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of the same saga text.28 Since the two texts are not directly related, and
because the Kringla and Barðastrandarsýsla groups share artistic relations
which might well be based on sharing of (ornamental) model books only,
it can be concluded that these two groups are not closely related, with the
exception of nra 78. at the same time, due to the different approaches
with regard to the poly-textual contents and the book painting of GKS 1157
fol. and aM 334 fol., the Kringla group might have not been the product
of a closed scriptorium. It seems plausible, rather, to see these two major
manuscripts, at least, as the product of an open workshop, where different
craftsmen contributed at different stages of the manuscript production.29
on this basis, if nra 78 is taken as part of the group, it is possibly the
best example for this working practice.
the location of the two scriptoria during the thirteenth and early four-
teenth century remains an open question. the earliest provenance of aM
334 fol. cannot suggest a workshop in Húnavatnssýsla. as is well known,
in the thirteenth century, this area was home to the established Benedictine
monastery at Þingeyrar, which is known to have produced a large number
of manuscripts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.30 Of the illumi-
nated manuscripts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however,
none shows close stylistic connections to the illuminations found in the
Kringla and Barðastrandarsýsla groups.
In contrast, both the Kringla and Barðastrandarsýsla groups share a
number of artistic, textual and even personal connections with the house
of canons regular of Helgafell in western Iceland. Helgafell is known to
have been a hub of book culture from at least the late thirteenth century,
and a large number of vernacular manuscripts were produced there in the
28 Bjarni Aðalsteinsson, Introduction to Heimskringla III (reykjavík: Hið íslenska fornrita-
félag, 1951), xciii–xciv.
29 for a related scenario in fourteenth-century western Iceland, see Lena Liepe, Studies,
133–138, with further references.
30 for the Þingeyrar manuscripts of the thirteenth century, see Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson,
“Voru scriptoria í íslenskum klaustrum?” Íslensk klausturmenning á miðöldum, ed. Haraldur
Bernharðsson (reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2016), 178; for the Þingeyrar manuscripts from
the fourteenth century, see Alfred Jakobsen, Studier i Clarus saga: Til spørsmålet om sagaens
norske proveniens (Bergen and oslo: universitetsforlaget, 1964); Jakob Benediktsson,
Introduction to Catilina and Jugurtha; Karl G. Johansson, Studier i Codex Wormianus:
Skrifttradition och avskriftsverksamhet vid ett isländskt scriptorium under 1300-tallet (Gothen-
burg: acta universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1997); Guðbjörg Kristjánsdóttir, “Hand rita-
lýsingar.”
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION