Diplomatarium Danicum is an ongoing publishing project funded by The Carlsberg Foundation (Carlsbergfondet). The principal aim of the project is to publish medieval letters from Denmark as well as material from outside Denmark that refers to Danish affairs. The records that we publish include medieval charters, privileges, wills, treaties and some private letters that are judicial in nature; these types of text are called diplomer in Danish, or 'records' in English. They are written mainly in Latin, Low German and Danish, with Danish becoming more widely used in these records around the beginning of the fifteenth century.
The material is nowadays housed in archives throughout Europe; however, the majority of it can be found in the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet) in Copenhagen. All of the published records are accompanied by translations into modern Danish which we hope will make the material accessible not just to specialists but to all those who are interested in the Danish Middle Ages. The translations are published in Danmarks Riges Breve (‘Letters of the Kingdom of Denmark’), an edition that accompanies Diplomatarium Danicum. The supplement volumes with indices can be accessed via the navigation menu to the left.
The project, Diplomatarium Danicum, started in 1932 and since then more than 18,000 records have been published covering the period between 789 and 1412. The editorial board, under the auspices of the Society for Danish Language and Literature, are currently working on records from the period between 1413 and 1450.
Diplomatarium Danicum and Danmarks Riges Breve are available in the following formats:
As printed publications covering the years 789–1400 (published by Munksgaard and by C.A. Reitzel).
Digitally on-line covering the years 1401–12. We intend to continue publishing on the Internet in this way in the future. The digital publications are freely accessible through this portal for the Danish Middle Ages and Renaissance.