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S U M M A R Y
Hauksbók and Medieval Encyclopedias.
Keywords: Hauksbók, codicology, paleography, methodology, encyclopedic litera-
ture, medieval Icelandic manuscripts
Medieval encyclopedias are organized according to different principles: some fol-
low the ordo rerum, others the ordo artium, still others take the form of hexaemera
or combine a description of space, time, and history. Some of these texts (such as
Isidore’s Origines, Honorius’ Imago mundi, and Vincentius’ Speculum historiale) were
known and used in medieval Iceland. However, no such encyclopedias were written
in the vernacular. So-called old Icelandic encyclopedic manuscripts only contain
parts or fragments of material that entered into the great medieval encyclopedic tra-
dition. Hauksbók is often considered to be an encyclopedia and scholars have inter-
preted its nature in different ways: it is intentionally modelled on the Liber floridus,
it is of a clerical nature, it is an expression of the world view of lay chieftains. Instead
of interpreting the nature of Hauksbók in an abstract way with reference to external
criteria, the present article offers an alternative explanation based on the analysis of
the relationship between the text preserved in the manuscript and the codicology
of the manuscript itself. Most of the encyclopedic material in Hauksbók is found
in three quires that were not written by Haukr Erlendsson, and were incorporated
into the manuscript. It is argued that the order of material in two of these quires
resulted from a quire having been misplaced in their exemplar. thus, the scribe of
these Hauksbók quires could not have intentionally placed the material in the present
order. Consequently, the order of the encyclopedic material in Hauksbók does not
reflect an intentional mirroring of the structure of a continental encyclopedia. for
this reason, even if it contains some encyclopedic material, Hauksbók ought not to
be considered an encyclopedia, nor is it necessarily of a clerical nature as it contains
material produced for a lay audience. It is further argued that the adaption of the
third quire to the size of the manuscript can be shown to have happened prior to the
copying of Völuspá. Hauksbók is the result of the combination of different works
or opuscules that were manufactured as separate units, some of which may have
circulated independently before being bound into one codex, probably as early as
the middle of the fourteenth century.
Gunnar Harðarson
Sagnfræði- og heimspekideild
Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
IS-101 Reykjavík
gunhar@hi.is
HauKSBÓ K oG aLfrÆÐ IrIt MIÐaLDa