10.6092/issn.2240-3604/13166
Sono qui prese in esame le relazioni attivate dal libro a stampa tra il '(Magnus) Ducatus' di Finlandia, all’epoca parte del Regno di Svezia, e l’Europa continentale, in particolar modo il Sacro Romano Impero, tra la metà del XV e la metà del XVII secolo. In quel lasso di tempo, infatti, la Svezia entrò a far parte della Lega anseatica, dominata dalla Danimarca, ponendosi così in una posizione privilegiata che le consentì di acquisire un ruolo politico sempre più rilevante, anche dal punto di vista della produzione e della circolazione del libro tipografico.
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13166
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TECA
Book Contacts Between the '(Magnus) Ducatus' of Finland and Continental  Europe in the First Centuries of the Printed Book (Fifteenth-Seventeenth centuries)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://teca.unibo.it/
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Articles
2012-09-01
2021-06-23
2012-09-01
2021-07-27
21-31
TECA
Outi Merisalo
2012/09/01
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Jyväskylän yliopisto
2240-3604
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Book Contacts Between the '(Magnus) Ducatus' of Finland and Continental  Europe in the First Centuries of the Printed Book (Fifteenth-Seventeenth centuries)
https://teca.unibo.it/article/download/13166/12863
2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   OUTI MERISALO

                                                              Volumes Crossing the Sea.
                                                Book Contacts between the (Magnus) Ducatus of Finland
                                                      and Continental Europe from the Fifteenth
                                                             to the Seventeenth Century∗



ABSTRACT
This article will examine book contacts between the (Magnus) Ducatus of Finland, then part of the
Kingdom of Sweden, and Continental Europe, mainly the HRE, between the middle of the fifteenth
century and the middle of the seventeenth century. In this period, Sweden went from being a
member of a Scandinavian union dominated by Denmark to becoming a major political player in
Europe.

Sono qui prese in esame le relazioni attivate dal libro a stampa tra il (Magnus) Ducatus di Finlandia,
all’epoca parte del Regno di Svezia, e l’Europa continentale, in particolar modo il Sacro Romano
Impero, tra la metà del XV e la metà del XVII secolo. In quel lasso di tempo, infatti, la Svezia entrò a
far parte della Lega anseatica, dominata dalla Danimarca, ponendosi così in una posizione
privilegiata che le consentì di acquisire un ruolo politico sempre più rilevante, anche dal punto di
vista della produzione e della circolazione del libro tipografico.


                                                                                                                                                   __________________________________



t     here had been intense contacts between the HRE and Scandinavia
      since the Ottonian times (tenth century). The continental influence
      was intensified through the Hanseatic League that established
trading posts all over the Baltic Sea, not only on the Southern coast that
had been conquered by the Teutonic Order up to Estonia starting in the
thirteenth century, but also in the Kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden.
The political contacts were particularly important in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, when Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg (1338-1412) was
King of Sweden between 1364 and 1389, and Eric, Duke of Pomerania
(1382-1459) ruled as King over the Union of Kalmar, uniting all of
Scandinavia under his sceptre, between 1412 and 1439.


	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
∗
 Abbreviations
HRE, Holy Roman Empire

The research for this article was mainly funded by the Academy of Finland projects
100659 The Arrival of Humanism in Finland (2002–2005) and 121785 Books in Transition
(2008–2011) as well as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (June-August 2011). I
have the pleasure of thanking the members of these projects as well as Eef Overgaauw,
director of the Department of Manuscripts, and his excellent personnel, for inspiring
environment and good discussions. The organizers and public of the conference
Finnische Sprache und Literatur im Europäischen Kontext – Historische Perspektiven und
aktuelle Herausforderungen organised at the University of Greifswald in October 2011 also
provided useful insights on many of the themes treated here.



	
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Present-day Finland, since the 1947 Peace treaty of Paris, only partly
coincides with the easternmost part of the Realm of Sweden from the
twelfth century onwards. The area covered kept changing between the
period considered in this article, i.e. the fifteenth and the middle of the
seventeenth centuries, as Sweden was expanding towards the East and the
South. By the seventeenth century, it included the region of Käkisalmi
(Swedish, Kexholm) north of Lake Ladoga, and the Karelian isthmus down
to Ingria (including the region where Saint Petersburg was to be
established in 1703). As early as 1293 Sweden had undertaken a crusade in
the south-east of the Gulf of Finland, establishing the fortress of Viipuri
(Swedish Viborg, German Wiburg, Russian Vyborg) in the Northern part of
the Karelian isthmus. Viipuri rapidly developed into a centre of
international commerce with a community of tradespeople originating in
the HRE. In the sixteenth century Sweden went on to conquering Estonia
and Livonia. In the Peace of Westphalia (1648) Sweden emerged as the
main political power of Baltic Sea region, with territories down to the
South-western shores, such as Wismar, Rügen and Greifswald.1
        Finland was a Duchy of the Kingdom of Sweden in the thirteenth-
fourteenth and again in the sixteenth century. From 1581 until 1809 it had
the rank of a Grand Duchy (Magnus Ducatus), the Kings of Sweden
bearing the title of Grand Duke.
        Most Finnish tribes had been converted to Catholic Christianity in
the twelfth century by the Kingdom of Sweden and one tribe, the
Karelians, to the Orthodox faith by the missionaries of the powerful city of
Novgorod. The Dominican order arrived in Finland in 1249, taking over
the church organization to the point that the liturgy observed in Finland
was Dominican. The order established three monasteries in the most
important cities of the Magnus Ducatus, i.e. Turku (Swedish, Åbo; Latin,
Aboa), Viipuri and Rauma (Swedish, Raumo), with libraries attached. The
Franciscans played a somewhat lesser role despite their convents in these
cities, and the Brigittine order arrived as late as 1441 in Naantali (Swedish
Nådendal, Latin Vallis Gratiae).2 Finland, just as the rest of the Kingdom
of Sweden, was consequently part of the Western European cultural
sphere, with ecclesiastics studying at continental universities, especially
Paris, and bringing back to their parishes both learning and books.3
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
1 For more details, see e.g. OUTI MERISALO, Classical and humanist works in the libraries of
early modern Finland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, «Journal of Renaissance
Studies», XXIII, 2009, 2, p. 186-188.
2 For more details, see O. MERISALO, Classical works, cit., p. 186-8, and bibliography.
3 For Finns studying at different continental universities before the establishment of the

Academia Aboensis (see below p. 00), see JUSSI NUORTEVA, Suomalaisten ulkomainen
opinkäynti ennen Turun Akatemian perustamista 1640. Suomen Kirkkohistoriallisen Seuran
Toimituksia, 177, Helsinki, Suomen Kirkkohistoriallinen seura, 1997. For Mediaeval book
culture in Finland, see ANJA INKERI LEHTINEN, The Apopeciae of the Manuscripts of Hugh of
St Cher’s Works, «Medioevo», XXV, 1999–2000, p. 1–27; Kirja Suomessa. Kirjan juhlavuoden
näyttely Kansallismuseossa 25.8.-31.12.1988, edited by Esko Häkli et al., Helsinki, Helsingin
yliopiston kirjasto, 1988 and Bibliotheca Academica. Helsingfors universitetsbibliotek –



	
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The art of printing reached Scandinavia in the second half of the fifteenth
century. Until the middle of the sixteenth century there was hardly any
need for local printing houses, as Continental imports from the HRE and
the Apennine Peninsula, especially Venice, later even France and the
Netherlands, saturated the market.4 Latin was of course the language of
instruction in schools and, until the Reformation, the language of the
Church, so there was no problem of comprehension as far as educational,
theological and liturgical works were concerned. Low German
(Niederdeutsch), closely related to the Scandinavian languages (though not
to the Fenno-Ugric Finnish), was the language of non-scholarly
communication all around the Baltic Sea. The Universities, i.e. the
University of Uppsala (est. 1477) and the University of Copenhagen (est.
1479) as well as the institutions and schools of the Church were the main
customers of booksellers.5 The earliest preserved catalogue of the
Cathedral Library of Uppsala contains numerous works on Canon law
printed both in the HRE and the Apennine peninsula.6 Among the few
local printing houses were those established by Johann Snell of Lübeck,
who was first active in Odense, Denmark (1482-1483)7 and then in
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1483, as well as that of Bartholomaeus Ghotan
from Magdeburg in the HRE,8 who ran a successful business in Stockholm
in 1486-1487. Among Snell’s prints figure the bestiary Dyalogus




	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
Finlands Nationalbibliotek. Helsingfors, Helsingfors Universitetsbibliotek, 2001; the
Finnish-language web exhibit Kirjava keskiaika [Colourful Middle Ages], edited by
Tuomas Heikkilä, Jonatan Hildén, Ilkka Jokipii, Jesse Keskiaho, Juuso Koponen, Tapio
Nurminen, Jaakko Tahkokallio, of the National Library of Finland at
<http://keskiaika.kansalliskirjasto.fi/> (last consulted on 27 August 2012).
4 Up to 62 out of the 252 printing houses active in 1500 were located in the HRE; out of

the c. 25 000 incunables produced in Europe, 37% were printed in the Apennine
peninsula, 32% in the HRE, 17% in France, 7.5% in the Netherlands, 3.5% in Spain und
2% in England, FRIEDEMANN KAWOHL, Commentary on Imperial privileges for Conrad Celtis
(1501/02), in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), edited by Lionel Bently, Martin
Kretschmer, 2008, <www.copyrighthistory.org> (last consulted on 29 July 2012); W.
UNDORF, From Gutenberg to Luther, cit., p. 104-23
5 See W. UNDORF, From Gutenberg to Luther, cit., p. 126, 338, 352, 368ff. There were but few

important private libraries in fifteenth-century Scandinavia, see OUTI MERISALO, Sapere
aude. The book as a vehicle of Classical culture in Northern Europe in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Budapestinensis. Proceedings of the
Thirteenth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies (Budapest, 2006), edited by Rhoda
Schnur, David Money et al., Tempe, AZ, ACMRS, 2010, p. 80.
6 See W. UNDORF, From Gutenberg to Luther, cit., p. 368ff.
7 Snell printed GW 06010 GUILLELMUS CAOURSIN, Obsidionis Rhodiae urbis descriptio (1482)

and GW 05418 Breviarium Othoniense. [ca. 1482/83] in Odense; Sermones Vademecum de
dominicis et de sanctis (M41845) was produced either in Odense or in Lübeck.
8 According to ISAK COLLIJN, Sveriges bibliografi intill år 1600, 1, Uppsala, Svenska

Litteratursällskapet, 1934-1938, p. 55, the Ghotan family originally came from Lübeck or
had relations there.



	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 15	
  
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creaturarum by Magnus de Mayneriis (printed between 1483 and January
1485),9 Remigius,10 a grammatical treatise, and the Missale Upsalense.11
       Ghotan’s career as a printer had started in Magdeburg12 in 1479,
where he had produced, together with an experienced printer, Lukas
Brandis,13 an almanac in Low German14. As regards the Premonstratensian
Missal15 for Magdeburg, it was probably Ghotan who was responsible for
the contents, whereas Brandis took care of the printing involving the use
of red and black, a technical tour-de-force at the time.16 However, in 1480
Ghotan was probably participating in the printing of the Missale
Magdeburgense.17 From 1481 he had learnt the trade.18 Between 1484 and
1486 and again in 1488-1492 he was active as printer in Lübeck,19
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
9 M22267 MAGNUS DE MAYNERIIS, Dialogus creaturarum, (20 December 1483).
10 Remigius, or (Remigii) Regula(e) puerorum, with the incipit Dominus q(ue) pars, was a
grammar modelled on Priscian, Partitiones. The first preserved manuscripts are most
probably French from the twelfth century, see ROBERT BLACK, Humanism and Education in
Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to
the Fifteenth Century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 45-6. On the titles,
also see Remigii Autissiodorensis in Artem Donati minorem, edited by Wilhelm Fox, Lipsiae,
Teubner, 1902, p. vi, n. 3. The treatise was extremely popular in the fifteenth century,
with 81 editions printed mainly in the HRE but also in the Netherlands and Paris (GW
11123-11204).
11 M24824 [ca. 1484].
12 According to I. COLLIJN, Svensk bibliografi, cit., p. 59 a source calls him clericus

Magdeburgensis diocesis; also see Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 61.
13 Brandis was the first printer active in Lübeck, Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 61. He was one of

the successful promoters of the littera Venetiana, a type modelled on the Italian Gothic
rotunda, in Northern HRE and Saxony (Merseburg, Leipzig). It was Brandis who
introduced this type in Denmark, whereas Ghotan first used it in Sweden, see URSULA
ALTMANN, Die Leistungen der Drucker mit Namen Brandis im Rahmen der Buchgeschichte des
15. Jahrhunderts, Diss. Berlin-Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, s.e., 1971 (reprint 2005),
<http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/altmann-ursula-1974-12-18/PDF/Altmann.pdf>,
p. 24 (last consulted on 29 July 2012).
14 GW 01341 Almanach auf das Jahr 1480, niederdeutsch, [Magdeburgae, Bartholomaeus

Ghotan and Lukas Brandis 1479/80].
15 M24181 Missale Praemonstratense, Magdeburgae, Lukas Brandis and Bartholomaeus

Ghotan 1479.
16 U. ALTMANN, Brandis, cit., p. 32.
17 M24521 Missale Magdeburgense. Ordo Brandenburgensis, Magdeburgae, Bartholomaeus

Ghotan and Lukas Brandis, 1480.
18 Further Missals: M24450 Missale Hildensemense, Magdeburgae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan,

1480; M24407 Missale Hamburgense, Magdeburgae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, after 1484(?); a
breviary: GW 05505 Breviarium Verdense, [Magdeburgae], Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 1483; a
psalter, M36170 Psalterium cum canticis, [Magdeburgae], Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 1481 and
M36173 Psalterium Latinum, Magdeburgae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 1481; letters of
indulgence M27166 JOHANNES NIXSTEIN, Ablassbrief zum besten des Kampfes gegen die
Türken, Magdeburg, Bartholomäus Ghotan [ca. 1480], and M27167 JOHANNES NIXSTEIN,
Ablassbrief zum besten des Kampfes gegen die Türken, Magdeburg, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, c.
1482. Considering Ghotan’s later production, we may also mention a medical volume in
Low German, M35662 Promptuarium medicinae, niederdeutsch, Magdeburg,
Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 31 July 1483 (reproduction in Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 63).
19 U. ALTMANN, Brandis, cit., p. 33 n. 221 (last consulted on 29 July 2012); Kirja Suomessa,

cit., p. 62, 64.



	
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producing almanacs, missals, texts on popular medicine,20 morals,21 the
Crusade bull of Innocent VIII as well as the original Latin and a Low
German translation (Openbaringen) of the Revelaciones of St. Bridget of
Sweden.22 Ghotan’s work was well-known in Sweden since the Psaltarium
cum canticis printed in Magdeburg in 1481,23 which had been disseminated
in parishes by the Cathedral Chapter of Uppsala.24 Ghotan quite naturally
took over from Johann Snell in Stockholm in October 1486. For his
printing-house he could count on the custom of the Cathedral Chapters of
Uppsala and Strängnäs as well as the monastery of Vadstena, the mother
house of the Bridgetin order. He seems to have been active in Stockholm
until September 1487. Between October 1486 and September 1487 he did
not print anything in Lübeck.25 Among the first volumes printed in
Stockholm there is the Life of St. Catherine of Sweden, by Ulf Gudmarsson,
father of the saint and husband of St. Bridget.26 In addition to the Missale
Strengnense (for the use of Strängnäs),27 two psalters and two rituals for
Uppsala and Strängnäs,28 he printed the essential Latin grammar book, the
Ars minor by Donatus.29 Though he himself left Stockholm for Lübeck as
early as the end of 1487, his Stockholm printing-house, now as a filial of
his newly-established Lübeck business, run by a Johannes Fabri (Smedh)
went on producing books until 1496.30 The volumes contained liturgical
texts, a Swedish-language translation of the 1488 Crusade bull of Innocent
VIII (c. 1489/1490),31 which was printed in the Lübeck printing-house in

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
20  M28465 ORTOLF VON BAYERN, Bock der arstedien van allen krankheyden, Lübeck,
Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 1484; M49054 VALASCUS DE TARANTA, De epidemia sive peste,
niederdeutsch, Lübeck, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, s.a.
21 M43114 Speculum virtutum, niederdeutsch (Speygel der dogede), Lübeck, Bartholomaeus

Ghotan, 1485.
22   04394 BIRGITTA, Revelationes, niederdeutsch. Gebete, niederdeutsch, Lübeck,
Bartholomaeus Ghotan, [ca. 1485].
23 See above n. 19 (M36170, Psalterium cum canticis, [Magdeburgae], Bartholomaeus

Ghotan, 1481).
24 The Cathedral chapter bought a great number of volumes and resold them to the

parishes, Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 61. On the role of the Cathedral Chapter in book trade, see
TUIJA LAINE, Kolportöörejä ja kirjakauppiaita. Kirjojen hankinta ja levitys Suomessa vuoteen
1800. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia 1098, Helsinki, Suomalaisen
kirjallisuuden seura, 2006, p. 42-3.
25 Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 64.
26 GW M48835 ULFO MONACHUS, Vita sive legenda Catharinae. Miracula Catharinae.

Holmiae, [Bartholomaeus Ghotan, before 26 July 1487].
27On the relationship between the Missalia Upsalense and Strengnense, see W. UNDORF,

From Gutenberg to Luther , cit., p. 55-8.
28 M3614810 Psalterium Upsalense, [Stockholm, Bartholomäus Ghotan, 1487]; M36348

Psalterium Upsalense, [Holmiae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, ca. 1487]; M3828810 Rituale
Strengnense, Holmiae, Bartholomäus Ghotan, [ca. 1487]; M38290 Rituale Upsalense,
[Holmiae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, ca. 1487].
29 GW 08862 DONATUS, AELIUS, Ars minor, [Stockholm], Bartholomaeus Ghotan, [ca. 1487].
30 Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 65.
31 GW 02700 Articuli abbreviati der Kreuzzugsbulle Innozenz’ VIII. vom 11.XII.1488, Fassung

b, schwed, [Stockholm, Mit den Typen des Bartholomaeus Ghotan, ca. 1489/90].



	
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Latin in 1489. The Stockholm printing-house also produced the Swedish
translation of the Tractatus de diversis diaboli tentationibus of Jean Gerson.32
Ghotan went on working for Swedish institutions in Lübeck, where he
printed the Missale Aboense for the Bishop of Turku, Konrad Bitz (r. 1460–
1489).33 The Missale Aboense was a regional version in c. 120 copies of the
Missale Fratrum Praedicatorum34 published at the same time by Ghotan’s
printing-house, adapted for the use of the Bishopric of Turku. The edition
ad usum Aboensis diocesis contains a letter by Bishop Konrad Bitz and the
famous wood-cut showing St. Henry, patron saint of Finland, Bishop
Konrad Bitz and the Provost of the Cathedral of Turku, Magnus Stiernkors
(Särkilahti), with Henry’s murderer, the Finnish peasant Lalli, being
trampled on by the saint. The Missale Aboense, far from being the first
Finnish book, as it is sometimes still characterised, is thus a striking piece of
evidence on the international character of the Late Mediaeval book culture
around the Baltic Sea. It was produced in Lübeck by the international
organisation of the Dominicans for a Dominican-dominated bishopric as a
regional edition of the missal of that organisation.35
       The Lutheran Reformation reached the North-Eastern Baltic Sea
region soon after 1517. The first Lutheran preachers were active and
Lutheran books were circulating in Reval (Tallinn, Estonia) and Dorpat



	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
32 GW 05467 Breviarium Strengense, Hrsg. im Auftrag von Konrad (Rogge), Bischof von
Strängnäs, Holmiae, Johannes Fabri, 18 July 1495; GW 05499 Breviarium Upsalense. Im
Auftrag von Jakob (Ulfsson), Erzbischof von Uppsala, hrsg. von Andreas Simonis.
Holmiae, Johannes Fabri, 30 September 1496; GW 10844 JEAN GERSON, Les tentations de
l’ennemi, schwed. Übers. und mit Beig. von Erich Nicolai, Stockholm, Johannes Fabri; also
see Kirja Suomessa, cit.
33   M24188 Missale Aboense secundum ordinem fratrum praedicatorum, Lubecae,
Bartholomaeus Ghotan, [not after 17 July] 1488.
34 M24154 Missale Fratrum Praedicatorum, Lubecae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 1488 and

M24155 Missale Fratrum Praedicatorum, Lubecae, Bartholomaeus Ghotan, 17 August 1488;
also see Missale Aboense. Lübeck: B. Ghotan 1488. Pergamenttikappale, Kirja Suomessa, cit., p.
167. On Ghotan producing parallel prints, see W. UNDORF, From Gutenberg to Luther, cit.,
p. 58.
35 In 1522 Lorenz Stuchs printed the Manuale Aboense in Halberstadt, Manuale Aboense, in

Kirja Suomessa, cit., p. 168; on L. Stuchs, s. ROBERT PROCTOR, An index to the early printed
books in the British Museum, 2, MDI-MDXX, Section I. Germany, London, Paul & Trench &
Trübner, 1903, p. 170, HERMANN-JOSEF SCHMALOR, MICHAEL REKER, Zum Jahr der Bibel.
Präsentation wertvoller Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Erzbischöflichen Akademischen
Bibliothek Paderborn im Schalterraum der Darlehnskasse im Erzbistum Paderborn vom 22. Juli
bis zum 3. August 1992, <http://www.eab-paderborn.de/aus_dlkbibel.htm> (last
consulted on 29 July 2012), and Manuale Aboense, cit. p. 168; ISAK COLLIJN, Laurentius
Stuchs i Halberstadt tryckaren av Manuale Aboense 1522, «Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och
biblioteksväsen», XXIV, 1937, p. 1-18.




	
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(Tartu) by 1523.36 Sweden adopted Lutheranism in 1527 and Denmark in
1536.37
                                           There were little changes to the book market of the Kingdom of
Sweden during the first half of the sixteenth century.38 In 1539 King
Gustavus I Vasa (1496-1560), inspired by the Edict of Worms of 1521 that
had introduced censorship in the HRE, ordered censorship of all the
works to be printed by the only printing-house of the realm.39 At the end
of the century, only one printing-house was active in Stockholm.
International agents from the Empire on the one hand,40 the numerous
subjects of His Majesty studying at the Lutheran universities of the
Empire, first Wittenberg, then also Rostock, Greifswald etc., on the other,
were running the book market of the Kingdom of Sweden since the 1520s.
The best-known Wittenberg student was the Lutheran reformer of
Finland, Michael Agricola (c. 1507-1557). In the 1520s he attended the
school of Viipuri, directed by the Lutheran headmaster Johannes Erasmi,
and also became acquainted with the Lutheran chaplain of Viipuri castle,
Johannes Block (c. 1480-1545), from Stolp in Pomerania (now Słupsk,
Poland),41 whose extensive library (180 both manuscript and printed
volumes) contained mainly theological works, among others humanist
editions of patristics, Erasmus‘ commentary on the New Testament and
works by Luther’s friend and collaborator, the reformer and humanist
Philipp Melanchthon, also known as Praeceptor Germaniae.42 Agricola most
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
36    Religious life in the late Middle Ages. The Reformation, in Estonica,
<http://www.estonica.org/en/History/ca_12001558_Estonian_middle_ages/Religious_
life_in_the_late_Middle_Ages_The_Reformation/Estonica (last consulted on 29 July
2012).
37 Det Kongelige Bibliotek. Nationalbibliotek og Københavns Universitetsbibliotek. Hovedpunkter

af mere end 500 års historie, in Det Kongelige Bibliotek. Danmarks Nationalbibliotek og
Københavns Universitetsbibliotek, <http://www.kb.dk/da>, p. 4 (last consulted on 29 July
2012).
38 W. UNDORF, From Gutenberg to Luther, cit., p. 369-472.
39 BENGT ÅHLEN, Ord mot ordningen. Farliga skrifter, bokbål och kättarprocesser i svensk

censurhistoria, edited by Agneta Åhlen, Lillemor Widgren Matlack, Christer Hellmark,
Stockholm, Ordfrontsförlag, 1986, p. 16.
40 The first documented book-seller from the HRE active in the Duchy of Finland was

Lorenz the Bookbinder, probably Lorenz Beckmann Jr., who was selling books in Viipuri
in 1573. His father Lorenz Sr. had been active in Reval, T. LAINE, Kolportöörejä, cit., p. 46.
16 He had converted to Lutheranism during his stay in Livonian Dorpat (1514-1528). From

Viipuri he left for Barth in Western Pomerania in 1532, introducing Reformation in the
town, SIMO HEININEN, Mikael Agricola. Elämä ja teokset, Helsinki, Edita, p. 36-39. His
manuscripts have been catalogued, see RENATE SCHIPKE, KURT HEYDECK,
Handschriftencensus der kleineren Sammlungen in den östlichen Bundesländern Deutschlands.
Bestandsaufnahme der ehemaligen Arbeitsstelle ZIH. Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, p. 33 no.
7: Fol. Lit. E 20, an index of the Bible and an abridged version of St. Bonaventure, written
in 1481 in Reval, purchased according to the catalogue «ca. 1512» (p. 34); also see p. 34 no.
8: Fol. Lit. F 26, a theological compendium written between 1445 and 1487. The library is
now at the Niederdeutsches Bibelzentrum St. Jürgen in Barth, see Niederdeutsches
Bibelzentrum St. Jürgen, <http://www.bibelzentrum-barth.de/block.html> (last consulted
on 29 July 2012).
42 S. HEININEN, Agricola, cit., p. 36-7.




	
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probably had access to this library. As regards his own book collection, he
would regularly mark the price, the time and place of purchase in his
volumes.43 These entries show that during his study at Wittenberg
university under Luther and Melanchthon in 1536-1539, he purchased at
least five large volumes, among others Aristoteles, Opera 1-2. Basileae:
Johannes Oporinus 1538, with the ex libris Michaëlis Agricolae de Torsby
Liber Wittemb(er)gae tribus aureis cum dimidio Emptus. Anno d(omi)ni .1539.
Februarij vigesima [sic] Quinta. Further, a volume of Strabo, Geographicorum
commentarii. Basileae : Valentinus Curio 1523, contains the annotation
Michaëli<s Ag>ric<o>lae liber Emptus Wittem<b>(er)gae Aureis tribus cu(m)
dimidio: Anno <1>539. April(is) .3. Simo Heininen, one of the leading
Agricola specialists of the world, has identified ten volumes having
belonged to Agricola.44 It is possible to trace the subsequent history of
many of these books.45
      A collection of 74 Mediaeval Latin songs particularly well preserved
in Finland was published under the title Piae cantiones by Theodoricus
Petri Rutha in Greifswald in 1582 (A. Ferber). 46 Rutha, identified as
Wiburgensis Suecus (‘from Viipuri of the Kingdom of Sweden’), had been
studying at the University of Rostock since 1581.47 The song texts had been
purged of Catholic doctrine by Jacobus Petri Finno, headmaster of the
Cathedral school of Turku as well as author of a catechism and a prayer-
book in Finnish.48 The students originating in the Magnus Ducatus of
course produced usual academic publications at their respective
continental universities, e.g. dissertations, such as De rationali hominis
anima metaphysicae propositiones, by Marcus Henrici Helsingius, the later
headmaster of the school of Turku, for his doctorate at the University of

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
43 He possibly adopted the habit from Block, who also entered these details in his books. I
have the pleasure of thanking Dr. Jürgen Geiß for the information on Block’s annotations
(Berlin, August 2011).
44 His research was funded by the Academy of Finland project 121785 Books in Transition

(2008–2011). The volumes contain 12 works having certainly belonged to Agricola, O.
MERISALO, Classical works, cit., p. 190 and n. 19.
45 For example his Diogenes Laertius, bought in Wittenberg in 1537, was sold on to a

Clemens Fabrinus by a Laurentius Thomae Aboensis in 1601. Clemens Fabrinus gave it as
a present in 1607 to a school mate of his, Olaus Georgii Suomalainen (‘the Finn’), S.
HEININEN, Agricola, cit., p. 342; for Suomalainen’s (also known as Suomalenius Suecus,
born c. 1580) successful studies at Wittenberg between 1608 and his violent death in 1613,
see O. MERISALO, Classical works, cit., p. 191.
46 REIJO PITKÄRANTA, Latina Suomen kirjallisuudessa, in Vieraskielinen kirjallisuus Suomessa

Ruotsin vallan aikana, edited by Tuija Laine. Tietolipas 159, Jyväskylä, Suomalaisen
kirjallisuuden seura, p. 15; GUDRUN VIERGUTZ, 8. Titelblatt (1582) in EAD. ET AL., Piae
cantiones.     Das      älteste    gedruckte     Liederbuch       der      nordischen Länder,
<http://jyk.jyu.fi/jyk/kokoelmat/cantiones/deutsch/main.html> (last consulted on 29
July 2012) and GUDRUN VIERGUTZ, 10. Titelblatt (1616), ibid.
47 Matriculated for the summer term of 1581 at Rostock, Rostocker Matrikelportal,

<http://matrikel.uni-rostock.de/index.php?c=db&id=100036609&from=search>                (last
con-sulted on 29 July 2012).
48 Theodoricus Petri Rutha Piae Cantiones, in Book in Finland, cit., p. 186-7.




	
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Wittenberg in 1593,49 and Oratio de optima republica […], by Nicolaus
Magni Viburgensis Finno,50 later headmaster of the school of Viipuri and
Bishop of the same diocese, for his degree at the University of Rostock in
1599.
      As to the book market in the Kingdom of Sweden in general and in
the Magnus Ducatus in particular, selling bound books was since 1630, the
year when the Swedish Guild of bookbinders was founded, in the hands
of this group. Printers and book agents were only allowed to sell unbound
volumes.51 The presence of bookbinders from the HRE in the Magnus
Ducatus is well-documented. Among them there were Michael Pintzer (d.
1642?), established by 1623 in Turku as bookbinder and bookseller,52 and
Friedrich Elers from Bremen, who ended up in Turku in 1642 after
working in Hamburg (apprentice in 1633) and Stockholm (1636).53 The
rivalry between bookbinders on the one hand, and printers and book
agents on the other, was to persevere until the end of the eighteenth
century.
      The Thirty Years‘ War (1618-1648) wreaked havoc in European book
trade through printing-houses shutting down and booksellers being
unable to travel out to the Frankfurt book fair, since the beginning of the
sixteenth century the central venue of the business. Frankfurt did not
manage to regain a leading position even after the war, other book fairs,
especially Leipzig, proving more successful. Book production and book
trade flourished now in the tolerant United Provinces, the protestant
Netherlands.54 Book collections were also exposed to the wars of the
seventeenth century. After the victorious Thirty Years‘ War, Sweden went
on to conquer territories belonging to Poland and Denmark in the latter
half of the seventeenth century, libraries being a significant form of booty.
Important book collections were transported from the continent to the
Kingdom of Sweden (see below p. 00).
      An important need for old and new books arose with the foundation
of the Royal Academy of Turku/Åbo (Academia Aboensis oder Auraica) in
1640. Although subjects of the Magnus Ducatus would continue travelling
abroad for study, their stays would now take the form of shorter-duration
peregrinationes for completing their education and discovering Europe. The
Academy established a printing-house of its own for the production of the
usual academic texts (dissertations and occasional texts). Since the
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
49 Christianus Hastaeus De rationali hominis anima metaphysicae propositiones. Resp. : Marcus
Henrici Helsingius, in Book in Finland, cit., p. 187.
50 Nicolaus, matriculated at Rostock in the summer term of 1598, Rostocker Matrikelportal,

<http://matrikel.uni-rostock.de/index.php?c=db&id=100046130&from=search>                 (last
consulted on 29 July 2012).
51 T. LAINE, Kolportöörejä, cit., p. 59.
52 JORMA VALLINKOSKI, Suomen kirjansitojamestarit – Finlands bokbindarmästare – Die

Buchbindermeister Finnlands 1514-1868, edited by Jarl Pousar, Helsingin yliopiston
kirjaston julkaisuja 54, Helsinki, Helsingin yliopiston kirjasto, 1992, p. 178.
53 J. VALLINKOSKI, Suomen kirjansitojamestarit, cit., p. 179.
54 L. FEBVRE – H.J. MARTIN, L’apparition du livre, Paris, Michel, 1958, p. 232–3.




	
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printing-house could not cater for all the needs of the new academic body,
books continued to be purchased outside the Magnus Ducatus. Lorenz
Jauch from Lübeck was appointed official bookseller of the Academy in
1642. He was so successful that his services were required eight years later
in 1650 by another Swedish university established in 1632, the Academia
Gustaviana of Dorpat in Livonia, and he opened a filial in Reval. He
obtained a Royal privilege conferring him exclusive rights to sell books in
the whole of Swedish-owned Baltic territories. As early as 1652 he
transferred his headquarters to Reval, keeping his shop in Turku until
1655. In that year he obtained a second Royal privilege securing him the
right to sell books in all the cities and towns of the Magnus Ducatus. 55
Until the middle of the 1660s he kept on providing the Academy of Turku
with books.56 In Turku his main customers were professors and students.
      Until the end of the century the Academy library, the nucleus of
which had been a part of the Cathedral library and the library of the
Cathedral school, was very small (c. 2000 volumes),57 despite some
important collections originating in war booty being incorporated in it.
Here should be mentioned the library of General Torsten Stålhandske (d.
1644 at Hadersleben), which had formerly belonged to the Bishop of
Aarhus, Denmark, Martinus Matthiae (Danish Morten Madsen). His
widow decided to donate the 900-volume library to the newly-founded
Academy.58 Another important donation was that of Peter Brahe, General
governor of Finland, who bestowed 87 volumes of historiographical
works on the Academy in 1648.59 In 1653 the Royal library sent further 315
volumes with 295 works originating in Olmütz (Slovak Olomouć),
Nikolsburg (Czech Mikulov) and Prague.60

Conclusion
The peripheral geographical position of the (Magnus) Ducatus of Finland,
part of the Kingdom of Sweden, between the fifteenth and seventeenth
centuries, does not seem to have lead to absence of contacts between the
continent and the North-Eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. In the Middle
Ages students had travelled out to continental seats of learning, such as
Paris, Naples and the universities of the HRE, bringing back books
needed. In the early decades of the printed book agents from the Empire
discovered the Scandinavian book market, and provided access to the
production of continental printers. In 1488 Bartholomaeus Ghotan printed
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
55 T. LAINE, Kolportöörejä, cit., passim.
56 Ibid.
57 For H.G. Porthan, see Henrici Gabrielis Porthani Historia Bibliothecae Regiae Academiae

Aboënsis & Appendix I et II, edited by Heikki Koskenniemi, Esko Matinolli, Martti Nyman.
Henrici Gabrielis Porthan Opera omnia 5, Turku, 1974, p. 9-10.
58 Cf. RAIJA SARASTI-WILENIUS, ‘Noster eloquendi artifex’. Daniel Achrelius, Latin Speeches and

Rhetorical Theory in Seventeenth-Century Finland, Diss. Helsinki, Helsinki, s.e., 2000, p. 93ff.
59 OTTO WALDE, Storhetstidens litterära krigsbyten. En kulturhistorisk-bibliografisk studie, I,

Uppsala, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1916, p. 28.
60 O. WALDE, Krigsbyten, I, cit., p. 28-29.




	
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in Lübeck a regional version ad usum Aboensis diocesis of the Dominican
Missal, whereas the 1522 Manuale Aboense was printed by Lorenz Stuchs in
Halberstadt. The Lutheran reformer of Finland, Michael Agricola attended
the University of Wittenberg, was tutored by both Luther und
Melanchthon and acquired the basic works of Humanist and Protestant
literature. The Piae cantiones, an important document on Mediaeval culture
in Finland, were published in Greifswald in 1582 by a Viipuri student
matriculated at the University of Rostock. Crossing the Baltic Sea was the
rule rather than the exception, both for ideas and for people.




	
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