Spoils of Knowledge : : Seventeenth-Century Plunder in Swedish Archives and Libraries.

• Superior document: Library of the Written Word
• Author: Hagström Molin, Emma.
• Place / Publishing House: Piraí : : BRILL,, 2023.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Library of the Written Word
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (231 pages)

"In Spoils of Knowledge, Emma Hagström Molin offers novel perspectives on document and book plundering. At the forefront is the controversial heritage connected to the Swedish Empire (1611-1721) kept in Swedish archives and libraries. Previous studies suggest that continental spoils were perceived as an inferior and problematic category, and that Catholic books in particular were hard to accommodate in Protestant libraries. However, by considering systems of classification and collection orders of archives and libraries, Hagström Molin unearths a much more complex history of how plundered knowledge was appreciated, used and fused with its new Swedish settings. Moreover, spanning a history of 400 years, she shows that the understanding of spoils changed significantly over time"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Figures -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: In the King's Treasury -- 1 Uncovering Spoils of Knowledge in Swedish Collections -- 2 Writing Histories from Spoils: Methodological and Contextual Considerations -- 3 Cases and Sources: Spoils in Inventories, Lists and Catalogues -- 4 Some Prerequisites for Swedish Imperial Collecting -- 1 Placed in Chests: The Making of Cultural Spoils in Seventeenth-Century Europe and Beyond -- 1 Plundering and Ruining in the Age of Grotius -- 2 Plundering, Ruining and Cultural Plunder in Swedish Sources -- 3 Cultural Plunder in Livonia and Prussia -- 4 Collecting and Conserving Archives and Libraries -- 5 The Notable Absence of Spoils, Spolia and Trophies -- 6 Conclusion: Unstable Spoils of War -- 2 Archive Trouble: The Mitau Files in Vasa History -- 1 Archive Fever in Vasa Administration -- 2 The Documents from Mitau -- 3 The Material, Geography and Rarity of Archival Spoils -- 4 'As a Soul within a Body': Archive Rooms -- 5 Utter's Archive Order: Documents Narrating Vasa History -- 6 The Mitau Documents' Transformations -- 7 Restitution and Rebirth -- 8 Post-Fire Order, Collectors and Thieves -- 9 Conclusion: Archive Trouble -- 3 Library Confessions: Catholic Books, Jesuit Epistemology and Temporality at Uppsala University Library -- 1 'It Is Not Extraordinary': Library Beginnings -- 2 The Material, Geography and Confession of Library Spoils -- 3 Parting of the Prussian Spoils -- 4 Library Materialisations -- 5 Ordering the Collections -- 6 The Effects of Spoils -- 7 Material and Immaterial Movements -- 8 Mould and Disorder: The Challenges of Preservation -- 9 Back in the War Chests -- 10 Conclusion: Library Confessions -- 4 War Museums: Spolia Selecta in Carl Gustaf Wrangel's Skokloster -- 1 The Encyclopaedic Museums of Skokloster: Beginnings.

2 The Creation of the Rothkirch Spoils -- 3 Confessional Spoils -- 4 Varieties of Booty -- 5 Practical Spoils -- 6 The Wrangel Library at Skokloster: Past and Present -- 7 Discrepancy in the Descriptions and Numbers of Wrangel's Book Spoils -- 8 Bibliotheca Selecta, Spolia Selecta -- 9 Wrangel's Armoury and the Rothkirch Spoils -- 10 Art Chambers, War and Genealogical Spoils -- 11 Skokloster's Geography -- 12 Skokloster's Narrative and Temporal Tangle -- 13 Conclusion: War Museums -- Conclusion: Spoils of Knowledge, Triumph and Trouble -- 1 Making Spoils in the Seventeenth Century -- 2 Triumph and Trouble: The Effects of Knowledge Spoils -- 3 Enduring Instabilities: From Spoils of Knowledge to Swedish Spoils of War, Reconstructions and Restitutions -- Bibliography -- Illustrations -- Index.