A Swedish centenary edition of the Augsburg Confession, first published there in 1593, from the press of the first woman publisher in Sweden.
Although the Reformation had been introduced in Sweden in 1527, and the first Lutheran archbishop of Uppsala had been appointed in 1531, it was not until 1593 that a synod of the clergy formally declared its allegiance to Lutheranism, adopting as doctrine the Augsburg Confession without changes. Other copies of this edition are also found in the same binding with the arms of Charles XI (r. 1660-1697) as many were sent out to Swedish parishes as a gift from the King.
The Stockholm printer and publisher Maria Wankijf (née Matras) active from 1689 to 1705 was the daughter of a French language teacher. Her first husband had been the royal printer Georg Hantsch and, after his death in 1668, she married his foreman and successor Nils Wankijf.
Following his death in 1689, Swedish law provided legal capacity for his widow and so enabled Maria to inherit the printing privilege directly. This legal mechanism, rooted in customary practices for skilled trades, empowered a small number of printer widows to sustain and even innovate within the male-dominated field. Contemporary documents relating to Maria’s management of the Sweden’s first newspaper the Ordinarie Stockholmiske Posttijdender prove that her role was not confined only to its printing, but that she was its publisher, the first woman to fill that role in Sweden.
Provenance: effaced inscription on title causing small hole, the beginning still legible: “A[nn]o 1749 üpsaliae D. 9 September…”; motto in same hand on facing flyleaf, “Quidquid agis pudenter agas & respice finem”, a few notes in Swedish on rear endpaper. Later ex-libris of W. Jackson.
First few leaves slightly soiled, dampstaining to a dozen or so leaves, occasional light spotting.
Collijn, Sveriges Bibliografi, 1600-Talet, 186; A. Sjögren, Svenska kungliga och furstliga bokägaremärken (1915), 21, fig. 82.
Online ref, see Lirberg & Skoglund: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1312645/FULLTEXT01.pdf
