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women used, owned, and inherited manuscripts.7 the family trees of these
women can often be linked to influential dynasties in Iceland.8 It seems,
therefore, that women played a major role in the distribution of texts,
either directly by inheriting and bequeathing manuscripts or indirectly by
forming marital links between influential families involved in manuscript
production in Iceland.9
An analysis of the history of manuscripts containing the same texts,
particularly the history of their ownership, makes it possible to reconstruct
the distribution of manuscripts and texts in Iceland between the fourteenth
and seventeenth centuries, both geographically and genealogically. using
the manuscript context of the seventeenth-century manuscripts Gks 1002
and 1003 fol. as a starting point, this article shows that although the two
volumes were written in the south of Iceland, many of the exemplars (or
7 the topic of women’s connections to manuscript production and usage in Iceland has
received more attention in recent years. Margrét eggertsdóttir briefly discusses female
ownership of manuscripts in “um kveðskap kvenna og varðveislu hans.” svanhildur
óskarsdóttir shows in her Ph.D. thesis that the intended audience of the manuscript
AM 764 4to was “novices, women and girls, at the convent of Reynistaður”, cf. svanhildur
óskarsdóttir, “universal History in fourteenth-Century Iceland. studies in AM 764 4to.”
(Ph.D. thesis, scandinavian studies, university of London, 2000), 143, 233–238 (“the
purpose and audience of AM 764 4o”). Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir examines a miscellany (syrpa)
owned and commissioned by Þórey Björnsdóttir (1676–1745) as part of her doctoral dis-
sertation “Í hverri bók er mannsandi.” Handritasyrpur – bókmenning, þekking og sjálfsmynd
karla og kvenna á 18. öld. studia Islandica 62 (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2011), 204–257.
she furthermore created registers of Icelandic manuscripts written by and for women from
the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and offers an overview of women’s manuscript
culture in Iceland in an appendix (Ibid., 310–375). natalie M. van Deusen also studies
women as users and owners of manuscripts in her article “stitches in the Margins: the
embroidery Pattern in AM 235 fol.,” Maal og minne (2011): 26–42.
8 Bishop Þorlákur skúlason of Hólar, for example, divided his manuscripts and printed books
equally between his children, including his only daughter, elín Þorláksdóttir. see jakob
Benediktsson, “Bókagerð Þorláks biskups skúlasonar,” Saga og kirkja. Afmælisrit Magn úsar
Más Lárussonar. Gefið út í tilefni af sjötugsafmæli hans 2. september 1987, eds. Gunnar karlsson
et al. (Reykjavík: sögufélag, 1988), 193; Már jónsson, “Þórður biskup Þorláksson og söfnun
íslenskra handrita á síðari hluta 17. aldar,” Frumkvöðull vísinda og mennta. Þórður Þorláksson
biskup í Skálholti. Erindi flutt á ráðstefnu í Skálholti 3.–4. maí 1997 í tilefni af þrjúhundruðustu
ártíð Þórðar biskups Þorlákssonar, ed. jón Pálsson (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998), 189ff.
elín was married to Þorsteinn Þorleifsson, the son of county magistrate (sýslumaður)
Þorleifur Magnússon, a descendant of the influential svalbarð family and the wealthy
eggert Hannesson.
9 Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir comes to a similar conclusion, noting that “women’s part in the
nation’s literary culture is far greater than previously thought.” Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir,
“Í hverri bók er mannsandi”, 381.
tHe IMPoRtAnCe of MARItAL AnD MAteRnAL tIes