The Journey of Unknown Bohemian Books. Three Swedish War Booty Examples in High School Libraries

In seventeenth-century Sweden, books were scarce, and a crucial need existed to furnish understocked libraries to support the crown’s ambition of becoming a great power through advancements in culture and education. This led to the systematic acquisition of extensive literary spoils during the Thirty Years’ War, which played a pivotal role in establishing new educational institutions and enhancing scholarly resources. While famous war spoils like the Codex Argenteus are widely known, a far greater number of lesser-known books were also taken from Bohemia and Moravia to Sweden. This paper traces three specific cases of Bohemian books from the Rosenberg library, aiming to reconstruct their journey from Stockholm (1649) to high school libraries in Borgå, Finland, and Skara, Sweden. The study examines Sermones XXX. in Undecimum Caput Epistolae ad Hebraeos by Ulrich Zwingli (now in Borgå), and Variarum Libri XII et Chronicon ad Theodericum Regem by Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus along with Scripta Veterum Latina de Una Persona et Duabus Naturis Domini et Servatoris Nostri Iesu Christi by Josias Simmler (both now in Skara). The study revealed that these books underwent complex dispersal after their arrival in Sweden, driven by factors such as destruction through fires (e.g. Stockholm 1697, Turku 1827, Strängnäs 1864), distribution as gifts to queen’s favorites and institutions, and sales in duplicate auctions, often due to limited library space or the presence of multiple copies. This research significantly enhances our understanding of cultural exchange, displacement, and the preservation of books during a turbulent period in European history. By tracing the specific paths of these ‘unknown’ volumes, it offers detailed insights into the intricate mechanisms of book preservation and their crucial role as carriers of cultural heritage amidst intersecting histories of warfare, politics, and knowledge transmission in early modern Europe.