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up to investigate the situation in the country. Headed by Árni Magnússon,
Professor of Philosophy and Danish antiquities at the university of
Copenhagen, and Páll Vídalín lögmaður, the chief legal official in Iceland,
the commission first set about to conduct a manntal or census, which was
begun in 1703, followed by a survey, district by district, of every inhabited
structure, its income and value, a project which took until 1714 to com-
plete. In typical Icelandic fashion, the Manntal and the Land Register or
Jarðabók remained in manuscript until the twentieth century (although
the section of the Land register for Múlasýsla perished in the great fire
of Copenhagen in 1728).50 a new trend had begun and regular censuses
continued to be held. In a similar fashion, vice-lawman Eggert Ólafsson
and the surgeon general Bjarni Pálsson, while still students, spent the sum-
mers from 1753–1757 travelling the country taking notes on flora and fauna
and the status of the inhabitants and making a large number of drawings
to accompany their research. the text was completed in 1766, but Eggert
drowned in a boating accident in 1768. the result was that the publication
was delayed until 1772 when it appeared in Danish in two large volumes,
thanks in large part to the efforts of Jón Eiríksson (1728–1787), who had
been professor of law at the academy on Sorøe since 1763.51 Jón was also
50 Árni Magnússon and Páll Vídalín, Manntal á Íslandi 1703 (reykjavík: Hagstofa Íslands,
1924–1947); Árni Magnússon and Páll Vídalín, Jarðabók, 2nd ed. 13 vols. (Copenhagen: Hið
íslenska fræðifélag í Kaupmannahöfn, 1980–1990). Vols. 1–11 first published, Copenhagen,
1913–1943. on the background to these enterprises see Lýður Björnsson, “Bænaskrá til
kongs 1700,” in Saga Íslands, ed. Sigurður Líndal et al., 11 vols. (reykjavík: Hið íslenzka
bókmenntafélag, 1974–2016), Vol. 8, ed. Lýður Björnsson, Guðbjörn Sigurmundsson and
Þóra Kristjánsdóttir (reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag 2006), 67–78.
51 Eggert ólafsson and Bjarni Pálsson, Vice-Lavmand Eggert Olaffsens og Land-Physici Biarne
Povelsens Reise igennen Island, 2 vols. Sorøe: Jonas Lindgren, 1772. an abbreviated English
translation (with its own title page) appeared in 1805 as part of volume 2 of the Collection
of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels, first series, 10 vols. (London: richard
Phillips, 1805–1810): Eggert Ólafsson and Bjarni Pálsson, Travels in Iceland Performed
by Order of his Danish Majesty: Containing Observations on the Manners and Customs of
the Inhabitants, a Description of the Lakes, Rivers, Glaciers, Hot-Springs, and Volcanoes:
of the Various Kinds of Earths, Stones, Fossils, and Petrifactions, as well as of the Animals,
Insects, Fishes, &c. (London: richard Phillips, 1805), rev. ed., ed. Steindór Steindórsson
(reykjavík: Örn og Örlygur, 1975). the standard annotated edition is Ferðabók, trans.
Steindór Steindórsson, 2nd ed. (1975). See further Haraldur Sigurðsson, “náttúruvísindi
og Landfræði,” in Upplýsingin á Íslandi: Tíu ritgerðir, ed. Ingi Sigurðsson (reykjavík: Hið
íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1990), 268–92, at 273–77, and aðalgeir Kristjánsson, Bókabylting
18. aldar: Fræðastörf og bókaútgáfa upplýsingarmanna, ritsafn Sagnfræðistofunar 44 (reykja-
vík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2008), 46–51.