This is not an inventory of medieval books shelved and catalogued in modern Swedish libraries. It is something more special, in fact the material dealt with in this note seems to be a phenomenon of Sweden, not found in other countries, at least not to the same extent.

When Protestantism (of the Lutheran variety) became the creed of the king and the people, books of a different kind were needed in churches and schools. Church services were gradually altered and instead of Latin, the Swedish language was used. The number of monks dwindled, the convents became poor and finally ceased to exist. No longer were the Latin service books used, nor Latin Bibles read. The printers could soon put any amount of new books at the scholar's disposal.