Even though the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a substantial expansion in editorial interest and in the number of text editions in Sweden, there were important forerunners in the field. The Swedish empire of the 17th century had promoted an interest in Swedish history, Old Norse literature, and medieval provincial laws, as well as fanciful historical constructions. In 1666, the Antikvitetskollegium was founded, among whose aims were to collect historical documents and antiquarian objects, and to produce editions; in 1786 the society was merged into the new Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. In the late 18th century the antiquarian ambitions were matched by a growing editorial interest in modern (18th-century) Swedish literature, edited to conform to as well to shape ideas of good taste and to establish a national literary canon.

Editorial efforts were promoted as a core activity within the so-called new (Romantic) school in Swedish literature from 1809 onwards. Erik Gustaf Geijer and Arvid August Afzelius made a pioneering contribution to the study of Scandinavian ballads in their edition Svenska folk-visor från forntiden (“Swedish folk songs from the past”; 3 vols, 1814-18; 2nd ed. 1846). Inspired by the Danish Udvalgte danske viser fra Middelalderen (edited by Werner Hans Frederik Abrahamson, Rasmus Nyerup, and Knud Lyne Rahbek), Geijer and Afzelius brought together 100 ballads, presented as Swedish “folk songs”. Geijer wrote a lengthy introduction and an epilogue to the edition. In Nordmansharpan (“Norseman’s harp”, Poetisk kalender, 1816) the author Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom presented a small and more unconventional ballad edition, partly fuelled by his own poetic imagination. Twenty years later, Adolf Ivar Arwidsson edited Svenska fornsånger (“Swedish ancient songs”; 3 vols, 1834-42), characterized not only by its generous scope, but also by its scholarly qualities.

Lorenzo Hammarsköld and Johan Imnelius made an attempt at the editing of folk tales with a tiny edition of Svenska folksagor (“Swedish folk tales”, 1819), comprising a few stories rather associated with chap-books; it was intended as a first instalment, to be followed by further ones, but its poor reception led to its discontinuation. With Per Olof Bäckström’s Svenska folkböcker (“Swedish folk books”; 2 vols, 1845-48), the project to collect and edit chapbook stories was continued. In 1844 Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius and George Stephens published their Svenska folksagor och äfventyr (“Swedish folk tales and adventures”; 2 vols, 1844-49), dedicated to the Grimm brothers. Stephens, who was both an English and Scandinavian philologist, had moved to Stockholm from London in 1834 when he was twenty years old; his most important scholarly contribution was The Old-Northern runic monuments of Scandinavia and England (4 vols, 1866-1901; the 4th vol. by Sven Otto Magnus Söderberg).

In 1843, together with Adolf Ivar Arwidsson and Bror Emil Hildebrand, Hyltén-Cavallius and Stephens founded Svenska Fornskriftsällskapet (Swedish Medieval Texts Society), devoted to the edition of texts from the pre-Reformation period: chronicles, medieval romances, and Bible commentaries. The society primarily published editions in the Swedish language; in 1924, however, a Latin series was inaugurated. 33 editions (some of them in several volumes) were published between 1844 and 1900; another 64 in the Swedish series (1901-2013) and 9 in the Latin series (1924-2003). Among the important editors in the early history of the society was the librarian Gustaf Edvard Klemming, a productive and self-taught editor, whose work subsequently met with reservations.

The first volume of the edition of Swedish provincial laws, Samling af Sweriges gamla lagar, was published in 1827, edited by Carl Johan Schlyter and Hans Samuel Collin. In 1833, with only two volumes published, Collin died, and Schlyter became the sole editor of the edition’s remaining eleven volumes; the project was completed in 1877. Schlyter’s work was methodologically advanced; it has been argued by Gösta Holm that his editions were in most respects “far, sometimes very far, in advance of comparable contemporary work”. In 1815 a society devoted to the editing of historical documents was founded, in 1817 named Kungl. Samfundet för Utgifvande af Handskrifter rörande Skandinaviens Historia (Royal Society for the Edition of Manuscripts on Scandinavian History). In spite of the Scandinavian reference in the name, reflecting the increasing popularity of Scandinavism, the society’s publications were predominantly nationally oriented. In 1829 the historical source edition Svenskt diplomatarium (Diplomatarium Suecanum) was initiated by editor and runologist Johan Gustaf Liljegren.

Parallel with the interest in oral literature and medieval sources, editorial efforts were made to produce editions of modern (i.e. post-1600) Swedish literature. These were sometimes (but not always) presented in series of national classics, supporting the notion of literature as consisting of separate national canons rooted in national identity. Georg Stiernhielm, the 17th-century “father of Swedish poetry”, was occasionally showcased as a figurehead in such series. Among series of this kind mention can be made of the popular Klassiska författare i Svenska vitterheten (“Classical authors in Swedish literature”, 1834-42); Svenska författare (“Swedish authors”, 1855-77), which set a text-critical standard for commented editions of modern Swedish literature; and Samlade vitterhetsarbeten af Svenska författare (“Collected literary works of Swedish authors”, 1856-78), edited by Pehr Hanselli in 22 volumes, including the writings of 96 authors, many of them published for the first time.

The editing of modern literature was increasingly framed by the development and implementation of authorial rights, first formally established in the Freedom of the Press Act in 1810. This made the rights to literary classics a commodity, sold between publishers on a new kind of literary market. (A law placing literature by authors dead for more than fifty years in the public domain was not fully implemented until 1927).

In 1880 Svenska Litteratursällskapet (The Swedish Literary Society) was founded, among whose aims was to produce editions of literary source texts. In 1907, however, this objective was partly transferred to a new society, Svenska Vitterhetssamfundet (The Swedish Society for Belles-Lettres), with the sole aim of publishing Swedish classics in reliable scholarly editions. This society soon became the leading editorial society for post-medieval literature in Sweden.