PEDERSEN, CHRISTIERN. - Danish humanist and theologian, b. about 1480 at Helsing, d. there on 16 Jan. 1554. He studied at the University of Greifswald in 1496 and subsequently became a canon in the archbishopric of Lund.
In Paris he published a Latin-Danish vocabulary and the editio princeps of Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesto Danorum in 1514, from a manuscript subsequently lost. Having returned to his homeland, he began various other historical works at Lund and became close to King Cristiano II, whom he also followed into exile. Having become a Lutheran, he began a Danish translation of the Bible. He was close to Cristiano II during the expedition to Norway, but after the imprisonment of the former sovereign he obtained the protection of Federico I and permission to reside at Malmö and establish a printing press there. In 1536 Cristiano III entrusted him with translating the entire Bible: this work, known as the Bible of Cristiano III, completed in 1543 and revised by various theologians, appeared in 1550.