BROADSIDE BALLADS, OR BROADSHEETS (ARKKIVEISUT), printed ballads widely disseminated from the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the greatest number appearing in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
The first broadsheet appeared in Finland in 1631, following a Swedish and German tradition of such publications. The earliest broadsheets were religious songs, changing over the centuries to predominantly secular themes, with one or more songs on each sheet. Broadsides were the...