28 
The History of the Book in the Nordic Countries
28 CHARLOTTE APPEL AND KAREN SKOVGAARD-PETERSEN
When surveying the history of the book in the Nordic countries, a balance needs to be struck between the region as a whole and its individual countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands). Among the most important unifying factors is language. Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian are closely related and still mutually intelligible, whereas Icelandic and Faroese have stayed closer to Old Norse. Finnish belongs to a different language group (Finno-Ugric), as do the Sami languages, spoken in the north of the Scandinavian peninsula. Greenlandic is an Inuit language. Many people in the outer regions have also been able to communicate in Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish.
The present survey, emphasizing the relationship between book and society, cannot do justice to the region’s richness and variousness. Even though societal developments have often been similar or directly shared, different geographical and natural conditions have created diversity across the extensive region and its populations. These numbered in total 24 million people in 2000, compared to 2 million around 1600. Moreover, international orientations have varied (from Finland in the east to the Atlantic Islands in the west), and borders and political alliances have often changed.
The great majority of medieval books once found in the Nordic countries have disappeared completely. Some were worn out, and some vanished after the Reformation because of general neglect and contempt. Others were lost in fires, notably in Copenhagen (1728) and Åbo/Turku (1827). Among those that have been preserved are a number of invaluable Icelandic codices. Furthermore, numerous fragments have survived as binding material (e.g. c.10,000 leaves or sheets representing c.1,500 books from Finland), adding considerably to what is known about Nordic medieval book culture.
With the missions and the establishment of churches in the 10th–12th centuries, Scandinavia became part of Christian European culture, being introduced to parchment books and to the Latin language and alphabet. Reading and writing were not entirely new phenomena. Runes (see 3) had been used for inscriptions on metal, stone, and wood since around AD 200. After the Latin alphabet was introduced, runes remained in use for short inscriptions; in some areas, as indicated by outstanding finds from Bergen, west Norway (c. 1100–1400), they may even have become more common for everyday purposes.
The earliest Nordic book production can be traced to Lund, a Danish episcopal seat from c.1060 and a Scandinavian archdiocese from 1104. Monarchs worked closely with church leaders, and Lund was an important centre of both learning and politics in the 12th century, particularly while Absalon was archbishop (1177–1201). He commissioned the writing of Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum. The Norwegian archbishopric of Nidaros (Trondheim), founded 1153, occupied a similar position. Here the legend of St Olav, Norway’s royal saint, was given its written form, an Olav liturgy established, and national historical writing cultivated. By contrast, the establishment of the Swedish archdiocese in Uppsala (1164) did not result in a national historiography, probably owing to the Swedish monarchy’s weaker position.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, collections of books were established in connection with churches, particularly cathedrals and monasteries. These were Latin libraries, containing liturgical books, bibles, collections of sermons, schoolbooks, and, to a lesser degree, classical authors and books on secular subjects such as medicine. Book production took place in the scriptoria of larger ecclesiastical institutions, although in Iceland there was considerable involvement by lay landowners. Among local ecclesiastical productions were books about the lives and miracles of local saints, annals, and registers of donations.
European influence was also evident in the field of law. Legal books in Latin were imported, providing additional inspiration for the composition of provincial laws in the vernacular. As early as 1117/18, Icelandic laws were recorded in writing. Many vernacular laws from the 12th and 13th centuries bear witness to strong royal powers in mainland Scandinavia; in 1274 King Magnus Lagabøtir (‘Law-amender’) promulgated a legal revision that provided a uniform law for the whole of Norway.
In Iceland and Norway, the vernacular was central, even within ecclesiastical administration. Here, an extraordinary narrative literature in Old Norse emerged during the 13th and 14th centuries. Hundreds of sagas were recorded in writing, some of them based on oral traditions known in other Scandinavian areas as well. The Icelanders’ sagas, e.g. Njál’s Saga, and Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, are justifiably famous. The Edda poems are important sources of Nordic mythology. An outstanding treatise is the King’s Mirror, written in Norway c.1250. As early as c.1150, the establishment of a written standard of Old Norse was discussed theoretically in the so-called First Grammatical Treatise.
In Sweden and Denmark, book culture was primarily a Latin phenomenon until the 14th century, when the vernacular, including Low German, became more common in law books and legal documents, medical manuals, and devotional books. Continental romances were translated at noble courts. Particularly in towns, the need for reading, writing, and accounting increased, as did the number of schools, scriptoria, and administrative archives. The introduction of paper c.1350 contributed further to more widespread and informal use of writing (private letters, copies of documents) (see 10). Books and documents of particular importance, however, were still written on locally produced parchment.
Around 1500, the majority of books proper were presumably liturgical and devotional volumes in Latin. The richest library was the Swedish monastery of Vadstena, which housed the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, instituted by St Birgitta. The library comprised c.1,400 books, of which c.500 are still extant (in Uppsala and Stockholm).
In order to obtain a university education, increasing numbers of young Scandinavians went abroad. Only in 1425 did it become possible to obtain a bachelor’s degree at Lund; the first—and for centuries the only—Scandinavian universities opened in Uppsala (1477) and Copenhagen (1479).
During the early modern period, Nordic countries were divided politically in two. The kingdom of Sweden also comprised Finland, while the Danish-Norwegian king ruled Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, as well as the mainly German-speaking duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Post-Reformation Nordic book history is well documented thanks to comprehensive national bibliographies. The first books were printed in Denmark in 1482 and Sweden in 1483 by the German Johann Snell, following invitations from the bishops of Odense and Uppsala. Imported printed books had been on the scene earlier, however. The Dutchman Gotfred of Ghemen settled briefly in Copenhagen, but otherwise most early 16th-century printers were itinerant Germans. Throughout the early modern period, many craftsmen and tradesmen emigrated from or were trained in Germany. German trends and techniques were followed closely: black letter was used for vernacular texts, whereas gotico-antiqua roman type became the standard for books in Latin; likewise, bookbindings displayed German influence in the use of decorative roll tools, many of them imported.
After the Lutheran Reformation, the Swedish and Danish kings sought to control imported and domestic publications. A royal printing press, Kungliga Tryckeriet, was founded in Stockholm (1526), establishing an effective monopoly for almost a century. In Denmark, two or three presses were active simultaneously, but with a few exceptions, they were situated within the city walls of Copenhagen, effectively tied to the government through privileges and commissions. In both countries, the Crown ordered and financed important publications, including the first full bibles in the vernacular (Sweden, 1540–41; Denmark, 1550) and national hymnals. Privileges were also given for the printing of homilies, prayer books, and other literature regarded as useful or edifying by the authorities.
The first book produced for Finland was the Missale Aboense (1488), printed by Bartholomaeus Ghotan in Lübeck; during the 16th century, almost all books for Finnish use were printed in Stockholm. Of special importance was Mikael Agricola, who translated the New Testament (1548) and composed several religious books in Finnish.
In Iceland, the Catholic bishop invited a Swedish printer c.1530 to Hólar; after the Reformation (1550), Hólaprent remained the only Icelandic printing press. Many bishops were involved in the production of vernacular religious books. In the late 17th century, the press was moved to the other episcopal see, Skálholt (where Icelandic sagas were also printed), but later returned to Hólar. Much literature continued to be copied and read in MS. Danish was the language of the administration, and many Icelanders read books in Danish.
Copenhagen had three printers c.1600, ten c.1700, and twenty c.1800. A few provincial presses (Elsinore, Sorø, Aarhus, and Odense) operated for short periods, but provincial printing offices were not established on a more permanent basis until the 1730s, when they often centred on a local newspaper. In 1643, Tyge Nielsen came to Christiania (Oslo) as Norway’s first printer. This was the only Norwegian town with a permanent printing office until printing began in Bergen (1721), followed by Trondheim (1739); many authors on the west coast continued to use Copenhagen presses. The Danish and Norwegian book markets formed a whole, not least because Danish was used as the written language in both countries.
Sweden had one (royal) printing house in 1600, but seventeen in 1700, six of them in Stockholm. Other towns with presses were Uppsala (from 1618), Västerås, Strängnäs, Kalmar, Linköping, and Gothenburg. In 1642, the first complete bible in Finnish was printed in Stockholm; in the same year a press was established at the new Finnish Academy in Åbo. Another two presses were founded later in the 17th century, in Åbo and Viborg.
The increasing number of printers weakened direct royal control, but governmental and ecclesiastical influences remained strong due to official privileges and censorship regulations. Everyday censorship was fairly lax, but enforced vehemently as soon as suspicions arose. Apart from confessionally dubious books, most attention was directed at criticism of the king (in Denmark particularly after the introduction of absolutism in 1660–61) and at the new medium of the regularly published newspaper, in Denmark from 1634 and in Sweden from 1645.
The Danish and Swedish governments continued to support the printing of religious and educational books, as well as laws and statutes. Political pamphlets became increasingly important, especially in Sweden, in connection with its numerous 17th- and early 18th-century wars. After 1658, when Denmark lost the southern parts of the Swedish peninsula, the printed word (especially Swedish catechisms) was used in a campaign to ‘Swedenize’ former Danish subjects.
Book production and the book trade became increasingly differentiated during the 17th century. Bookbinders formed special guilds, obtaining in Sweden a monopoly for the selling of bound books. Some of Stockholm’s printing houses—Ignatius Meurer, Henrik Keyser, Georg Gottlieb Burchardi—developed into important publishing firms with strong international relations. In Copenhagen, major booksellers, such as Joachim Moltke and Daniel Paulli, became the most important publishers. At international book fairs, they exchanged scholarly books in Latin with their European colleagues.
Rising production is indicated by extant imprints. According to the bibliography Bibliotheca Danica, fewer than twenty different publications survive from the years 1500–1509, 368 from 1600–1609, and 1,164 from 1700–1709. The balance between titles in Latin and Danish fluctuated (though was often close to being equal), until Latin became confined to academic titles during the 18th century. However, press runs as well as multiple editions indicate that many more copies of books were printed in the vernacular from the late 16th century onwards. Popular religious and entertaining titles were printed in runs of 1,000 or 2,000 copies. Many such editions have not survived.
New genres appeared (household manuals, devotional titles for female readers) along with older ones (chapbooks, ballads). Such items, usually printed in octavo or even smaller formats, sometimes contained woodcuts. Copper engravings (from c.1600) were confined to more expensive folios. Both Denmark and Sweden saw the appearance of such magnificently illustrated publications as Samuel Pufendorf’s De Rebus a Carolo Gustavo Gestis (1696) and Flora Danica (1761–1883).
Popular literacy was stimulated by many factors. After the Reformation, the teaching of the catechism was given high priority, and clergymen encouraged ‘reading in books’ to strengthen children’s rote-learning. Seventeenth-century reading campaigns were supported by bishops and kings, most directly through the Swedish Church Law of 1686. The rising trade in ballads and ‘harmful’ stories—an unintended consequence of increasing literacy standards—was opposed by the same authorities.
By the mid-18th century, according to the extraordinarily detailed information of Swedish and Finnish parish registers, more than 90 per cent of adults could read the required religious texts in print. Writing, by contrast, remained more closely tied to professional needs. Standards in the rest of Scandinavia, Iceland, and—a few decades later—Greenland were probably as high. In Norway and Denmark, governmental regulation was gradually intensified, and more formal schools were established following legislation in the 1730s. In the early 19th century, national laws concerning compulsory school teaching for all children were issued across the region.
Local book supplies varied considerably with population density and infrastructure. In most towns, especially along the coasts, books were permanently available (e.g. in the numerous small-scale Danish boroughs with typically 1,000–5,000 inhabitants and between one and four binders selling books). People in southern Scandinavia’s rural areas and along the Norwegian west coast also had frequent contact with urban book markets. Further inland and further north, however, deliveries were few and far between. In addition to the religious context of reading instruction, this meant that for many Nordic people the world of books was confined to a limited selection of (mainly devotional) literature.
Readers interested in a wider range of books had to acquire these in a capital or university city. The populations of Stockholm and Copenhagen grew significantly, from 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants respectively in 1600 to c.60,000 in 1700. Dutch booksellers were present in Copenhagen from the 1630s and in Stockholm from 1647 (Johannes Janssonius, the Elzevier family). Foreign books were also imported by university booksellers. Traditional bookselling in churches ceased, but around 1700 more booksellers and publishers opened shops with their own premises.
In the 18th century, the acquisition of colonies led to a boom in Pietist missionary printing. In Copenhagen, a special press was established in 1714 (from 1727, Vajsenhuset) for both missionary and domestic education. For some years, a printing press was also installed in the colony of Tranquebar, India, and in the West Indies. Swedish missionary publications were printed for North America (including books in the Indian Lanape language). In 1755, the New Testament was translated into Ume-Sami, and a Swedish–Sami dictionary was published (1780) to assist missionary work. Hans Egede brought a Pietist mission and Danish religious books to Greenland in the 1720s. The Bible was translated into Greenlandic, thus profoundly shaping the written and printed language. The first book was printed in Greenland in 1793, but traditional MS publication survived in this small population until well into the 19th century.
Enlightenment ideas came to Stockholm and Copenhagen at a time when the capitals were experiencing flourishing trade and rising standards of living and education. A key figure was the history professor, playwright, and essayist Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), regarded as the first Norwegian-Danish author to become rich from the sale of his books. From the 1740s, new societies and journals, particularly concerned with economics and science, were established with royal support.
In the world of libraries, significant developments took place during the early modern period. Medieval clerical book collections were dissolved or destroyed after the Lutheran Reformation, and Protestant church libraries remained modest, although some cathedral libraries and cathedral schools could boast fine collections. From the late 16th century, extensive libraries were built up by nobles (Heinrich Rantzau, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, Karen Brahe, Otto Thott), some of whom invested in exquisite uniform bindings by trendsetting bookbinders inspired by French and English fashions (e.g. the Reusner, Bergman, and Boppenhausen families).
Probate inventories and the new trend for public book auctions (from the mid-17th century) provide documentation for the many scholars and wealthy merchants who owned major libraries. One private collector, P. F. Suhm in Copenhagen, famously opened his library to the public (1778). The universities, particularly Uppsala and Copenhagen, had considerable collections. The two royal libraries expanded from the mid-17th century, primarily by incorporating private collections and war booty; and bookbinders were attached to the courts. Legal deposit was formally introduced in Sweden in 1661 and Denmark in 1697. Public access to the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm was granted from 1713; the Royal Library in Copenhagen gave limited access to scholars, but otherwise remained closed to the public until 1793.
The first commercial lending library appeared in Copenhagen in 1725. From the mid-18th century, a variety of private and institutional libraries were established across Scandinavia, in provincial towns and the country. Moreover, private ownership of books became generally more common. One remarkable Norwegian peasant, Sivert Knuddssøn Aarflot, even turned his collection into a public lending library.
The market for books changed from the mid-18th century. Newspaper production took permanent hold, especially in towns. Major firms expanded and modernized their businesses, helped by the abolition of old regulations in the different crafts. Among the leading names in Stockholm were Peter Momma, Elsa Fougt, and Lars Salvius, the latter reorganizing Swedish bookselling by commissioning provincial booksellers. Similar changes took place in the Danish and Norwegian markets thanks to Gyldendal (Copenhagen, 1770–). In the 18th century, Finland endured frequent periods of war and Russian occupation, forcing Finnish book production to move to Stockholm; Jacob Merck-ell and, later, the Frenckell family dominated the Finnish book trade.
The Enlightenment increasingly challenged censorship. It was relaxed considerably in Sweden (1766), where freedom of the press became relatively well secured. In Denmark, censorship was abolished during J. F. Struensee’s short rule (1770–71), but controls were gradually re-established and tightened in 1799.
After the Napoleonic wars, the Nordic political landscape was radically transformed. In 1814 Norway was separated from Denmark and made subject to the Swedish king until 1905. Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands remained with Denmark; Iceland achieved independence in 1944, and home rule was established in the Faroes and Greenland in 1948 and 1979, respectively. After wars with Germany, Denmark lost Schleswig-Holstein in 1864. Finland, an autonomous grand duchy of Russia 1809–1917, was subject to strict censorship at a time when such control was being dismantled in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1810, 1814, 1849) in connection with new democratic constitutions. Around the mid-19th century, liberalization, including the abolition of guild monopolies in trade and manufacturing, was occurring all over Scandinavia.
At the same time, history, mythology, and language were cultivated intensely as part of the formation of national identities. In the ‘new’ nations—Norway, Finland, Iceland, the Faroes, and Greenland—language became a major issue. Two Norwegian written language forms, bokmål (relatively close to Danish) and nynorsk (based on western Norwegian dialects with elements from medieval Norse), were created, the latter as a reaction against former Danish rule. Today both are recognized as official written languages (bokmål being more commonly used).
In Finland, Swedish remained the cultural and administrative language for much of the 19th century, but Finnish gradually gained ground, achieving equal legal status in 1892. Both languages are now officially recognized (Swedish being a minority language). In Iceland, the nationalist movement stressed continuity with medieval Norse. An active language policy strove to replace old and new borrowings from foreign languages with Icelandic words.
The general interest across Scandinavia in national history and popular culture gave rise to numerous important and popular collections of ballads and tales. Examples include the Swedish ballads edited by Geijer and Afzelius, the Norwegian tales collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe, and the monumental Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.
Popular religious revivalist movements profoundly influenced 19th-century developments. In Norway, the lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771–1824) achieved a tremendous following by distributing huge quantities of religious tracts across the country. In Denmark, N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) became the unofficial head of a nationally oriented, non-puritan, religious revival, inspiring the establishment of ‘folk high schools’ (folkehøjskoler), exam-free boarding schools for adults in the countryside. Although preferring the ‘living word’ to ‘bookish learning’, these schools motivated generations to further study across Scandinavia and, along with other religious movements of more puritan origin (especially in Norway and Sweden), made inventive use of printed materials such as newsletters, recruiting pamphlets, and edifying tracts.
New publication strategies were explored by the many recently established societies, associations, political parties, trade unions, cooperatives, temperance societies, and sports clubs. The resulting explosion in jobbing printing and small editions was assisted by lower printing costs and improved distribution channels (new railway systems revolutionized the transport system, especially in the vast, less densely populated areas of Scandinavia). At the same time, major industries and retail concerns began to print catalogues, and even small shops used print for advertising.
Illustrations of runic stones from the Danish scholar Carl Rafn’s ‘Runic Inscriptions in which the Western Countries are Alluded to’, in Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1848–9 (Copenhagen, 1852); the variety of languages is notable. Private collection
Newspapers were perhaps the single most important media of the 19th and early 20th centuries, stimulating democratic developments and vice versa. From c.1830, they could be printed faster and more cheaply, resulting in a dramatic increase in print runs and diversity. In Sweden, L. J. Hierta founded the politically influential Aftonbladet in 1830; by 1900, the country had c.120 newspapers. In Finland (where the oldest still-published newspaper is Åbo Underrättelser (1824–)), both Finnish and Swedish-language newspapers became important organs of public debate. The Atlantic regions saw their first periodicals in the last half of the 19th century: Iceland’s þjóðólfur (1848), Green-land’s Atuagagdliutit (1861–), and the Faroese Dimmalætting (1877–). The first Faroese printing press was established in 1852, when a short-lived attempt at newspaper publishing was made.
From the late 19th century, new political parties were formed, all with their own newspapers. Several Danish provincial towns had four different daily papers, representing different parties. Norway had an abundance of local newspapers and, despite declining readerships, remains—like Finland, Iceland, and Sweden—among the leading newspaper nations worldwide.
As elsewhere in Europe, the book industry in the Nordic countries changed following the introduction of new printing and manufacturing technologies c.1830 (see 11). Hitherto, Nordic countries had mainly used imported paper, producing it on a small scale (mainly in Sweden). However, after the development of wood-based paper, Finland and Sweden (and to a lesser extent Norway), with their large areas of forest, developed significant paper industries. In 2000, Finland was the second largest exporter of paper, after Canada (see 10).
During the 19th century, publishing and the book trade were organized along still recognizable lines. Professional bodies were established. Danish book prices became fixed in 1837—a principle that was relaxed only in about 2000—and regulations were made against the unauthorized sale of books. Of the numerous publishing companies founded in the mid-19th century, many existed well into the 20th century. C. A. Reitzel (1789–1853) published the period’s most celebrated Danish authors, including Hans Christian Andersen and Kierkegaard. The largest and most influential firm, however, was Gyldendal, not least because of its dynamic director Frederik V. Hegel (1817–87).
For most of the 19th century, the Norwegian book market remained strongly influenced by Danish interests. Prominent authors such as Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson published their books with Gyldendal, Copenhagen. Under its director William Nygaard (from 1888), Aschehoug gave ample opportunity to authors to publish with a Norwegian firm, but it was not until Gyldendal had set up an independent Norwegian company (1925) that it became a matter of course for authors to publish in their own country. Both Aschehoug and Gyldendal Norsk Forlag have remained important elements in Norwegian literary life.
In Finland, a significant role was played by the Finnish Literature Society (1831), which initiated several publications, including the Kalevala and Aleksis Kivi’s Seven Brothers. Major firms did not emerge until the last decades of the 19th century. Werner Söderström’s publishing house supported Finnish-language literature, but for moral reasons refrained from publishing modern realism. He was soon rivalled by the more liberal publishing house Otava (1890). Both are prominent in the contemporary Finnish book market.
In Sweden, the early establishment of a free press stimulated the rapid expansion of publishing across the country. One particularly influential house was that of Bonnier, which published Strindberg’s works and grew during the 20th century into a major media group.
Technical, economic, and social developments made books widely affordable. Entertaining literature was consumed in large quantities, and new foreign novels by e.g. August Lafontaine, Scott, Dickens, and Dumas were translated. Some were serialized in newspapers, others launched in cheap editions, often through subscription sales, by major publishing houses.
One successful enterprise (1897–1918) was the Danish-Norwegian series Frem (in Swedish, Ljus), with c.170,000 subscribers in the three countries. It published articles relating to history and science and could be bought in inexpensive instalments. Exceptionally large press runs were also reached by the ‘crown’ and ‘half-crown’ editions of classical bestsellers. Such developments arrived later in Scandinavia than in many other parts of Europe; pocketbook series similar to Penguin’s were only introduced in the Nordic countries after World War II. By the 1970s, book clubs had acquired a dominant position in the market for popular literature.
Another important phenomenon in the decades around 1900 was the multi-volume encyclopaedia (e.g. the Danish Salmonsen’s Leksikon). In the 1970s, the publication of extensive encyclopaedias and reference works boomed in Finland. Major national encyclopaedic projects were completed in Sweden and Denmark around 2000.
Lending libraries existed in all Nordic countries from the mid- or late 19th century. In rural districts, they were often established within individual parishes; in towns, many were run by societies and organizations. The first public libraries appeared in the 1880s, and during the 1920s and 1930s, the young welfare states took over full responsibility for municipal libraries. Much money was spent to supply the same variety of books to all citizens, irrespective of location. Local branches were set up in small communities, and mobile libraries introduced. From the 1960s, comic books were made available in libraries, followed by tapes, videos, CDs, DVDs, and free Internet access. Special departments for children’s books are found in all public libraries.
Since the 1960s, children’s literature has achieved an important position in the Nordic countries, being recognized for both educational value and literary quality. Books by numerous authors (especially Astrid Lindgren) have been widely read by children in all parts of the region, possibly providing more shared reading experiences than any other works of Nordic literature.
In other respects, Nordic book culture has become increasingly international. During the late 19th century, professional standards and artistic aspirations were raised through French and English influences (e.g. Rasmus Fr. Hendriksen, and later Akke Kumlien). Around this time, German Fraktur gradually disappeared as a standard type. Aesthetic concerns were also manifested in bookbinding, with Sweden’s Gustaf Hedberg and Denmark’s Anker Kyster as pioneers. Early 20th-century Scandinavian typography was strongly influenced by Modernism (Hugo Lagerström, Steen Eiler Rasmussen). In the 1940s and 1950s, British axial typography prevailed in fiction (C. Volmer Nordlunde) and Swiss asymmetry in textbooks (Viggo Naae, Karl-Erik Forsberg). From the 1960s onwards, both lines were typographically improved (Erik Ellegaard Fred-eriksen, Carl Fredrik Hultenheim, Poul Kristensen), and increased legibility became a major desideratum (Bror Zachrisson). Late 20th-century typographers excelled in imaginative book cover design (Austin Grandjean).
Since World War II, the majority of translated books have come from English-speaking countries; from the late 20th century, globalization and higher standards of English proficiency have resulted in Scandinavians buying and reading increasing numbers of books in English. However, some ‘book traffic’ has also gone the other way. Several 20th-century Nordic authors have had their works translated into English and other languages, including Nobel prize-winners Selma Lagerlöf, Knut Hamsum, and Sigrid Undset and crime fiction writers Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö, and Henning Mankell. According to UNESCO’s 1998 World Culture Report, the Nordic countries are among the nations with the highest numbers (per capita) of library books and book titles published annually.
GENERAL
P. Birkelund et al., eds., Nordisk Leksikon for Bogvæsen (2 vols, 1951–62)
Royal Library, Denmark, www.kb.dk/en/index.html, consulted Sept. 2007
National Library of Finland, www.lib.helsinki.fi/english/, consulted Sept. 2007
National Library of Iceland, www.bok.hi.is/id/1011633, consulted Sept. 2007
Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen (1914–2006; from 2001, Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och bibliotekshistoria)
National Library of Norway, www.nb.no/english, consulted Sept. 2007
National Library of Sweden, www.kb.se/ENG/kbstart.htm, consulted Sept. 2007
DENMARK
Bogvennen (1893–)
C. Bruun, Bibliotheca Danica, 1482–1830 (6 vols, 1877–1914); 2e (5 vols, 1961–3)
H. Ehrencron-Müller, Forfatterlexikon omfattende Danmark, Norge og Island indtil 1814 (12 vols, 1924–35)
A. Frøland, Dansk Boghandels historie 1482–1945 (1974)
Fund og Forskning i Det kongelige Biblioteks samlinger (1954–)
Grafiana (1997–)
I. Ilsøe, ‘Printing, Book Illustration, Book-binding, and Book Trade in Denmark, 1482–1914’, GJ 60 (1985), 258–80
K. B. Jensen, ed., Dansk Mediehistorie (4 vols, 1996–2003)
L. Nielsen, Dansk bibliografi 1482–1600 (3 vols, 1919–35); 2e (5 vols, 1996)
—— Den danske bog (1941)
E. Petersen, ed., Living Words and Luminous Pictures (1999)
FAROE ISLANDS
M. Næs, Fra spadestik til global udfordring (2005)
FINLAND
T. Boman et al., eds., Bibliografi över Finlands bokhistoria 1488–1850 före 1991 (1993)
Fennica: The National Bibliography of Finland, www.fennica.linneanet.fi, consulted Sept. 2007
C.-R. Gardberg, Boktrycket i Finland (3 vols, 1948–73)
K. K. Karlsson, Finlands handpappersbruk (1981)
A. Perälä, Typographischer Atlas Finnlands 1642–1827 (2 vols, 2000)
[F. W. Pipping,] Förteckning öfver i tryck utgifna skrifter på Finska (1856/7)
GREENLAND
K. Oldendow, Groenlandica: Conspectus Bibliographicus (1967)
ICELAND
B. S. Benedikz, Iceland (1969)
H. Hermannsson, Catalogue of the Icelandic Collection Bequeathed by Willard Fiske [1960]
S. Nordal, ed., Monumenta Typographica Islandica (6 vols, 1933–42)
NORWAY
J. B. Halvorsen, Norsk forfatter-lexikon 1814–1880 (6 vols, 1885–1908)
H. Pettersen, Bibliotheca Norvegica (1643–1918) (4 vols, 1899–1924; 2e, 1972–4)
C. Sciøtz and B. Ringstrøm, Norske førsteutgaver, en hjelpebok for samlere av skjønnlitteratur, 2e (2006)
H. L. Tveterås, Den norske bokhandels historie (4 vols, 1950–96)
SWEDEN
Biblis (1957–97; 1998–)
Bokvännen (1946–97)
J. Brunius, ed., Medieval Book Fragments in Sweden (2005)
I. Collijn, Sveriges bibliografi intill år 1600 (3 vols, 1927–38)
—— Sveriges bibliografi, 1600–talet (2 vols in 1, 1942–6)
K. E. Gustafsson and P. Rydén, eds., Den svenska Pressens historia (5 vols, 2000–03)
H. Järv, ed., Den svenska boken (1983)
D. Lindmark, Reading, Writing, and Schooling, 1650–1880 (2004)
H. Schück, Den svenska förlagsbokhandelns historia (1923)
Svensk bibliografi 1700–1829 (SB 17), www.kb.se/hjalp/english, consulted Sept. 2007
