Johannes Magnus – Goternas och svearnas historia

Johannes Magnus (1488-1544) was the last Catholic archbishop of Sweden. His history of the Gothic nation, Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sveonumque regibus, was posthumously published in Rome in 1554. The author here gives a complete list of Swedish kings from Magog, the grandson of Noah, to his own day and, in addition, the history of the Goths extra patriam, viz. the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths, and the Scythians, the Getae and the Dacians (all of them allegedly of Gothic descent). Johannes Magnus's Historia is one of the most important contributions to the Gothic historiographical school, which was to become state ideology in Sweden during the 17th century. The work is also to be regarded as a mirror of princes and - not the least - as an inspired religious polemical treatise, a precursor of the counterreformation directed against all kinds of heresy and false doctrines, and above all against Protestantism. The text has been translated into Swedish by Professor Kurt Johannesson. Volume II contains introductions and comprehensive commentaries by the translator and by Professor Hans Helander.