Bókagerð Ara Lögmanns Jónssonar

Abstract

The article discusses methods and problems concerning the identification of scribal hands. It then examines documents associated with the lawman Ari Jónsson (d. 1550) in order to establish whether any of these could have been written by him. It is concluded that thirteen of the documents, written in the period 1528–46, are likely to be in Ari’s hand. According to the author, Ari was also responsible for writing the first part of the so-called Sigurðarregistur (a series of inventories from the Hólar diocese) and the manuscripts AM 433 c 12mo, AM 720 a V 4to and AM 548 4to, as well as the rubrics in the lawbook AM 153 4to. The main text of the lawbook is written in a different hand which is also found on Stock. Perg. 4to nr. 24, AM 238 III fol. and six or seven documents from the years 1526–46.