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unusually wide variation in the use and arrangement of initials. Similar to
the poly-textual content of aM 334 fol., GKS 1157 fol. exhibits a selection
of different textual models combined in one legal manuscript, though here
combined in the single text Grágás. According to Patricia Pires Boulhosa,
the textual models for the single text in GKS 1157 fol. originated from a
variety of independent, now lost manuscripts and fragments.17 As men-
tioned, the person responsible for the minor initials throughout both aM
334 fol. and GKS 1157 fol. appears to be a single artist, a Kri 2. Since the
initial described above in the later section of aM 334 fol. (ff. 92v–108) is
evidence for a close stylistic relationship to GKS 1157 fol., it might well
be that the illuminator was in fact the main scribe himself, H Kri 1. It is
indeed his script that serves to connect the related book paintings, despite
the change of scribes in the other sections of the two major manuscripts
of the group.
It seems highly likely that aM 334 fol. was produced at a site where
a number of scribes were present, since no fewer than twelve hands are
found throughout the codex. only two of them, however, wrote more
than half of a folio leaf.18 The high number of scribal contributions clearly
shows that a considerable number of literate people were involved in the
production of the manuscript. the site of production appears to be dif-
ferent to the one where GKS 1157 fol. was produced: not only does the
Grágás text differ in structure and content, but a different mix of colours
in the main initials of the two manuscripts also indicates two different
17 Patricia Pires Boulhosa, “Layout and the Structure of the text in Konungsbók,” The
Power of Book. Medial Approaches to Medieval Nordic Legal Manuscripts, ed. Lena Rohrbach
(Berlin: nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt-universität, 2014), 93–95.
18 these scribal contributions are not likely to represent the entertaining practice of secular
visitors adding individual notes to the manuscript for fun, as Vilhjálmur finsen sug-
gested. See his introduction to Grágás efter det Arnamagnæanske Haandskrift Nr. 334 fol.
Staðarhólsbók, ed. Vilhjálmur finsen (Copenhagen: Det arnamagnæanske Legat, 1879),
x–xi. Such a scribal practice did not become common before the fifteenth century and it
is therefore not a likely explanation for the large number of hands found in aM 334 fol.
In the thirteenth century, manuscripts were mainly produced in a monastic setting where
there would have been several literate people present at the site of production. for (late
medieval) Icelandic manuscript production, see Stefán Karlsson, “ritun reykjarfjarðarbók,”
Stafkrókar. Ritgerðir eftir Stefán Karlsson gefnar út í tilefni af sjötugsafmæli hans 2. desember
1998, ed. Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson (reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi,
2000), 319–27, with further references.