Swedish Psalm Book

[John Ostrom]

My ancestors from Åbyn, Byske north of Skellefteå have handed down in our family for many generations a book of Psalms that I would like to find some more information about. It's inside cover leaf page says:
Gothborg
Samuel Norberg
Psalm Boken 1693
1707
 So I assume this was published by Samuel Norborg in Goteborg first printing 1693 this printing 1707. I couldn't find anything else about the book except that it may be similar to the Swedborg Hymnal of 1695 that was favored by Swedes in the North. Does anyoneone have any additional information about the book or the Samuel Norberg publishing company of Goteborg?

[Joel Vogler]

Samuel Norberg was born in Hubbo parish, Västmanland, 15 July 1752.
 
He acquired a printing firm in Gothenburg 1781. He was skilful and successful, but lost everything in a fire 1792 (including a new edition of the Bible). He considered himself ruined, but was helped by the Swedish Eastindian Company to rebuild his printing firm.
 
The printing firm was situated at the crossing of Torggatan and Klädpressaregatan in Gothenburg.
 
He printed school-books and various litterature, mostly with religious contents. Is is said that he also printed two newspapers: Götheborgs Allehanda and Götheborgs Nyheter.
 
Samuel Norberg was a reputable and wealthy man who generously shared his fortune with others.
 
He was married twice: 1:o with Maria Christina Smitt (dead 1783), 2:o with Fredrika Maria Nordblom (dead 1822). He got no children. Samuel Norberg died 10 February 1843 and was buried at the Stampen graveyard in Gothenburg.
 
[Source: Mölndals Hembygdsförenings årsskrift 1985]

[Irma Ridbäck]

The revised book pf psalms, Then Swenska Psalm-Boken by Jesper Swedberg, was published in 1694, in seven editions of altogether 30 000 copies. The book was immediately banned and could not be distributed. The orthodox part of the clergy did not accept the new psalms and they interfered.  Anyhow a small amount of copies had left the printing offices. A small edition was also sent to the Swedish colonial parish in Delaware. It was probably assumed the new psalms would do less harm over there.  
A new edition was published in 1695.

[John Ostrom]

Thanks Joel and Irma, some great history there. So if Norberg aquired the printing firm in 1781 why didn't he use a contemporary date of the time on his printing of my Hymnal? Why keep the dates 1693 and 1707 without adding 1781 or whatever the year of his printing of the book was at the time?

[Anders Andersson]

I'm guessing here, but since the hymnal was meant to receive official recognition for church use, the year of the edition (1693) was supposedly more important than the printing year (I don't know what 1707 refers to; maybe a minor revision of the text). Sometimes the printing year and location is given on the last page instead of the first; have you checked that?
 
In the 1700's, Swedish law didn't recognize the concept of copyright, but printers instead operated under a system of exclusive printing privileges, which came with various restrictions (especially during the repressive regime 1774-1809). According to Bernhard Lundstedt: _Sveriges periodiska litteratur 1645-1812_ (The Periodical Literature of Sweden 1645-1812), 1895, Norberg acquired the printing rights to the paper _Götheborgska Nyheter_ in 1782 when he married M. C. Smitt, who in turn had inherited it from her brother Matthias Peter Smitt and their father Immanuel Smitt. In 1786 Norberg acquired the printing rights for _Götheborgs Allehanda_, and he kept printing both papers until his death in 1843.
 
The privilege granted to Norberg didn't give him permission to print news from abroad except those that had already been published in the official government periodical _Post- och Inrikes Tidningar_, a restriction which he violated a couple of times by publishing foreign news items from other sources in _Götheborgs Allehanda_, and in 1805 his privilege to print that paper was revoked and then re-issued a couple of weeks later.
 
Even though the first Freedom of Press Act was enacted in 1766, that freedom did not extend to religious texts, and I suppose those would include any hymnal editions. The only legal reason to print an old hymnal edition in the late 1700's would have been to meet a public demand for more copies of an already sanctioned text, thus the year of the printing may not have mattered much.

[John Ostrom]

Facinating. Thanks Anders. The last page does not have a printing year or location on it. The first person to inscribe his name in it was my Great-Great Grandfather Johan Andersson Åström (1819-1882) and he must have aquired it from his father Anders Jonsson Sundberg (1795-1872) or his mother Elisabeth 'Lisa' Helena Johansdotter (1795-1850).
 It is inscribed to his firstborn Anna Lena Åström (1845-1874) and commemorates her birth and baptism.  
 I believe it may have come into the possession of my Great Grandfather Johan Åström after his sister Anna Lena died in 1874. My father only knew that his grandfather had come to the USA from Sundsvall but because of the words Skellefteå and Åbyn that were also inscribed in the book they opened up a floodgate of genealogy information for me and I have been able to trace back that side of my family's history hundreds of years.
 The book came into my father's possession when he asked his grandfather about it and he gave it to him. His grandfather Johan Åström had been using it to prop open his bedroom window.

[Tommy Näzell]

Thanks Joel and Irma, some great history there. So if Norberg aquired the printing firm in 1781 why didn't he use a contemporary date of the time on his printing of my Hymnal? Why keep the dates 1693 and 1707 without adding 1781 or whatever the year of his printing of the book was at the time?

Dear John, I hope this reaches You, since it been quite a while since You wrote the above.


I'm researching the printing history of Samuel Norberg, which as mentioned earlier started in Gothenburg 1781.
My guess is that the titel in Your book says something like 'Den swenska psalm-boken, med de stycker som der til höra, och på följande sida upteknade finnas. Uppå kongl. majestäts nådigste befallning, år 1695. öfwersedd och nödtorfteligen förbättrad'.
Probably printed 1787, and either the number eight is missread as a 0 or is a typo.
He printed this Psalmbok almost every year from 1781 to 1848 when the shop closes. Even though he died 1843, the shop continued for a few years.


Is there a picture of the title-page of mentioned Psalmbok? I'd like very much to see that, maybe it can shred some light over this.
Regards
/Tommy