to examine
it and report upon it."
The sources on which Bergius drew for the documents respecting
Swedenborg that are found in his collection, were Swedenborg’s
correspondence, which was presented to the Academy of Sciences by
his heirs in 1772, together with all his other manuscripts. The most
important of these letters Bergius embodied in his collection, but
there was a large number which he did not consider of sufficient im
portance to copy. The whole of Swedenborg’s correspondence has
since disappeared from the Library of the Academy of Sciences,
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