Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Stock# 70986
Description

First edition of Carl David Arfwedson's dissertation on the New Sweden colony in America, including a detailed map of the colony (Nova Svecia in America Boreali.) as well as a description of an attack in 1655 made upon the Swedish colonies in New Sweden by the Dutch, under the command of Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Netherland (pages 23-30).

The map depicts the Delaware River approximately as far north as the Trenton Falls. Along the banks of the river many place names are given, including those of the Swedish settlements. Other place names are underlined in a dashed line (Dutch) or solid line (Indian) to denote settlements that were not Swedish.

Carl David Arfwedson (1806-1881) was a Swedish author and was elected as an honorary member of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1883.

Provenance

Bookplate of Arvid Wallgren (1889-1973), Swedish collector, professor of Pediatrics, and member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute. 

Purchased at Stockholm Auktionsverk, December 11, 2019, lot 6125.

New Sweden

New Sweden (Swedish: Nya Sverige; Finnish: Uusi Ruotsi; Latin: Nova Svecia) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in America from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden was part of Swedish colonization efforts in the Americas. Settlements were established on both sides of the Delaware Valley in the region of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, often in places where Swedish traders had been visiting since about 1610. Fort Christina in Wilmington, Delaware was the first settlement, named after the reigning Swedish monarch. The settlers were Swedes, Finns, and a number of Dutch. New Sweden was conquered by the Dutch Republic in 1655 during the Second Northern War and incorporated into the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

Rarity

The last example of the book individually offered at auction was in 1995.

Condition Description
4to. Later ½ calf, gilt title on cover with the wrong year (1875) (partly worn, cover partly warped). [4], 34 pages. Folding engraved map of Delaware Bay and the colony of New Sweden (Nova Svecia in America Boreali, approximately 5.75 x 10 inches, partly dampstained, foxing; wide margins; text with dampstain and spotting throughout).
Reference
Marklin, Catalogus disputationum 41; Setterwall Svensk historisk bibliografi 1731; Sabin, 1941.