Christoph Brendeken (1649–1710), the owner of Tallinn’s only printing house, inherited his office from Adolph Simon (1654–1675) with the privilege of publishing books in Estonian. This privilege proved to be a decent source of income since the need for clerical literature in Estonian was growing exponentially alongside general literacy rates. In addition, Brendeken published various official documents, which were commissioned by both the town council and the townspeople, as well as hymnals and prayer books in German.

The publication of new German hymnals for Tallinn’s churches was occasioned by Sweden’s church law of 1686, which took effect in Estonia in 1692. The agreement for the publication of a new German hymnal was finalised between the Estonian Consistory and the bookbinder Christian Trapp on 23 August 1697. Two years later, Trapp was granted the royal privilege for publishing the book. Trapp, who had acquired citizenship in 1690, could read Tallinn’s book market well, given that the sale of German literature comprised one of his steady sources of income.

Trapp’s songbook Vollständiges Revalisches Gesang-Buch (Lübeck, 1706) is similar in structure and song selection to the Neu Vielvermehrtes Rigisches Gesangbuch (Riga, 1700) but it is supplemented with songs by Paul Gerhardt, Gottfried Wilhelm Saceri, Salomo Liskow, Sigismund von Birken, and other renowned authors of church songs. Although Brendeken managed to publish his Neu-vermehrtes Revalisches Gesang-Buch (1704) two years before Trapp’s hymnal, the latter proved more popular than that of his competitor. The success of Trapp’s version, which was based on a German hymnal published in Stockholm, was probably due to it being the first hymnbook for the Estonian reader that was not based on theological considerations but on the presumed interest of the consumers. It was thus the first hymnbook produced for purely commercial reasons. The book’s value was enhanced by copperplate engravings illustrating the songs, as well as the high quality of the paper and the print. Another advantage over Brendeken’s book was the numbered registers for use during the service. Following Trapp’s suggestion, white tin plates were placed in the churches for marking hymn numbers, as was the custom in Stockholm.