Rare Map and Promotional Tract on the Swedish Colony in America, Including A Section in English -- The First Book Written By A Native American Published in Sweden
This is one of the best primary accounts of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware River. Biorck's father built the Lutheran church at Christina in 1698. The author knew most of the prominent families in New Sweden and had access to the earliest records. The beautiful map is of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
The pamphlet includes a very rare early map illustrating the New Sweden Colony and the surrounding region, entitled Delineatio Pennsilvaniae et Caesareae Nov. Occident Seu West N. Jersey in America.
As noted in Bradford (#383)
An extremely rare work, and of the highest importance for the early history of the Swedish Church in America, not mentioned by the bibliographers Rich, Sabin, Stevens, etc. The author, a son of Ericus Biorck, who was sent as minister to New Sweden in 1697, was a born American, and his History is the first work on that country written by a native of it, which as far as I know, had been published in Sweden. It is full of interest not only for its historical details, but also for the knowledge of the Indians. In the preliminary pages will be found a dedication to Count Gyllenborg of Lund, and a letter of Andr. Hesselius to the learned American, Tob. Biorck, both in English, the first in verses.
It is curious that they are not written in Swedish, and perhaps we may conclude from this circumstance that at that time already the Swedish language was rather unfamiliar to the colonists in New Sweden. The map seems to be taken from an English original, as it bears the English armors with the 'Je maintandria' (sic). This tract is sometimes attributed to A. Gronwall, but erroneously, the disputation has been held under his presidentship, and therefore he is named on the title together with Biorck, as in Sweden it was the custom, as in Germany, for the Professors to write a dissertation, to be defended by their disciples; but there were honorable exceptions, as, for instance, here. Biorck is the only author."
The book includes a rare map focusing on the remnants of the ephemeral colony of New Sweden. Originally covering parts of Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland between the Chesapeake Bay and New York, by 1731, New Sweden had become part of British New York, The map is centered on the Delaware River and Philadelphia, reaching north to Albany and south to Virginia. The map focuses on the early Swedish settlements on both sides of the Delaware River as well as various American Indian settlements and the english colonial cities of Philadelphia, Burlington, New York, and Albany. The map nomenclature is largely in English.
Jonas Silfverling (1703-1760), Swedish goldsmith and engraver active in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 18th century. As an engraver Silfverling focused primary on maps and botanical prints.
Rarity
Biorck's work is extremely rare on the market. The last published auction record prior to this example was the Streeter Sale in 1967, Lot 917, where the book sold for $1,300.
Provenance: Modern leather binding and 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.