This Swedish newspaper was displayed in last summer’s Rarely Seen Treasures from the Attic exhibit. Called the Calmar News, it was published on August 6, 1817. Calmar (Kalmar) is a seaport city located in the province of Smaland in southern Sweden. The newspaper contains mostly news about world events and sea traffic. Below is an excerpt from the paper:
Constantinople May 26th”
(Modern day Istanbul, Turkey)
“The local kadi or director of police has received several complaints of the very expensive and low quality of bread baked by the local bakery. The baker was arrested and taken to court to answer the complaints and was found guilty.
The sentence orders all the bad bread to be given to the poor, and the baker forbidden to bake bread for one year. If after the year, he again is found guilty of poor merchandise, the following punishment will be awarded.
First offense: A nail will be forced through his ear and depending on the size of his crime, he will be forced to stand in an upright position for several hours.
Second offense: He will be suspended from a beam so high that he will barely be able to touch the floor with his toes.
Third offense: If after offending three times, he will be decapitated.”
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