Main Content
Summary
Author: Anckarsvärd, M.G.
Title: Wisby ruiner.
Publication: Stockholm, J.P.Gjöthström 1828.
Price: Sold
Reference: 04864
Full Description
Folio. Lithographic title leaf, 4pp, 16 litho plates. Quarter calf, marbled boards. A small stain towards upper right hand blank corner of plates 6 and 7, and some other intermittent spotting on title leaf and at outer margins , but the lithographic images themselves are in satisfactory condition.
A fine and scarce series of lithographic views by Anckarsvärd, recording the surviving walls and churches of the ruined mediaeval town of Wisby on the island of Gottland. The ruins of Wisby are less familiar than those of other deserted European towns of the middle ages, but no less impressive ; they include substantial remains of several notable churches of the twelfth and thirteenth century, and Anckarsvärd’s plates, showing these in a state of picturesque ruin and used by local farmers as shelter for their cattle or as storage for their straw and firewood, are vivid evidence for their appearance just before Swedish antiquaries began to take an interest in the town’s preservation. NUC records one copy only (New York Public Library).