Dating a long-running story (in this case over 250 years) can be tricky and of course is also, if there are choices, ultimately, a matter of selection. Here are some of mine concerning the 18th century natural philosopher Peter Forsskål (both the first name and surname are spelled in various ways), 11th January 1732 – 11th July 1763. He was born in Helsingfors (modern day Helsinki) and died in Jerim (modern day Yemen). So, one recent date could be 6th November 2015. On that day, having received the assessment of Professor Dr. Aufgebauer that Forsskål is “tafelwürdig” a gedenktafel was unveiled in the town of Goettingen. After some consideration, it was placed, on the building at Obere Maschstrasse 5 where Forsskål seems to have resided when he was a student at the Georg-August University. The Laudatio was delivered by Professor Kurt Schoenhammer, Vice-President of the Goettingen Academy of Sciences.

Much earlier is 23rd November 1759. On that day, in Stockholm, he published Tankar om Borgerlige Friheten (Thoughts on Civil Liberty) in Stockholm. It was printed privately by Lars Salvius. There is significance in this fact. Uppsala University had refused to publish the text and the refusal was upheld by the Kanslicollegium (a ministry/a council which was responsible for a number of government tasks, most importantly in the middle of the 18th century, the censorship institution). The ideas contained in it were deemed “dangerous”. So, anticipating politicians and public figures side-stepping the mainstream media in favour of alternative media, Forsskål went around the establishment institutions. This is not only the mark of the man but also this meant the text was published in Swedish and not Latin thus ensuring a wider readership. A contemporary assessment of him can be gleaned from the advertisement for the 2013 Forsskål Symposium at Uppsala University. It describes him as ‘The provocative scholar’ and goes on, ‘A characteristic of Forsskål was his ability to question established practices and authorities, he was troublesome, and, some might even say provocative in his relation to the authorities’.

The publication was immediately recalled and later banned – yes, this is Sweden we are talking about. It is one of the least known jewels of the Enlightenment literature and sets out a list of civil liberties decades before the French or American rights’ manifestos. Its central message is that ‘…the life and strength of civil liberty consist in limited Government and unlimited freedom of the written word; as long as serious punishment follows all writing which is indisputably indecent, contains blasphemy against God, insults private individuals and incites apparent vices’. It was also positive about religious freedom and abolishing privileges (aristocratic monopoly on top jobs) – both very contentious at the time.

Bringing the story more up to date, one could select 5th - 7th May 1992 and the place, Budapest. The occasion for being there was a conference organised by the late Thomas B Riley, Executive Secretary of the International Freedom of Information Institute, FOI [Freedom of information]: Towards Open Government in the New Democracies. The present author offered a presentation, “The Idea of Transparency in Europe” which paid due deference to the world’s first Freedom of Information Act, by common consent Sweden’s 1766 law, His Majesty’s Gracious Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and of the Press. I said of the Swedish law that not much was known outside Sweden or in English about its political context – who the main players were etc etc. Forsskål was dead by the date of its adoption by the Swedish Riksdag. But, he was both a catalyst for the law and, as a natural philosopher, committed to the idea of openness and transparency which would enable citizens to participate in the life of their society [‘it is also an important right in a free society to be freely allowed to contribute to society’s well-being]. However, if that is to occur, it must be possible for society’s state of affairs to become known to everyone, and it must be possible for everyone to speak his mind freely about it. Where this is lacking, liberty is not worth its name.’ (Tankar quote para 21)

Karel Antonín Kodeda (then a lawyer in Prague) came up to me during a coffee break and suggested that I should become interested in a man called Peter Forsskål because he had written a pamphlet on “civil liberties” which contained the words, just quoted. Kodeda then sent me a copy of the colophon of the Danish book Det Lykkelige Arabien, by Thorkild Hansen where the thesis of Thoughts on Civil Liberty is published. This book was translated into Czech at the end of Prague’s Spring 1968-1970 periods.

Another seminal date is 13th November 1992. On that day I received a reply from Gunilla Jonsson then the Head, Reference Services and Historical Collections at the National Library of Sweden. I had written a speculative inquiry regarding Thoughts/Tankar to the Library, little realising that it’d be passed to Gunilla for whom the topic was of great intellectual and personal interest. However it took until July 2008 until we really connected. We agreed to meet later that year in Stockholm and in the meantime she contacted the late Thomas von Vegesack, who was also very interested in Forsskål and his themes. In fact, in 1995, von Vegesack published Smak för frihet (Taste for freedom) in which he wrote about Forsskål and his importance for the development of freedom of expression in Sweden. Gunilla, Thomas, Helena (Jaderblom), Maria (Lindstedt) and me met at the KB in November 2008 – the first meeting of what became known as Project Forsskål. We resolved to re-translate Thoughts (the first was made in the mid 1990s, by Maria, her Grandmother Agnes Jansson and Theresa Tolmie-McGrane) and seek a publisher for it. This was to be Atlantis Bokförlag AB, thanks to Thomas connection to then Editorial Director Peter Luthersson. We then adjourned to the Sturehof restaurant for lunch – which became the Project’s favourite eatery in Stockholm.

Finally, on 18th November 2009, the book was launched at the Kammarrätten in Stockholm, at an event almost on the 250th anniversary of the original publication. It was formatted in tête-bêche with Swedish on one side and English on the other; thanks to Gunilla the translation was made from the uncensored manuscript which she located in the Swedish National Archives; and 1500 copies were printed – all long gone though it can be downloaded on demand from the Atlantis website.

And the rest, as they say, is history!