Gripla - 20.12.2010, Page 154

GRIPLA154
§ 3.
The assertion that M comprises the remains of two or three parchment
codices and not one requires some additional justification in view of the
fact that the handwriting, layout (inclu ding rubrication), and size of the
leaves is more or less uniform throughout. Here it should be borne in mind
that both the main scribe and the second scribe who filled in some of the
stro phes in Egils saga are known from several other manuscripts (see § 4
below). These scribes were certainly professional clerks. It has been widely
assumed that they worked for rich patrons in a scriptorium attached to
some centre of literary activity, and the presence of M in the north of
Iceland in the seventeenth century tempts one to think of the Austin house
at Möðruvellir in Hörgárdalur,21 though other locations are of course
entirely possible. Medieval books did not necessarily remain in the neigh-
bourhood where they were written; as remarked by Ólafur Halldórsson,
they were sometimes inherited within a family, but sometimes given away
to others and sometimes bought and sold.22 It is therefore not a matter of
indifference that the various parts of M appear to have been stacked in
loose quires. The labour and ex pense invested in their production implies
that they were intended to be disposed of for profit, and if that had actu-
ally happened they would eventually have been placed in a binding. In stead
they must have been left in storage in one and the same place. That place is
most likely to have been the work shop where they were written.
Commercial book production undoubtedly played a part in the medie-
val Icelandic economy. Though this has long been recognised as regards
books written for the Norwe gian market,23 I am not aware that much
thought has been given to domestic supply and de mand. It has been tacitly
assumed that behind all luxury books of the period lurks a buyer who had
commissioned the work in advance. Perhaps the various parts of M had
21 Sigurjón Páll Ísaksson, “Magnús Björnsson og Möðruvallabók,” 117–19; Stefán Karlsson,
Sagas of Icelandic Bishops, 29.
22 Ólafur Halldórsson, “Úr sögu skinnbóka,” Grettisfærsla (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magn-
ússonar, 1990), 68 [originally published 1963]: “Mjög oft hafa bækur gengið að erfðum, en
stundum gengu þær líka kaupum og sölum, og dæmi eru þess að eigendur handrita hafa
gefið þau vandalausum.”
23 See esp. Stefán Karlsson, “Islandsk bogeksport til Norge i middelalderen,” Stafkrókar
(Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 2000), 188–205 [originally published 1979].