Rare Scheele work found – returned after 70 years

Source: https://www.su.se/english/divisions/stockholm-university-library/news/articles/2026-02-13-rare-scheele-work-found---returned-after-70-years Parent: https://www.su.se/english/divisions/stockholm-university-library

Photo: Cecilia Burman

A copy of Carl Wilhelm Scheele’s classic 1777 work that appeared at a Swedish auction house turned out to have once belonged to the Physical Institute of Stockholm College – today known as the Department of Physics. The book has now been returned to Stockholm University Library — and it also connects to the very earliest history of the university.

A piece of Swedish scientific history has come home again. In autumn 2025, a copy of Carl Wilhelm Scheele’s classic work Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und von dem Feuer (1777) was submitted to a Swedish auction house. When the auction house examined the book, they discovered a stamp reading “Stockholms Högskolas Fysiska Institut” (“Physical Institute of Stockholm College”).

High Scientific Value

This raised the question of whether the work had once been formally deaccessioned or donated away from the university’s collections. After contacting Stockholm University Library, this possibility could quickly be dismissed.

– Such a deaccession would neither have been legal nor reasonable, especially considering the book’s high value for the history of science, says Tommy Westergren, librarian and head of special collections at Stockholm University Library.

The library therefore requested that the book be returned. Once the individuals who had submitted it to the auction house understood that it belonged to Stockholm University Library, they complied. This allowed the valuable volume to be restored to the rare collections — more than 70 years after it disappeared.

Disappeared in the 1950s

According to the traces that can be followed, the book appears to have gone missing as early as the 1950s. One theory is that it was misplaced and later found by a student who then brought it home. An interesting signature was also discovered in the book.

– It turned out that one of its previous owners was Per Adam Siljeström, one of the driving forces behind the establishment of a university college in Stockholm, says Tommy Westergren.

Siljeström was an educator, public debater, and member of the Stockholm College Association in 1870, and thus engaged in the founding of Stockholm College, which would later become Stockholm University. The library’s collections already contain several books stamped “Physical Institute” that bear Siljeström’s name. This makes it likely that this copy, too, was donated to the college by Siljeström himself.

Stockholm University Library will now preserve the book for future generations and keep it accessible to researchers and others interested in early chemical discoveries.

Text: Cecilia Burman

Learn more about the history of Stockholm University\

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Photo: Cecilia Burman

Why Is the Book Important?

Title: Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und von dem Feuer (1777)\ Author: Carl Wilhelm Scheele\ Year of Publication: 1777\ Language: German

• The work is considered one of the most central contributions to early modern chemistry. In it, Scheele describes several of his groundbreaking findings, including his research on the gas he called “fire air” — what we now know as oxygen.
• The book opens with a foreword by Torbern Bergman, one of the most influential Swedish chemists of the 18th century. His international reputation contributed to the work’s strong impact in the European scientific community.
• The combination of Scheele’s discoveries and Bergman’s authority meant that the work played a crucial role in the transition from older chemical theories to the modern understanding of gases and combustion.\

Last updated: 2026-02-13

Source: Stockholm University Library