Johann Snell

Johann Snell was a German printer who is known for printing the first books in Denmark and Sweden. He appears to have been active in Rostock in 1475, and in Lübeck in 1480, where he was an independent printer and bookbinder.

In 1482 he was called by Bishop Karl Rønnov to Odense to provide the first book ever printed in Denmark, the Breviarium Ottoniense. At the same time he was able to produce at least one minor text, an account of the Turkish siege of the island of Rhodes De obsidione et bello Rhodiano by Guilhelmus Caoursin. After his stay in Denmark from 1482 – 1483, he had moved to Stockholm where he received a commission to print a liturgical book, the Missale Uppsalenese, the first mayor work to be printed in Sweden. Before he printed the Missale, he printed Dialogus creaturarum, a collection of 122 Latin-language fables and dialogues of creatures, which became the first book ever printed in Sweden. After 1484, Snell seems to have been more focused on bookselling then on printing, and is presumed that he died around 1519 in Lübeck.