Legal Literates in Eighteenth-Century Swedish Towns: Evidence of Book Ownership in Estate Inventories (Helsinki, Oulu, Porvoo, and Kokkola)

Abstract

This chapter analyses the ownership of law books in eighteenth-century Swedish towns through estate inventories. The towns (Helsinki, Oulu, Porvoo, and Kokkola) were growing in population and wealth while there was a marked increase in the availability of legal books in the vernacular, some specifically written for laymen. The ownership of legal works and the size of the law libraries of townspeople grew in the course of the eighteenth century. Those owning the most legal works were on the more learned scale of legal literates which resounds with the ongoing professionalisation of Swedish town administration and judicial office-holding during the period. On the other hand, law books and legal literature were also owned by the middling sort using books to improve their legal skills and knowledge.