Typographorum Emblemata

Kristina Lundblad

The Printer’s Mark in Early Modern Sweden

In February 1527 King Gustav Vasa (1496–1560) explained in a letter to the Bishop of Linköping, Hans Brask (1464–1538), that printed matter no longer would be allowed to be distributed “amongst simple people” unless he, the king, had inspected and approved of it beforehand.615 The letter is probably the earliest articulation of censorship within Swedish print culture. At the same time, it is the last word in a bitter debate between Brask, head of the Catholic church, and Gustav Vasa, newly appointed king and instigator of the Protestant reformation in Sweden.

Bishop Brask had had a press set up in Söderköping, close to Linköping, around 1522, realizing that the power of printed communication ...