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Without challenging these claims, this article approaches law manu-
scripts from the fifteenth century from the perspective of “Material Philo-
logy,”5 and argues for unrestrained processes of textual compilation strate-
gies, as well as ongoing usage of iconographic and stylistic models known
from Icelandic manuscripts produced in previous centuries.6 Accordingly,
this article discusses several cross-disciplinary features: the adaptation and
recompilation of both secular and ecclesiastical legal textual patterns, mise
en pages, book painting, and changes in codicological production units.7 In
addition, select manuscripts will be discussed in relation to contemporary
medieval social, economic, and religious changes. In Icelandic historiogra-
phy, the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century are known for
the “Enska öldin;” a period named after the Icelandic-English stockfish-
trade,8 which also allowed for some administrative independence from
Danish sovereignty.9
Medieval Icelandic law manuscripts predominantly feature the late
thirteenth-century law code Jónsbók. In 1281, the Norwegian King Magnús
5 “Material Philology” calls for interdisciplinary and holistic approaches to the study of man-
uscripts. For this, see Stephen Nichols, “Why Material Philology?,” Zeitschrift für Deutsche
Philologie, 116 (1997): 10–30. For discussions on Material Philology in Old Norse research,
see Lena Rohrbach, “I:14, Material Philology,” Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory
Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches, eds. Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann and Stephen A.
Mitchell (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), 210–19.
6 For examples, see Patricia Pires Boulhosa, “Layout and Structure of the Text in Kon ungs-
bók,” The Power of the Book. Medial Approaches to Medieval Nordic Legal Manu scripts, ed.
Lena Rohrbach (Berlin: Nordeuropa Institut, 2014), 75–98; Lena Rohrbach, “Matrix of
the Law? A Material Study of the Text of Konungsbók,” The Power of the Book. Medial
Approaches to Medieval Nordic Legal Manuscripts, ed. Lena Rohrbach (Berlin: Nordeuropa
Institut, 2014), 99–128, and Lena Rohrbach, “Repositioning Jónsbók: Rearrangements of
the Law in Fourteenth-Century Iceland,” Legislation and State Formation: Norway and Its
Neighbours in the Middle Ages, ed. Steinar Imsen (Trondheim: Tapir, 2013), 183–209.
7 For manuscript production units, see Peter J. Gumbert, “Codicological Units: Towards
a Terminology for the Stratigraphy of the Non-Homogeneous Codex,” Il codice miscella-
neo. Tipologie e funzioni. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Cassino, 14–17 maggio 2003, eds.
Edoardo Crisci and Oronzo Pecare (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 17–42, and Erik Kwakkel,
“Towards a Terminology for the Analysis of Composite Manuscripts,” Gazette du livre
médi éval 41 (2002): 12–19.
8 Björn Þorsteinsson, Enska öldin í sögu Íslendinga (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1970),
94–163.
9 Björn Þorsteinsson, “Íslands- og Grænlandssiglingar Englendinga á 15. öld og fundur
Norður-Ameríku,” Saga 5 (1965): 32. For a summary of the research on “Enska öldin,” see
Baldur Þórhallsson and Þorsteinn Kristinsson, “Iceland’s External Affairs from 1400 to the
Reformation,” Icelandic Review of Politics and Administration 9/1 (2013): 113–37.