Olaus Magnus was born at Linköping, Sweden in 1490. He died. in Rome, 1 Aug., 1558 He belonged to the old and noble family of Store. From 1518 to 1523 Olaus Magnus traveled throughout Scandinavia, collecting data about local topography, folk-lore, natural history, and customs. After Gustavus Vasa was elected king of Sweden in 1523, Olaus was sent to Rome, and his brother, Johannes, was appointed Archbishop of Uppsala and Primate of Sweden. 
     In 1527 he began work on his map and completed it after some delays in 1539. It was composed of nine sheets printed from wooden blocks. It measured 1.7 by 1.25 meters.
    The souvenir sheets from Iceland are from the 1539 edition of the map. A copy of the map is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek, Munich.