On 13 October, Steingrímur Jónsson presented the National and University Library of Iceland with the Swedish book history journal Biblis, published since 1957, as a gift.
It was Föreningen för bokhantverk that published the journal at first, as an annual, up to 1997. The friends’ association of the National Library of Sweden – which is also called Biblis – then took over publication and made it a quarterly. Since then 110 issues have appeared, the latest in late summer this year.
Today Biblis is the only book history journal published in the Nordic countries, since Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen ceased about 20 years ago after nearly a hundred years of publication.
It goes without saying that many of the leading scholars of Swedish book history have contributed to Biblis over the years, for besides book history in the traditional sense, its articles cover the cultural history of the book in the widest sense.
Some time ago the Library took out a subscription to the digital edition of the most recent volumes of Biblis. Now, as said, the whole journal is available in the Library.