Olaus Magnus

Life

Olaus Magnus (1490–1557) is today most famous for writing Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, which he had printed in Rome in 1555. Pope Paul III made him archbishop of Uppsala in 1544 after his successor and brother Johannes’ death, but because of the Protestant Reformation he could not take up his office in Sweden. In Rome he took responsibility for Casa di Santa Brigida, where he set up a printing press, producing editions both of the vitae of Birgitta and Katarina of Vadstena and of the Revelationes of Birgitta.