Born in 1490, Olaus Magnus (Latinised from the original Swedish, Olaf Månsson) was a central figure in the events of the Swedish Reformation between 1527 and 1537. Following his accession to the Swedish throne, Gustav Vasa attempted to remove the Archbishop of Uppsala from his position and appoint Olaus's brother Johannes in his place. The Pope rejected this suggestion, leading to the appointment of Johannes without Papal recognition. The King then began to split from Rome, adopting the Lutheran teachings of Olaus and Laurentius Petri.
Johannes was outspoken in his disagreement with the influence of Lutheranism in the Swedish Church, and in 1531 the King sent the brothers overseas to negotiate trade deals in the Habsburg Netherlands and Russia. This allowed the King to effectively exile the brothers from Sweden. Eventually settling in Rome in 1537 they began to write numerous accounts of the history of Sweden and wider Scandinavia. These accounts, while being indirectly critical of the actions of Gustav Vasa, also provided Europe with the best accounts available of Swedish history and folklore.
A History of the Northern Peoples, first published in 1555, was one such work. Its numerous woodcut engravings and descriptions conveying a brooding, romantic image of the Scandinavian countries were instantly popular, and went through numerous reprints and translations. This copy, acquired by Queen Victoria, is a volume of a 1567 reprint from Basel, Switzerland.