New Sweden, 1702

Johan Campanius Holm:

Kort Beskrifning om Provincien Nya Swerige uti America, som nu fortjden af the Engelske kallas Pensylvania.

Stockholm, Sal. Wankijfs änkia, 1702. 4to (19 x 14 cms.) [16] + 192 pp. + engraved title + 4 engraved maps (2 folding) + 1 engraved plate (of 2; without the plate of the Niagara Falls). Letterpress title printed in red & black. Woodcuts on pages 10, 53, 76, 78, 81, 129, 137, 138, 141, 187 and 191.

Contemporary full calf, somewhat restored, engraved title and letterpress title lightly finger-soiled, ownership inscription of ”And. Lidbeck”, 2 maps laid down, each with a short tear and very slight loss, leaf a2 with slight marginal loss in upper inner corner, the plate with old repair on verso, text a little darkened and with occasional slight staining.

First edition of the first printed account of New Sweden, the earliest colonial settlement in the Delaware River valley (covering parts of present-day Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey), established in 1638 at Fort Cristina, now Wilmington. Holm never traveled to America and based his account on notes left by his grandfather Johannes Campanius, chaplain of the Swedish colony from 1643 to 1648, and on verbal accounts by his father and other settlers.

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