A Quantitative Approach to Book-Printing in Sweden and Finland, 1640–1828

Mikko Tolonen, Leo Lahti, Hege Roivainen and Jani Marjanen

Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 2019, vol. 52, issue 1, 57-78

Abstract: Several cities in Sweden have been providing book-printing facilities since the 1640s. In our quantitative and explorative analysis of library catalogs from the National Library of Sweden and the National Library of Finland we identify the general trends in publishing, how book-printing has been affected by political events, and how printing developed at different paces in different parts of the realm. We have developed a new method for analyzing the totality of publishing through extensive data harmonization and comprehensive statistical analysis, and by treating library catalogs not as an endpoint of bibliographic research but as an inherently rich source of information. This facilitated the quantitative assessment of printing in the Swedish realm based on the metadata contained in library catalogs. Our data-driven approach to the transformation of public discourse demonstrates that whereas the amount of printed material grew steadily, political ruptures affected the development of printing. We also suggest that the culture of books and printing is best understood through the dynamics of competing intellectual hubs consisting of the university cities and the political center in Stockholm. This perspective further challenges the dominant, nationally delineated approach in book history.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01615440.2018.1526657 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:vhimxx:v:52:y:2019:i:1:p:57-78

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/vhim20

DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2018.1526657

Access Statistics for this article

Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History is currently edited by J. David Hacker and Kenneth Sylvester

More articles in Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().