Suecia antiqua et hodierna
Suecia antiqua et hodierna ( Latin for: " The former and present Sweden ") is a book with images of geographic objects of Sweden from the country's great power times.
The work contains 342 engraved panels (Vol. 1 150, Vol. 2 76, Vol. 3 126 sheets according to the printed table of contents. The panels themselves are not numbered.) It was made by the architect Erik Dahlberg on a royal commission. Dahlberg began the work in 1660 and traveled through the different regions of the country, where he made drawings of cities and historical buildings as well as various maps. The copper engravings did not always match the reality, as Dahlberg recorded planned changes, some of which were not carried out at all. He also often put people on the wrong scale in the drawings. As a result, many buildings appear larger and more showy than they actually were.
Dahlberg hired the best specialists from France and Holland for the engravings . He also traveled to Paris himself to oversee the work. Due to a war with Denmark , work on the magnificent ribbon was interrupted for about ten years around 1670. When the architect died in 1703, the volume was still unfinished. It was not until 1720 that the first editions began to be sold, and about ten years later the first edition was out of print.
There were a large number of other editions later, the last of which was in 1924.
Web links
- Digitized version of the Royal Library in Stockholm (Accessed 26 January 2015)