Á mörkum tveggja tíma

Kaþólskt kvæðahandrit með hendi siðbótarmanns, Gísla biskups Jónssonar

Abstract

This article is a detailed presentation of the manuscript AM 622 4to, the so-called Hólmsbók; the author delineates its contents and discusses the other literary activity of its scribe, Gísli Jónsson, later bishop in Skálholt. The precise division of the manuscript into quires is described, and the author suggests that its final section had originally been a complete and perhaps independent whole. The manuscript might thus be taken as the first representative of a new method in book production, which first becomes apparent in the diverse production of booklets in the late Middle Ages. The final part of the article discusses sacred poetry and poems on the decadence of the world, with examples showing the ways in which Reformation poets transformed earlier Catholic religious texts.