Gripla - 20.12.2014, Qupperneq 221

221An ICELAnDIC CHrIStMAS HYMn
different collations, it may be concluded that these are the cor-
rect collations for the manuscript, since there was apparently no
printed book from which to copy them.
iv) these two manuscripts are two of the three that feature number-
ing of the stanzas, the only other manuscript being the academic
Lbs 238 b 8vo.72
v) Lbs 1724 8vo marks the beginning of the hymn with an ornamental
print-style initial.73
vi) the pagination and numbering of the hymns indicate that the
manuscripts presumably included tables of contents, which are not
preserved.74
All in all, the scribes enhanced the usability of these manuscripts by choos-
ing design techniques with a high functional value modelled on print
forms. Both manuscripts enable quick location of the hymns within the
manuscript and neat arrangement.
5.3 Tables of contents
In addition to a neat page design or consecutive numbering of the hymns in
the rubric, a table of contents would have been useful, enabling the reader
quickly to look up the hymn within the hymnbook; these manuscripts
were most certainly not designed to be read from cover to cover. Some
of the manuscripts include one or more alphabetical tables of contents.
these are either ordered by title, incipit and/or authors, and refer to the
pages of the hymns.75 Most of these seem to be written by Páll Pálsson
“stúdent” and added in connection with later rebinding of the manuscripts
at Landsbókasafn, most likely in the 1860s.76 they contain, as a rule, three
72 However, stanzas are not numbered in Andlegir Psalmar og Kvæde.
73 Cf. the small initial in Andlegir Psalmar og Kvæde, 269.
74 Andlegir Psalmar og Kvæde includes a table of contents in alphabetical order, see 283–288.
75 EDL b 8vo, ÍBr 104 8vo, JS 385 8vo, JS 386 8vo, JS 439 8vo, JS 509 8vo, JS 643 4to, Lbs
194 8vo, Lbs 1485 8vo and Lbs 1530 8vo. In JS 208 8vo, a supplementary table of contents
was later machine-typed and has now been added to the manuscript. Andlegir Psalmar og
Kvæde has an alphabetical table of contents with reference to the page numbers at the end
of the book.
76 ÍBr 104 8vo, JS 385 8vo, JS 386 8vo, JS 439 8vo, JS 509 8vo, JS 643 4to, Lbs 194 8vo. the
register in Lbs 194 8vo was written by Páll Pálsson “stúdent,” who rebound JS 439 8vo in
1865–1866. See the manuscripts’ entries on Handrit.is, http://handrit.is/is/manuscript/