The monastery of Vadstena played an important role for the establishment of literacy in Sweden during the Middle Ages. The factors that lead to the development of the so-called Vadstena language therefore are important to our understanding of Swedish literacy. There is, however, no thorough study of the development of literacy in the monastery. The aim of this project is therefore to study the production of Old Swedish texts in the monastery to elucidate the development and importance of literacy in this milieu. The project focuses on three central factors: (1) The production of translations, new texts and compilations in Old Swedish is studied in relation to the reproduction of Old Swedish texts in copies within the scriptorium. From this a clearer picture of the content of, and development within, the material preserved from the monastery emerges. (2) A tradition for e.g. syllabification and punctuation developed in the monastery. The development of this tradition will be studied in detail. This provides us with information about the development of the Vadstena language and its importance for the establishing of Swedish literacy. (3) The texts and manuscripts that were produced in the monastery were intended both for internal and external use. A study of the objectives for the production can therefore throw new light on the reception and use of texts and manuscripts. Hereby the level of literacy among the receivers and demands of genre adaptation that were put upon the producers will be highlighted.