Johannes Vastovius

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Johannes Vastovius (active in the early 17th century, but his years of birth or death are unknown) was a Swedish priest and writer in the late reformation period.

Vastovius was a convert to Roman Catholicism and one of the followers of Polish-Swedish king Sigismund III Vasa. He became protonotarius publicus and canon in Warmia in Poland, and served Sigismund as chaplain and librarian.[1] He is best known for his Vitis aquilonia ("The Vine of the North"), a collection of stories or legends of Scandinavian, mostly Swedish, saints from about 850 until the early 16th century, which was printed in Cologne in 1623.[2] A new edition of the Vitis aquilonia was published in Uppsala in 1708 with comments by Erik Benzelius the Younger, who praised the carefulness and clarity of style of Vastovius.[3] A 20th century Swedish historian and philologist, on the other hand, has characterized the Vitis aquilonia as a "young and unclear" source in relationship to its medieval subject matter.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ This article is for the most part a translation of the unsigned article "Vastovius, Joannes" in Nordisk familjebok, 2nd ed., vol. 31 (1921), col. 804
  2. ^ Vitis aqvilonia seu Vitae sanctorum qvi Scandinaviam magnam arctoi orbis peninsulam ac praesertim regna gothorum sveonumqae olim rebus gestis illustrarunt, opera et studio Ioannis Vastovii Gothi, Coloniae Agrippinae: Ant[onius] Hieratus, 1623. Entry in Libris
  3. ^ Ioannis Vastovii, gothi, Vitis aquilonia, sive Vitae sanctorum regni sveo-gothici, emendavit et notis illustravit Ericus Benzelius filius. Upsaliae typis Johannis Henrici Werneri, typographi regii & academiae Upsalensis. MDCCVIII. Entry in Libris
  4. ^ Natanael Beckman, review of Salomon Kraft, Textstudier till Birgittas revelationer (Uppsala 1929), in Scandia 3 (1930), p. 307. Beckman writes "ung och grumlig".(online scan)
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