Erik Dahlbergh:

Suecia antiqua et hodierna. 1-3.

[Stockholm c. 1667-1716.] Oblong folio (35 x 45 cms.) Complete with 353 engraved plates. As usual without the extra plate depicting the Swedish Church in London, engraved no earlier than 1728. Printed index (ed. 1726?), 14 pp.

Three parts bound together in contemporary full calf, spine with raised bands, worn, later label to spine, red edges. Slight damage to head and foot of spine, joints a little cracked. Restored in the early 1900s with new endpapers and hinges reinforced with cloth. Many plates laid down on larger paper to match in size, all with old ink numbering in upper outer corner. Occasional spotting and short tears. Backing paper of first title with corner

repair, the two royal portraits in the beginning laid down on later paper. The plate of Jönköping mended. Gilt supralibros of Carl Ehrenpreus (1692-1760) on covers, old red stamp on first title.

Erik Dahlbergh’s (1625­1703) inspiration for this magnum opus was the ”Theatrum Europaeum”. His privilege is dated 1661, engraving began in 1667 and continued for decades, ending only in about 1715. The plates depict Sweden’s castles, cities and mounuments, and a large number of mostly foreign engravers were employed: Nicolas and Adam Perelle, Jean Marot, Jean Le Pautre, F. Campion, Dionysius Padt Brugge, Willem Swidde, Erik Reitz, Martin Mytens, Johannes Van den Aveelen and Samuel von Blesendorf. The work was never actually published, but used for important gifts of the state. The plates are still preserved, and impressions of decreasing quality have been pulled well into the 20h century. A printed text to accompany the plates was planned, but never completed.

Sten G. Lindberg, Swedish Books, 37. Collijn, 1600-talet, col. 197. A monograph by Börje Magnusson and Jonas Nordin about the illustrations was published in 2015 (in Swedish), ”Drömmen om storkmakten. Erik Dahlberghs Sverige”. Dahlbergh’s drawings for the work are in the Royal Library, Stockholm, and were published in four volumes in 1963-70.

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