Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 231

FYRSTU LÍNUR Á BLAÐSÍÐUM SKINNHANDRITA
229
SUMMARY
In a celebrated article from 1960, N.R. Ker identifies an interesting change in scribal
habits in thirteenth-century England. Whereas it had been common practice to write
the first line of text above the frame defined by the ruling of the manuscript, or, in
Ker’s terminology, ‘above top line’, by the end of the century most scribes were writ-
ing the first line below the uppermost ruling, or, in Ker’s words, ‘below top line’. In
this article Ker’s insight is applied to 200 Icelandic and Norwegian medieval manu-
scripts. It transpires that fourteenth-century Norwegian manuscripts fit quite well into
the European pattem defined by Ker and a few other scholars, whereby the first line is
generally written below top line and mled with ink. Icelandic manuscripts show a more
complicated pattem, with more than 60% written above top line and a majority ruled
with dry ruling. However, in fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscripts we can identify
a tendency similar to that revealed in Norwegian manuscripts, with more than 60%
written above top line. In the fifteenth century and, to an even greater extent, in the six-
teenth century Icelandic scribes reverted to older habits, with respectively 70% and
89% of the manuscripts being written below top line. This represents yet another indi-
cation of trends in the making of Icelandic manuscripts differing significantiy from the
situation in European countries.
HANDRITASKRA
13. öld
AM 302 fol
AM 305 fol
AM 322 fol
AM 334 fol
AM 39 fol
AM 75 a fol
AM 243 b ot fol
AM 56 4to
AM 78 4to
AM 134 4to
AM 291 4to
AM 310 4to
AM 325 I 4to
AM 325 II 4to
AM 325 VII 4to AM 680 a 4to
AM 327 4to GKS 1157 fol
AM 619 4to GKS 2365 4to
AM 645 4to GKS 2870 4to
AM 652 4to NKS 1640 4to
AM 677 4to
AM 679 4to
14. öld
AM 45 fol
AM 47 fol
AM 53 fol
AM 54 fol
AM 61 fol
AM 62 fol
AM 66 fol
AM 68 fol
AM 75 c fol
AM 132 fol
AM 225 fol
AM 226 fol
AM 227 fol
AM 242 fol
AM 304 fol
AM 307 fol
AM 309 fol
AM 323 fol
AM 240 IX fol
AM 228 fol
AM 229 I fol
AM 230 fol
AM 231 Ifol
AM 232 fol
AM 233 a fol
AM 234 fol
AM 343 fol
AM 344 fol
AM 346 fol
AM 347 fol
AM 350 fol
AM 351 fol
AM 57 4to
AM 58 4to
AM 60 4to
AM 61 a 4to
AM 62 4to
AM 63 4to
AM 65 4to
AM 68 4to
AM 69 4to
AM 71 4to
AM 72 4to
AM 74 4to
AM 126 4to
AM 127 4to
AM 133 4to
AM 135 4to
AM 154 4to
AM 156 4to
AM 168 a 4to
AM 169 4to