Ritmennt - 01.01.1998, Page 164

RITMENNT
Abstracts
Eirílcur Þormóðsson og Guðsteinn Þengilsson:
Jónatan á Þórðarstöðum. Ritmennt 3 (1998), pp.
9-41.
Jónatan Þorláksson (1825-1906) lived for most
of his life at Þórðarstaðir, a farm in Fnjóskadalur
in the north of Iceland. He is best remembered
now for the unusually large collection of books
and manuscripts he managed to acquire in spite
of limited means, and a classified list of manu-
scripts from his collection now preserved in the
Manuscript Department of the National and
University Library is printed on pp. 40-41.
However, Jónatan made important contributions
in other fields: he collected agricultural imple-
ments and other articles of historical interest,
some of which are now preserved in the
National Museum of Iceland, and showed great
initiative in taking measures to protect the
remains of a nearby woodland, an unusual ges-
ture at the time.
Ringler, Diclc: Að yrkja úr íslensltu. Glímt við að
þýða Jónas Hallgrímsson. Ritmennt 3 (1998), pp.
42-64.
(English summary on p. 64.)
Steingrímur Jónsson: Upphaf Þjóðólfs 1848. Rit-
mennt 3 (1998), pp. 65-88.
Þjóðólfui, the first modern newspaper pub-
lished in Iceland, started to come out in 1848,
150 years ago. A bimonthly publication, Þjóðólf-
ur flourished for more than half a century until
forced to give way to the daily newspapers in the
second decade of the 20th century. Early
accounts of the establishment of Þjóðólfur are
examined critically and an attempt is made to
draw up a new and clearer picture as to how it
came into being.
Sigurður Pétursson: Vigfús Jónsson syrgður. Rit-
mennt 3 (1998), pp. 89-98.
(English summary on p. 98.)
Vilborg Auður ísleifsdóttir: íslendingar í Ham-
borg á fyrri tíð. Ritmennt 3 (1998), pp. 99-108.
The book Untersuchungen iiber den Aufent-
halt von Islándern in Hamburg fur den
Zeitraum 1520-1662 by Friederilce Christiane
Koch was published in Hamburg in 1995. The
book contains the results of the author's re-
search into the life and worlc of Icelanders in
Hamburg in the period 1520-1662. The present
article gives an account of the author and
slcetches the topics dealt with in the book.
Davíð Ólafsson: Dagbækur í handritadeild
Landsbókasafns. Ritmennt 3 (1998), pp. 109-31.
One of the greatest problems of social history
is the deartli of source material relating to the
daily life of ordinary people. A huge amount of
such material, about life in Iceland during the
last few centuries, including the personal writ-
ings by individuals about themselves and their
relations with other individuals and the world
they lived in, is to be found in the Manuscript
Department of the National and University
Library. Among this personal material are the
diaries of almost 200 individuals of the last 200
years: farmers, clergymen, farm labourers, worlc-
ers, antiquarians, officials and artists. The diaries
are very diverse as to form and content, but all of
them preserve a small bit of the history of the
people concerned, a glimpse of time forgotten.
Gunnlaugur S.E. Briem: Gleropna í Þjóðarbók-
hlöðu. Ritmennt 3 (1998), pp. 132-39.
Background notes on a glass decoration in the
National and University Library building: the
motif is a sketch of a manuscript spread. It
shows the treatment of text columns and a
shoulder note, an initial letter, illustration and a
caption. The margins are determined by Jan
Tschichold's theory of page proportions. The
text is greeked, illegible on purpose. The con-
tents are Icelandic folk wisdom ("killing a rove
158