Magnus SWEDERUS

Magnus Swederus was a Swedish bookseller, publisher, and Lutheran clergyman, born in Stockholm on 25 November 1748. The son of a pastor, he first made his mark in the book trade and intellectual life of Uppsala: in 1772 he founded a reading circle for foreign periodicals there, later opening a branch in Åbo (Turku) in 1779. In 1784 he established Stockholm's first lending library in the modern sense, as well as the Tidningar för swenska bokhandeln (1784), the first trade periodical for the Swedish book market. Repeated conflicts with printers and bookbinders led him to dissolve his commercial operations in 1790. Ordained a priest in 1789, he was appointed domkyrkosyssloman (cathedral chapter administrator) in Västerås in 1790 and fältprost (military chaplain) in 1809, retiring in 1815. He subsequently lived in Sigtuna and Uppsala, where he died on 19 March 1836, aged eighty-eight.