Maritime Code of the Swedish Realm, 1667.
Sweriges Rijkes Siö-Lagh: Som aff Then Stoormäcktigste, Högborne Förste och Herre Her CARL then Elfte, Sweriges Giöthes och Wendes Konung och Arff-Förste, Stoor-Förste til Finland, Hertigh vthi Skåne, Estland, Lijfland, Carelen, Brehmen, Vehrden, Stettin-Pommern, Cassuben och Wenden, Förste til Rügen, Herre ofwer Ingermanland och Wißmar; Så ock Pfaltz-Grefwe wijdh Rhein i Beyeren, til Gülich, Clewe och Bergen Hertigh, etc. Stadgat wardt Åhr effter Christi Byrd Ett Tusende Sex Hundrade Sextijonde och Siunde.
Maritime Code of the Swedish Realm: Which by The Powerful & Highborn Prince and Lord, Lord CAROLUS the Eleventh, King and Hereditary Prince of Sweden, Gothland, and Vendland: Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Scania, Estonia, Livonia, Karelia, Bremen, Verden, Stettin-Pomerania, Kashubia and Wendia, Prince of Rügen, Lord of Ingria and Wismar; In addition Count Palatine of the Rhine in Bavaria, Duke of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, etc. Enacted was in the Year after the Birth of Christ One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty and Seventh.
(Stockholm: Georg Hantsch, Kongl. Booktr. [Royal Book printer], Åhr [Year] 1667). Contemporary worn full vellum, with many cutting marks and the number 3333 written in pencil.
This book represents the first general Swedish Maritime Code. It was regarded as a substantial piece of legislation for its time and was not replaced by a new Maritime Code until 1864 in Sweden, and 1873 in Finland.
Item notes. The very striking, illustrated half-title page features a portrait of the enacting monarch, Carolus Rex (Karl XI, 1655-1697), depicted on one of the flags. On a second flag, to the left of Carolus, is the royal coat of arms (it is also pictured on the verso of the title page). Below the flags, we see the Olympian sea god, Poseidon, with his trident, seemingly acting as a pilot for a woman who is probably a combination of two mythical figures: Mother Svea (the female personification of Sweden) and Lady Justice (who holds scales and a sword). These two figures are at the helm, steering a horse-driven (!) vessel into the port of 17th-century Stockholm. – This volume was purchased by the UMN Law Library on August 27, 1948, at the same time as Sweriges Rikes Lag, also from “Björck,” which probably is Björck & Börjesson (see the description of Sverikes Rikes Lagh-Böker). – It is obvious from the condition of the volume that it has been heavily used. However, only a few notations of any special interest are in the text itself. In Chapter XI, under the heading, “Om Skipsfolcks Maatredning” (“On providing food for the ship’s crew,” p. 12), someone has long ago struck through a part of the text with sepia ink:
“A Skipper is obliged to provide food for his Crew three times
a Day, Morning, Noon and Evening, with such food and ship
drink as may be reasonable; If someone wants more, he may,
standing by the Tap, enjoy a thirst quencher and be content
with the Bread that may be in the basket and then return to his
Work; and no one has the Power to demand more or grumble
about it under penalty of a fine.”
We can but speculate about the reason for this crossout. Was the writer a parsimonious skipper, or perhaps a member of the crew, documenting the modified rule or the effect of such an attitude? The binding also gives the impression of having been used aboard an actual ship, maybe even as a cutting-board for dividing “the Bread that may be in the basket!” Such features as these remind us that a rare book is a whole and integral object, which can be studied as such.
