Swedish Era Literature

The oldest part of Finland's national literature is the literature printed during the Swedish era (1488-1809/27). These books are placed in a special collection, the RV Collection. It contains 17,400 publications either in Finnish, printed in Finland, produced by a person born or working in Finland, or books on Finland printed outside Finland. The oldest publication in the collection is the Missale Aboense (1488), the first book that was printed for Finland.

RV publications are studied in the Special Reading Room in Fabiania.

Catalogues

• The books in the collection are catalogued in the database FENNICA
• Some the material has been digitised and is found in the image databases HELMI and MUISTI.
• Much of the material has been microfilmed and the films are placed in the Newspaper Room (North Hall, P-sali).

Printed catalogues and bibliographies l

• Leinberg, K.G. Dissertationes academicae fennorum extra patriam. Helsingfors 1900. - Bidrag till kännedom av Finlands natur och folk 58. S. 347-523.
• Melander, Toini, Personskrifter hänförande sig till Finland 1562-1713. 1-5. Helsingfors 1951-59. - Helsingfors universitetsbiblioteks skrifter 22.
• Pipping, W.F., Förteckning öfver i tryck utgivna skrifter på finska. Luettelo suomeksi präntätyistä kirjoista 1856-1857. Jäljennöspainos. Porvoo 1967. - Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia 20.
• Suomen kansallisbibliografia. Finlands nationalbibliografi. Finnische Nationalbibliographie. 1488-1700. Toim. Tuija Laine ja Rita Nyqvist. Helsinki 1996.
• Vallinkoski, Jorma, Turun akatemian väitöskirjat 1642-1828. Helsinki 1962-69. - Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja 30.

Information:
kk-erik@helsinki.fi
Sirkka.Havu@helsinki.fi