Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld
Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld ( born July 17 or June 2, 1655 in Åmål, † June 2, 1727 in Åbylund ) was a Swedish philologist, diplomat and collector of historical documents.
His parents were Johan Sparwenfeld (1618-1698) and Christina Uggla. Even before he was eight years old, he already attended lectures at the University of Uppsala. It is believed that he studied under law, history and languages.
His uncle, the Admiral Claas Uggla, took him in 1674 with a voyage into the Duchy of Holstein. During the Danish-Norwegian War (1675-1679) on a sea voyage to England he was captured as a Danish Corsair mustered the ship. As a scholar he was granted some privileges so he could move relatively freely. 1677 he received permission to return to Sweden. A second attempt to come to England, brought him first to Holland. From there he traveled to France and Italy. In Rome he worked in the library of Queen Cristina and the archives of the Vatican. Later he came to England but still, from where he returned in 1682 to Sweden.
1684 Sparwenfeld was sent to the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. He wrote a diary in which he recorded his findings about life in Russia. He started with lexicographical studies of Slavic languages , which should keep him still for almost 20 years and led to the publication of the Lexicon Slavonicum. Upon completion of his diplomatic service he was granted permission to stay another year in Russia. He devoted himself to the deepening of his knowledge of Russian and bibliographic search of rare plants. In 1687, he returned to Sweden and report to the King Report on a Russia that, despite its economic and military importance until then little known.
1689 he started another trip through Europe. On behalf of the Swedish King Karl XI. he should look for documents that could prove that the Goths were of Swedish origin. In January 1690 he bought in Madrid from the estate of Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, Marquis of Heliche, a hitherto undisclosed factory with 133 plans and views of Spanish cities and fortresses, the now so-called Atlas of the Marquis of Heliche. This had nothing to do with the Goths, but he could be sure that the king would like these cards. In May In 1694 returned to Sweden. In 1695 he married twenty years younger Antonieta Sophia Hildebrand, with whom he had eight children before she died in 1704.
To In 1704 he gave the Atlas of the Marquis of Heliche along with its other acquisitions from Spain, the Royal Library ( National Library of Sweden ). In the 19th century the Atlas came into the newly founded Swedish Military Archives (El Krigsarkivet ), where he was re-discovered and published until 2001. Depressed withdrawn by the loss of his wife and died Sparwenfeld on June 2, 1727 Åbylund.
Older spellings of the surname are Sparfvenfelt and Sparwenfeldt.