Carl Bildt (1850–1931)

Baron Carl Nils Daniel Bildt (15 March 1850 in Stockholm – 26 January 1931) was a Swedish diplomat and historian. He spent most of his Foreign Office career as Swedish envoy in Rome and published extensively on Swedish historical topics relating to Rome and Italy. A son of Gillis Bildt, he inherited the baronial title on his father's death in 1894.^[1]

After a law degree from Uppsala and holding various lower-ranking diplomatic posts in London, Paris, Washington D.C., Berlin and Vienna, and as state secretary for foreign affairs, he was appointed Swedish envoy to Rome in 1889. He remained there until 1902 when he was transferred to the same position in London, but returned as envoy to Rome in 1905 and remained there as envoy until his retirement in 1920.^[2] He remained in Rome after retirement, died in 1931 and was buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners there.^[3]

Throughout his years in Italy, Bildt published a number of works on Italian or Italo-Swedish topics, starting with his Anteckningar från Italien av en svensk diplomat ("Notes from Italy by a Swedish diplomat"), with historical descriptions of a number of Italian towns. He wrote essays on earlier Swedish visits to Italy, such as the one by King Gustav III in 1783, but his main focus was on Saint Bridget of Sweden who spent her last years in Rome and Queen Christina, who settled there after abdicating from the Swedish throne (1654) and converting to Roman Catholicism (1655). With his excellent connections in Rome, Bildt was able to access until-then unused sources in Roman public and private archives and published articles on many previously unknown episodes in and aspects of Christina's later life.^[4]

He was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1901 and was a member of several foreign academies.^[5]

Notes

1. Jacobson, p. 331
2. Jacobson, pp. 330-333
3. According to the 1925 edition of Vem är det? (published in 1924), p. 75 f, he was still living in Rome. He died on 26 January 1931, according to Vem är det? 1933, p. 965. According to the official website map of the Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners in Testaccio (also known as the Protestant Cemetery), Bildt's grave is located in its Zona Terza.
4. Jacobson, pp. 333-335
5. Jacobson, p. 331

References

• Jacobson, G.: "Bildt, Carl Nils Daniel", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, pp.
• Vem är det? Svensk biografisk handbok 1925, ed. Göran Lindblad. Stockholm: Norstedt, 1924.
• Vem är det? Svensk biografisk handbok 1933. Stockholm: Norstedt, 1932.

External links

• Works by or about Carl Bildt at Internet Archive