Johan O. Stiernhöök, On the Ancient Law of Swedes and Goths, 1672.

Johan O. Stiernhöök, De Jure Sveonum et Gothorum Vetusto. Libri duo Quorum Primus de Judicijs & eorum varietate, de Judicibus, de Processibus judiciarijs, Probationibus, Decisionibus, Executionibus, &c. Posterior, De actionibus sive causis civilibus & Criminalibus, denique de jure Sacrorum, Religione & quae Religioni inserviunt legibus.

On the Ancient Law of Swedes and Goths. Two Books, The First on Courts & their variety, on the Judges, on judicial Procedures, Proofs, Decisions, Executions, &c. The Latter, on the civil & Criminal actions or causes, and finally on the Sacred law, Religion & laws regarding Religion.

(Holmiæ [Stockholm]: Excudebat [Printed by] Nicolaus Wankijf, Reg. Typogr. [Royal Printer], 1672). Modern dark-green full-cloth binding.

The author, Johan O. Stiernhöök (1596–1675; named Johan Olofsson Dalkarl before he was ennobled in 1649), was a Royal Advisor, Judge and Professor of Law, known as “the father of Swedish jurisprudence” and “Sweden’s first legal historian.” This book is his widely acclaimed masterpiece, printed in 1672 but not published until 1674, the year before he died. His achievement is the more impressive considering that he was blind from around 1660 and dictated this perspicacious study on legal historical development to his son. Originally published in Latin, it wasn’t translated into Swedish until 1981.

Provenance notes. The volume was probably acquired by the UMN Law Library on April 29, 1953. – Among the old notes in sepia ink we find, “Liber inter rariores / Rarissimus!!!!!” (“A book among the rarer / Rarest!!!!!”), perhaps by a bookseller, who was almost certainly exaggerating. In fact, the book is not so rare, at least today when demand has diminished. – The crest bookplate (removed from an older binding) is that of Symeon T. Bartlett, Clare Hall (Clare College, Cambridge from 1856). In an English newspaper from 1851, Symeon T. Bartlett, LL.D., is listed as a director of the newly registered Anglo-Californian Gold Mining Company, which might explain how the book came to the US. – An armorial bookplate (also removed from an older binding) with the motto “Dieu Pour Nous” (“God For Us”) points to a former Scottish owner from the family Fletcher of Salton. The family included eminent jurists as well as a great bibliophile, the Scottish patriot Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655–1716), who possessed the best private library in Scotland at the time. This volume might have been a part of his famous library, the Bibliotheca Fletcheriana.