Suecia antiqua et hodierna.[Stockholm, 1769? (engraved ca. 1670-ca. 1750)]. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With 355 engraved plates (including 3 engraved title-pages and the large view of the Swedish Church in London, often lacking); most plates double-page, several folding. Only the index is printed letterpress. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. In a modern slipcase.

13, [1 blank] pp. plus 355 plates.A magnificent series of hundreds of plates showing Sweden's (and Finland's) cities, gardens, palaces, churches and antiquities, executed by such prominent artists as Willem Swidde, Jean Marot, Adam Perelle and Jan van Aveelen. Erik Jönsson Dahlberg (1625-1703) was a military engineer and subsequently Director of Fortifications to King Karl X of Sweden. He spent three years in Frankfurt am Main, where he became acquainted with the brothers Matthaeus and Conrad Merian, then working on their epoch-making Theatrum Europeaum and their famous topographies, which greatly impressed Dahlberg. Indeed, his Suecia antiqua et hodierna "was modelled closely upon the format of Topographia Galliae (published 1655) but Dahlberg was also to improve upon his models in making Suecia more exhaustive than they" (BAL).Bookplate on pastedown. A few plates browned, one mounted on another leaf. Front hinge and head and foot of spine expertly restored. A "kunstgeschichtliche Quelle von unschätzbarem Wert und ausserdem eine ganz hervorragende künstlerische Leistung" (Thieme-Becker).l BAL 772; Berlin Kat. 2256; Lipperheide 1037; Warmholtz, Bibliotheca Historica Sueo-Gothica 207; for Dahlberg: Thieme-Becker VIII, p. 276.