Gripla - 20.12.2018, Qupperneq 232

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Victorine author absalon of Springiersbach (d. ca. 1200) was the main
source of a homily surviving in aM 655 XXVII 4to (ca. 1300) and aM 624
4to (ca. 1500),4 and a homily in aM 696 XXX 4to (1400–1500) is based
on a chapter of the Liber exceptionum by richard of St. Victor (d. 1173) or
some closely related text.5
But the traditional narrative of Benedictine/augustinian dominance
may not be the whole story. I have argued elsewhere that current schol-
arly conceptions of the nature of medieval Icelandic preaching rely on
an incomplete assessment of the corpus. Many sermons that survive in
fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscript fragments — and that could
provide valuable evidence about vernacular preaching in Iceland in the
later Middle ages – remain unstudied and unedited.6 Admittedly, it
seems unlikely that enough new evidence will surface to present a serious
challenge to the idea that the primary influences on Icelandic preaching
were Benedictine and augustinian. nevertheless, there are some indica-
tions from other genres of late medieval Icelandic religious literature that
the possibility of influence from the mendicant orders, particularly the
Dominicans, on Icelandic sermons should not be entirely discounted.
While there was never a significant Dominican presence in Iceland,
the importation of manuscripts and early printed books containing works
by Dominican authors – including thomas aquinas, albertus Magnus,
raymond of Pennafort, and Hugh ripelin – ensured that elements of
Dominican spirituality had some currency among the Icelandic clergy.7
4 See Stephen Pelle, “twelfth-Century Sources for old norse Homilies: new Evidence
from aM 655 XXVII 4to,” Gripla 24 (2013): 58–70, and “an old norse Homily and two
Homiletic fragments from aM 624 4to,” Gripla 27 (2016): 263–81. for a study and edition
of aM 655 XXVII 4to, see Hallgrímur J. Ámundason, “aM 655 XXVII 4to: útgáfa,
stafagerð, stafsetning” (B.a. thesis, university of Iceland, 1994).
5 Liber exceptionum: texte critique avec introduction, notes et tables, ed. Jean Châtillon (Paris:
J. Vrin, 1958), 252–53 (part 2, III.4). the texts in aM 696 XXX 4to have never been
thoroughly examined; I hope to edit them in the near future.
6 Pelle, “twelfth-Century Sources,” 45–49.
7 Especially for the later period, see Marianne E. Kalinke, The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last
of the Great Medieval Legendaries (toronto: university of toronto Press, 1996), 34–35,
263. on Hugh ripelin, see Ian McDougall, “Latin Sources of the old Icelandic Speculum
Penitentis,” Opuscula 10 (1996): 136–185 (esp. 140–41), and Emil olmer, Boksamlingar
på Island, 1179–1490 (Gothenburg: Wald. Zachrisson, 1902), no. 45 (p. 12) and no. 251
(p. 52). for the knowledge of raymond of Pennafort’s penitential summa, see Olmer,
Boksamlingar, nos. 236–37 (p. 49) and Hörður Ágústsson, “Bækur,” in Skálholt: skrúði og