Fragments of an Icelandic Christmas Sermon Based on Two Sermons of Vincent Ferrer

Abstract

This article is an edition and study of an Icelandic sermon that survives in the manuscript fragments AM 696 VIII and IX 4to, both from the first half of the sixteenth century and possibly copied in or around Snóksdalur. The Icelandic text is based on two Latin sermons by the Valencian Dominican friar Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419). Judging by the Icelandic sermon’s source and vocabulary, it is likely that it was composed in the late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century. The sermon is significant because it is the only known Icelandic preaching text based on the works of a Dominican author, and also because it provides valuable evidence of the use of exempla in medieval Icelandic preaching.