Den svenska psalmboken 1695 (The Carolina Psalter)
Den svenska psalmboken
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
The first official hymnal of the Church of Sweden, known as the Carolina Psalter after King Charles XI (Carolina = Charles), published in 1695. Jesper Swedberg — court chaplain to Charles XI — was its driving force, and the psalter was accepted by the king. Containing around 482 hymns in Swedish along with a few in Latin, it found its way into nearly every Swedish home and remained the state church's official hymnal until 1819 (and in Finland until 1886). Swedberg later served as bishop of Skara and father of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. The 1697 koralbok (music edition) accompanied it.
Why it still matters
Several hymns from the 1695 psalter remain in the modern Swedish Church hymnal; the collection offers a rich quarry of Baroque Lutheran piety accessible through the Archive.org facsimile edition.
Kept alongside
Cantus Sororum (Birgittine Office of Our Lady)
Ordo Cantus Sororum Ordinis Sancti Salvatoris
The Cantus Sororum is the distinctive divine office of the Birgittine sisters, constructed by Birgitta and Petrus of Skänninge as a weekly Marian office cycle based on lessons from Birgitta's Sermo Angelicus. It is the only known medieval liturgical repertory composed specifically for performance by women. The mother-house at Vadstena Abbey — founded and endowed by the Folkunga King Magnus Eriksson in 1346 — was the original home of this office, and approximately 22 notated manuscripts survive from Vadstena and daughter-houses. The Birgittine Database (birgittine.org) catalogs 3,600 entries from these manuscripts covering c.1500–1881.
Sermo Angelicus
The Sermo Angelicus consists of 21 lessons — three for each day of the week — said by Birgitta to have been dictated by an angel and addressed to the Virgin Mary's role in salvation history. These lessons formed the lections for the Matins of the Birgittine sisters' distinctive office at Vadstena and all daughter-houses. The text was composed in Rome c.1353–1354 and became the theological heart of the Birgittine liturgy endowed by the Folkunga royal house. The Museum of the Bible holds an illuminated Birgittine manuscript containing the Sermo Angelicus as part of the sisters' office book.
Olov Svebilius Catechism
Förklaring öfwer Luthers Lille Cathechismum
Composed by Olov Svebilius, who served as court chaplain to King Charles XI of Sweden and was personally charged by the king with teaching theology to the young prince (the future Charles XI), this catechism became Sweden's official Lutheran formation text for children and adults. After Charles XI's coronation in 1675, the king declared learning Svebilius's translation of Luther's Small Catechism obligatory for all commoners; the 1689 edition held authority until 1810. Svebilius was also a key member of the commission that produced the 1686 Swedish Church Law mandating household catechism examinations.