Gripla - 20.12.2010, Blaðsíða 386

GRIPLA386
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„Vísitasía Hannesar Finnssonar biskups um Vesturland og Vestfirði sumarið 1790.
Eftir dagbók skrifara hans, Steingríms Jónssonar.“ Útg. Veturliði Óskarsson.
Ársrit sögufélags Ísfirðinga 34 (1993): 129–152.
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S U M M A R Y
Some new information about Bjarni Jónsson, scribe of lawbooks on Snæfjalla-
strönd.
Keywords: 17th century, Westfjords of Iceland, Snæfjallaströnd, scribal culture,
Jónsbók, lawbook production on parchment.
In 1969 Peter Springborg published a paper in which he identified and attributed
a group of eight manuscripts to a certain Bjarni Jónsson. In an article published
eight years later he added the ninth manuscript to the group. Very little was known
about Bjarni and all Springborg was able to gather on him was sparse information
which the scribe himself had provided in the manuscripts he produced. From
there we have his name and his place of residence which was Mýri and later Skarð
on Snæfjallaströnd, located north of Ísafjarðardjúp in the Westfjords of Iceland.
From the dated manuscripts it is clear that he was active as a scribe in the period of
1631–1655. He copied sagas, rímur, poetry and law texts. Incidentally, he seems to
have specialized in copying Jónsbók, the Icelandic lawbook, for in one of the three
copies in his hand, still preserved, he mentions that it was the eighteenth copy he
had produced.
Unfortunately, this paper does not add to the tally of manuscripts copied by
Bjarni Jónsson. It does, however, provide more information on this mysterious
and productive scribe than has hitherto been available. Bjarni was the son of the
Reverend Jón Þorleifsson at Staður on Snæfjallaströnd and his wife Sesselja.
Although efforts have been made to look into his family history very little is
known about his ancestors and his mother’s patronym is completely unknown
which, undoubtedly, points away from the upper layers of society. Dates in
Bjarni’s biography are uncertain but he was, most likely, born in the last decade of
the 16th century. His birthplace was, in all likelihood, his father’s living at Staður