Historia Ioannis Magni Gothi sedis apostolicae legati Svetiae et Gotiae primatis ac archiepiscopi Upsalensis. De omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus qui unquam ab initio nationis extitere, eorùmque memorabilibus bellis late varieque per orbem gestis, opera Olai Magni Gothi fratris eiusdem autoris ac etiam archiepiscopi Upsalensis in lucem edita

Folio (293x203 mm). [60], 787, [5] pp. Collation: A-E6 a-c4 d-xxx6. Leaves E6 and xxx6 are blank. Coat-of-arms of Pope Julius III on title page. The privilege granted by Julius III and signed by Jacopo Sadoleto is printed on l. A2. Errata and register on l. xxx4v, colophon on l. xxx5r. Full-page printer's device on l. E5v (with the author's arms inserted in the upper cartouche) and on the last leaf verso. 236 small woodcuts (with several repetitions of figures of kings), one full-page woodcut map of Scandinavia (a smaller version of Olaus Magnus' Carta marina, published in Venice in 1539 - p. 14) and two larger illustrations showing a battle scene (pp. 264-265), all in the text. Woodcut historiated initials. Early 20th-century half calf gilt, panels covered with marbled paper (slightly rubbed). Tear repaired to the upper margin of l. E5 and to the lower margin of l. uuu6, small worm hole to the inner blank margin of the last five leaves, some light scattered foxing. A good, clean copy.
First edition, issue with type-set title page and dedication by Olaus Magnus to Pope Julius III, dated 30 January 1554. There is another issue with a woodcut title page and a dedication by Olaus to Erik of Sweden and other dukes, also dated 20 January 1554.
“This famous history was written in Venice in 1540, where the author was then living as a catholic refugee - he had left Sweden in 1526. In it, the Gothic romantic conception of Sweden as the ‘vagina gentium', the idea of Jordanes, 6th-century chronicler of the Goths, is developed in a history of Swedish kings both at home and abroad leading the migrating peoples. The conception had already been adopted by mediaeval Swedish historians and was the leading ideology of Swedish patriotism in the 17th century when the text was translated into Swedish (1620). The book was posthumously published by the author's brother Olaus Magnus, who dedicated it to Pope Julius III as well as to the Swedish Crown Prince Erik” (S.G. Lindberg, Swedish Books 1280-1967, Stockholm, 1968, no. 17).
The work is divided in 24 books and covers over 200 Swedish kings from the sons of Noah to the present time. Even though an unreliable source under many aspects, the De omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus was very important for the rise of Swedish Gothicism in the 17th-century, the golden age of Swedish modern history.
The full-page map block, the two larger battle scene blocks, and ten other blocks, including one with a runic alphabet (p. 25), were used by Viotti also for Olaus Magnus' Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus that he published a year later in 1555. “These blocks form only a small part of the illustration of Johannes's text and thus should be considered an early appearance of Olaus's blocks rather than subjects passed from this text to Olaus. Most of the Johannes illustration consists of the figures of kings […] There is evidence of several hands in the cutting” (R. Mortimer, Harvard College Library, Part II: Italian 16th Century Books, Cambridge MA, 1974, no. 269).
Johannes Magnus, the last archbishop of Upsala in residence, was born in Linköping in 1488. After studying abroad, he came back to Sweden in 1523 as a papal legate, and soon after was appointed archbishop. In 1526 he was sent to Poland to negotiate a new marriage for the Swedish king, Gustavus Vasa. Despite his attempts to return and fight the spreading of Lutheranism in his country, he spent the rest of his life in Poland and Italy, where he died in 1544.
Adams, M-136; Edit 16, CNCE39061.