‘Suecia antiqua’ was an ambitious effort to document Sweden. The kingdom was then at the height of an aggressive expansion and very much aware that it had become a major power, primarily through its success in the Thirty Years War (1618-48) and campaigns against Denmark and Poland in the 1650’ies. In the course of this transformation, it took substantial new territories and sponsored many new and impressive architectural projects both at the state and the individual level, which were here presented to an international audience.

Dahlberg's direct source of inspiration was the topographical publications issued by the Swiss publisher Matthäus Merian whom he had become acquainted with during his military service and studies in Germany: ”I want to produce a work on Sweden like that with which Merian honored Germany. Foreigners should see how much of greatness and beauty is to be found in our fatherland”. (Jonsson, Stormaktstid, 1992).

“The compilation of architectural views emerged as a genre in the mid-sixteenth century and grew in popularity over the following two hundred years. They range widely in scope, ambition and intended purpose, with some constituting a kind of architectural monograph and others taking a regional or global focus as a form of topographical literature. Many are documentary; others contain imaginary or ideal buildings. Some emphasize text; others contain only a few captions. However, all have in common an attractive presentation that is not particularly technical, and would appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in architecture. It may be this easy accessibility that has often made them seem like ornaments for aristocratic libraries and largely removed from the more intellectually engaged worlds of the study and the architectural studio. With some exceptions, such as the rich works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, they have typically been seen as early coffee table books - of limited use at the time, and important to the history of art and architecture primarily” (Kristoffer Neville, Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna: An Architectural Viewbook in the Eighteenth Century).

The collation of the work is quite complicated, and the number of plates listed in bibliographies is not consistent. The printed index in the book lists 150+76+126=352; Lindberg lists 353 (150+76+127). The present copy has 354, including the plate of the Swedish Church in London (Templum Ulricæ), bound at the end, but before the Index and dated 1728.

Brunet V:578. 
Lindberg: Swedish Books 1280–1967 as no. 37.
Collijn 4, 198.

Swedish Court Bookbinder Gustaf Hedberg is considered the greatest Swedish bookbinder, widely famous for his magnificent, lavishly gilt full calf bindings. Especially those in larger formats are highly sought after and difficult to obtain.

After having trained as a bookbinder in Paris (1881-85) and London, Hedberg returned to Stockholm in 1886 and opened his own workshop there. In the beginning, he mostly bound books for libraries, but he soon became known for his great skills, evolving into a true artist bookbinder, who bound books for the most prominent people in the country. He won first price for his bindings in both Chicago 1893 and Stockholm 1897, and in 1901, he became Court Bookbinder.

He continued to travel to London and Paris, from where he brought back new techniques and styles to Sweden.

Since 1969, the historic Hedbergs Bokbinderi, along with bindings and the workshop archives, has constituted its own a special part of Kunglika Biblioteket.