Illuminated Manuscript Production in Western Iceland in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries

Abstract

This article is concerned with a number of illuminated Icelandic manuscripts and fragments from the thirteenth century and early fourteenth century which have been grouped around the oldest Heimskringla fragment, Lbs fragm 82 (Kringla). The overall aim is to show the importance of individual contributions made by a number of scribes and illuminators at different stages of the production of these manuscripts, and to consider ways in which production units that comprise the manuscripts are related to a possible change of working environments. The first part of the article surveys the philological and art historical relationships between the fragments and manuscripts in Kringla group itself, and is followed by discussion of the historical circumstances of a previously unallocated manuscript group, the Barðastrandarsýsla group. The second part of the article looks at how the Barðastrandarsýsla group is related to a slightly younger western Icelandic manuscript group from the early fourteenth century, the Helgafell group. The final part of the article discusses how these connections might have come into being, and how they changed over a time span of more than hundred years of medieval Icelandic manuscript production.