Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

===Patronage of the arts===
{{anchor|Descartes|Visits|Scholars|Music}}
[[File:Dispute of Queen Cristina Vasa and Rene Descartes.png|thumb|Queen Christina (at the table on the right) in discussion with French philosopher [[René Descartes]]. (Romanticized painting by [[Nils Forsberg]] (1842–1934), after [[Pierre Louis Dumesnil]]]]

Christina has been described as the <!--Pallas or -->"[[Minerva]] of the North" due to her strong support of arts and academics.<ref>Stephan, Ruth: [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christina-queen-of-Sweden Christina, Queen of Sweden]. Britannica. Accessed December 10, 2018.</ref> In 1645, Christina invited [[Hugo Grotius]], the author of ''[[Mare Liberum]]'', to become her librarian, but he died on his way in [[Rostock]]. That same year she founded ''[[Ordinari Post Tijdender]]'' ("Regular Mail Times"), the oldest currently published newspaper in the world. In 1647, [[Johann Freinsheim]] was appointed as her librarian.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> During the Thirty Years' War, Swedish troops looted books from conquered territories and dispatched them to Sweden to win favour with Christina.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Peter H. |title=The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy |publisher= |year=2009 |isbn= |edition= |location= |pages=636, 745}}</ref> After the [[Battle of Prague (1648)]], when her armies looted [[Prague Castle]], many of the treasures collected by [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolph II]] were brought back to Stockholm. Thus, Christina acquired a number of valuable illustrated works and rare manuscripts for her library. The inventory drawn up at the time mentions 100 ''an allerhand Kunstbüchern'' ("a hundred art books of different kinds"), among them two world-famous manuscripts: the {{lang|la|[[Codex Argenteus]]}} and the {{lang|la|[[Codex Gigas]]}}.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/ |title=Codex Gigas – Kungliga biblioteket |publisher=National Library of Sweden |date=2007-05-30 |access-date=2012-03-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012230510/http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/ |archive-date=2007-10-12 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/Long/handskriftens/war-booty/#Looting%20in%20Prague|title=War booty – Kungliga biblioteket|last=Andersson|first=Åsa|website=www.kb.se|language=EN|access-date=2017-07-16}}</ref>

In 1649, 760 paintings, 170 marble and 100 bronze statues, 33,000 coins and medallions, 600 pieces of crystal, 300 scientific instruments, manuscripts, and books (including the {{lang|la|Sanctae Crucis laudibus}} by [[Rabanus Maurus]]) were transported to Stockholm. The art, from [[Prague Castle]], had belonged to [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]] and had been captured by [[Hans Christoff von Königsmarck]] during the [[Battle of Prague (1648)|Battle of Prague]] and the negotiations of the [[Peace of Westphalia]].<ref>Trevor-Roper, H. (1970) ''Plunder of the arts in the XVIIth century''</ref> By 1649–1650, "her desire to collect men of learning round her, as well as books and rare manuscripts, became almost a mania", Goldsmith wrote.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goldsmith |first=Margaret |date=1935 |title=Christina of Sweden: a psychological biography |location=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.}}</ref> To catalog her new collection she asked [[Isaac Vossius]] to come to Sweden and [[Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder|Heinsius]] to purchase more books on the market.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=isaac-vossius|title=The Correspondence of Isaac Vossius (currently 1,702 letters) – EMLO|website=emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk}}</ref>

Her <!--political--> ambitions naturally demanded a wide-ranging correspondence. Not infrequently, she sat and wrote far into the night while the servants came and went with new wax candles. The "[[Semiramis]] from the North" corresponded with [[Pierre Gassendi]], her favorite author. [[Blaise Pascal]] offered her a copy of his [[pascaline]]. She had a firm grasp of [[classical history]] and philosophy.<ref name="waithe">Waithe, Mary Ellen (1991) [https://books.google.com/books?id=YonSdfDG7aYC ''Modern women philosophers, 1600–1900''] (Springer)</ref> Christina studied [[Neostoicism]], the [[Church Fathers]], and [[Islam]]; she systematically looked for a copy of the ''[[Treatise of the Three Impostors]]'', a work bestowing doubt on all organized religion.<ref>Peter Englund: ''Sølvmasken'' (p. 27)</ref> In 1651, the [[kabbalist]] [[Menasseh ben Israel]] offered to become her agent or librarian for Hebrew books and manuscripts; they discussed his messianic ideas as he had recently spelled them out in his latest book, ''Hope of Israel''. Other illustrious scholars who came to visit were [[Claude Saumaise]], [[Johannes Schefferus]], [[Olaus Rudbeck]], [[Johann Heinrich Boeckler]], [[Gabriel Naudé]], [[Christian Ravis]], [[Nicolaas Heinsius]] and [[Samuel Bochart]], together with [[Pierre Daniel Huet]] and [[Marcus Meibomius]], who wrote a book about [[Greek dance]].

Christina was interested in theatre, especially the plays of [[Pierre Corneille]]; she was herself an amateur actress.<ref name="ReferenceA">Leif Jonsson, Ann-Marie Nilsson & Greger Andersson: Musiken i Sverige. Från forntiden till stormaktstidens slut 1720 (English: "Music in Sweden. From Antiquity to the end of the Great power era 1720") {{in lang|sv}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Lars Löfgren: ''Svensk teater'' (English: "Swedish Theatre") {{in lang|sv}}</ref> From 1638 Oxenstierna employed a French ballet troupe under [[Antoine de Beaulieu]], who also had to teach Christina to move around more elegantly.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="ReferenceB" /> In 1647, the Italian architect Antonio Brunati was ordered to build a theatrical setting in one of the larger rooms of the palace.<ref>Marker, Frederick J. & Marker, Lise-Lone (1996) [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSlvmgqtlCwC ''A History of Scandinavian Theatre''] ([[Cambridge University Press]])</ref> In 1648, she commissioned 35 paintings from [[Jacob Jordaens]] for a ceiling in [[Uppsala Castle]]. The court poet [[Georg Stiernhielm]] wrote several plays in the Swedish language, such as ''Den fångne Cupido eller Laviancu de Diane'', performed with Christina taking the main part of the goddess [[Diana (goddess)|Diana]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/> She invited foreign companies to play at [[Bollhuset]]. An [[Italian opera]] troupe visited in 1652 with [[Vincenzo Albrici]] and [[Angelo Michele Bartolotti]], a guitarist. A Dutch theater troupe with [[Ariana Nozeman]] and [[Susanna van Lee]] visited her in 1653.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/> Among the French artists she employed was [[Anne Chabanceau de La Barre]], who was made court singer.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>