Michel Sittow's Maternal Grandfather and His Identification in Medieval Sources

In his benchmarking article of 1940 on Michel Sittow, historian Paul Johansen not only discussed the identity of the famous painter, but also surveyed his immediate family and kin, including Michel's maternal grandfather Olef Molner, who had probably arrived to Tallinn from Finland. The authors of this article will take a fresh look at Finnish and Tallinn late medieval sources in order to conduct an in-depth study of Olef Molner's life and activities and assess if Johansen's arguments were solid. The article will also shed new light on how close the socio-economic connections between Finland and Tallinn were in the Middle Ages and how the newcomers became part of various transgenerational networks.