Ingvar Lindqvist

I Lantmäteriet och Karls XI:s reduktion bidrar geografer, historiker och en konstvetare med perspektiv på utvecklingen av Sveriges lantmäteri och statsförvaltning i slutet av 1600-talet. Här ryms detaljerade studier av storskalig geometrisk och småskalig geografisk kartläggning samt analyser av breda politiska förändringar under en formativ fas i statsförvaltningens historia. Tillsammans synliggör forskarna hur lantmäteriet, som hade startats 1628, under det sena 1600-talet kom att bli ett modernt och effektivt instrument för hantering av ägoregleringar och skattereduktion. I ett politiskt landskap, präglat av Karl XI, skiftade maktbalansen mellan frälset, kronan och skattebönderna. Reduktionskarteringarna stärkte kronans intressen och minskade högadelns inflytande. *** This anthology comprises 14 chapters that expand our understanding of a formative phase in the development of Sweden’s land surveying and state administration in the late 17th century. The contributions range from detailed studies of large-scale geometric and smallscale geographic maps to analyses of broader political transformations. Following Gustav II Adolf’s distribution of estates and declining tax revenues, survey activity declined around 1650 but was vigorously resumed under Karl XI, when the Reduction demanded extensive mapping of noble and Crown estates, soldiers’ crofts, forests and commons. In a political landscape marked by absolutism and shifting balances of power between the nobility, the crown and freeholders, mapping strengthened the state’s interests and reduced the old nobility’s influence. Taken together, the volume shows how an initially vague defined project evolved into a modern, legally effective instrument that laid the groundwork for later land enclosure, land reforms and a more efficient state administration.

Chemistry is a subject experiencing very rapid growth. New areas of researeh are opened and new methods are developed with a speed whieh must seem impressive. The pieture has, however, another side represented by the great number of unsolved or poorly solved problems left behind when a branch of chemistry is no longer fashionable. When three years ago I beg;m to plan this book I felt that the molecular adduets of oxo­ compounos constituted just sueh a field of research, and that they might acquire greater interest if approached from the standpoint of modern chemistry. The developments of the last three years have been such, however, that it can no longer be said that interest is lacking. From that point of vic~w a book on this subject may now seem unnecessary. On the other hand individual contributions to this field have been very scattered, and the essential problems have not always been recognized. It is hoped therefore tlat this book will help to coordinate work on these compounds and that future investigations will derive some benefit as a result. For this purpose a systematie treatment is needed and the first and larger part of the book is an attempt to present a fairly complete review of past experimental work. The treatment is not detailed; it is aimed instead at giving the reader a chance to find all the pertinent references.