Provincial Laws of the Swedish Kingdom, 1675.

Johan Loccenius, Sveciæ regni Leges Provinciales, Prout quondam, A Potentißimo & Serenißimo Principe ac Domino, Domino Carolo IX Sueonum, Gothorum, Vandalorum, Finnonum, Careliorum, Lapponum in Norlandiâ, Cajanorum & Esthonum in Livonia, &c. Rege, post recognitionem, confirmatæ, & anno 1608. publicatæ sunt. [ … ]

[bound together with]
Sveciæ regni Leges Civiles aut Civitatum, Secundum, Potentißimi & Serenißimi Principis ac Domini, Domini Gustavi Adolphi, Sueonum, Gothorum & Vandalorum Regis, Magni Principis Finlandiæ, Ducis Estoniæ & Careliæ, Domini Ingermanniæ &c. mandatum publicatæ & typis excusæ A. 1618. [ … ]

Provincial Laws of the Swedish Kingdom, As they are by the formerly, Powerful & Highborn Prince and Lord, Lord Carolus IX, King of the Swedes, the Goths & the Wends, the Finns, the Karelians, the Laps in the Northern lands, the Kajanians & Estonians in Livonia, &c., reviewed, confirmed, & published in the year 1608. [ … ]

[bound together with]
Civil or City Laws of the Swedish Kingdom, According to the command of, the Powerful & Highborn Prince and Lord, Lord Gustavus Adolphus, King of the Swedes, the Goths & the Wends, Grand Duke of Finland, Duke of Estonia & Karelia, Lord of Ingria &c., published & printed in the year 1618. [ … ]

(Londini Scanorum [Lund in Scania]: Sumtibus [at the expense of] Adami Junghans imprimebat [printed by] Vitus Haberegger/Acad. carol. typogr [Printer of the Carolingian Academy = Lund University], Anno MDCLXXV [1675]). The two books bound together (as often is the case) in a contemporary full vellum binding. Second edition, in octavo format (the first, in folio, was published in 1672).

These laws were translated from Swedish to Latin and annotated by the German jurist and historian Johan Loccenius (Johan Locken, 1598–1677), Professor Skytteanus of Eloquence and Government (including instruction in Roman law) at Uppsala University. The first of the books has an engraved portrait of Loccenius (described sometimes as “rare”). After obtaining his doctorate in Leiden, Loccenius was recruited by the Chancellor of Uppsala University, Johan Skytte, on behalf of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632). Loccenius is counted alongside Johan Stiernhöök and Clas Rålamb as the founders of Swedish legal science. One of his efforts was to translate Swedish laws into Latin, which made them more accessible to mainland European scholars. In the 1650s, Loccenius moved from the study of Swedish law to Swedish history, and in 1651 he was appointed Sweden’s Historiographer of the Realm (Rikshistoriograf).

Provenance notes. This volume features the impressive heraldic ex-libris of Count Christian Ernst, Graf zu Stolberg (1691–1771). From 1710 to 1771, he governed the County of Wernigerode in the Harz mountains. It appears from a library stamp in the volume that the book was part of the Count’s collection at Wernigerode castle. – How this volume ended up in the US is another interesting question. In October 1932, Robert B. Anderson, Harvard University librarian, writes in The American Scholar: “The Stolberg library at Wernigerode has perhaps the most valuable of the large private collections of books and manuscripts whose dispersal has been necessitated [by a poor economy]. Fortunately, Harvard has been able to acquire intact the section on law and political science.” It may be that Harvard later sold the book to the noted American book dealer H. P. Kraus, from whom UMN bought the book in 1946.