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guage of both manuscripts displays both Norwegian and Icelandic traits.17
Since the same scribe worked on both Norwegian and Icelandic law texts,
the scribe must have been someone with connections to both places.
The images in Belgsdalsbók point in the same direction. It shares a
common iconographic program with Hardenbergianus, which also shows
up in AM 343 fol., Svalbarðsbók. In GKS 1154 fol., the program is executed
with splendid workmanship, including gold leaf in large initials, while the
images are smaller, less well drawn, and certainly without gold in AM 343
fol. and even more poorly elaborated in AM 347 fol.18 Again, the program
ties these Icelandic and Norwegian law books together, although it cer-
tainly appears that different artists were active. Drechsler was unable to
find any other work by the artist who illuminated Belgsdalsbók.19
Belgsdalsbók contains features that point towards influences from
Europe. It is the earliest Icelandic lawbook to contain a European-style
table of contents (fos. 4v–8r). Furthermore, the chapters are numbered
with Arabic numerals, one of the earliest instances of such numbers in
Iceland.20 The impression conveyed is that someone involved in the pro-
duction of Belgsdalsbók must have had connections to the learned cultures
of Europe.
The most remarkable codicological features of Belgsdalsbók can easily
be explained if we speculate about a Hólar origin. The Norwegian Jón
skalli Eiríksson became bishop of Hólar in 1357, at about the time that the
17 Magnus Rindal, “No. 1154 folio in the Old Royal Collection, Copenhagen,” King Magnus
Håkonsson's Laws of Norway and other Legal Texts: Gl. kgl. saml. 1154 fol. in the Royal Library,
eds. Magnus Rindal and Knut Berg (Oslo: Selskapet til utgivelse av gamle norske hånd-
skrifter, 1983) argues that the main scribe of GKS 1154 fol. spoke Norwegian but used an
Icelandic exemplar, while Stefán Karlsson, “Lovskriver i to lande,” believes the scribe was
Icelandic. See also Kong Magnus Håkonsson Lagabøtes landslov: Norrøn tekst med fullstendig
variantapparat, eds. Magnus Rindal and Bjørg Dale Spørck, Arkivverket: Norrøne tek-
ster 9 (Oslo: 2018), 25, and Magnus Rindal, Handskrifter av norske mellomalderlover ved
Nasjonalbiblioteket, NB tema 8 (Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket, 2020), https://www.boksel-
skap.no/boker/mellomalderlover/.
18 Bera Nordal, “Lögbókarhandritið GKS 1154 I folio,” 173; Lena Liepe, Studies in Icelandic
Fourteenth Century Book Painting, Rit 6 (Reykholt: Snorrastofa, 2009), 141–42; Drechsler,
Illuminated Manuscript Production, 134–42.
19 Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production, 134–42.
20 Lena Rohrbach, “Belgsdalsbók AM 347 fol. – Efnisyfirlit, tölusetning og bókargerð,”
https://arnastofnun.is/is/greinar/belgsdalsbok-am-347-fol-efnisyfirlit-tolusetning-og-
bokargerd [Accessed 03.09.2021].