Gripla - 2021, Blaðsíða 181
179
1224 which defines several aspects of Church services and is followed by a
shortened redaction of Skipan Árna byskups Þorlákssonar from 1269, which
confirms the status of the previous statute, and further extends its content.
Both statutes, as well as a number of others, are incorporated into the large
Skipan Eilífs erkibyskups hin þriðja from 1320, of which the first two-thirds is
found at the end of Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar, and the last third after all
four statutes by Árni Þorláksson (1237–98), bishop of Skálholt in 1269–98
and one of the most important reformers of Church administration in me-
dieval Iceland. Like the two Réttarbœtr for Iceland added after Jónsbók, the
ecclesiastical part of Skinnastaðabók also ends with a statute already incor-
porated into a larger text (Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar), Statuta Vilhjálms
kardinála. Overall, the combination of a number of statutes together with
Skipan Eilífs erkibyskups hin þriðja is found too in AM 347 fol. (Belgsdalsbók),
which was produced in three distinctive stages in c. 1350–70.31 In addition
to Belgsdalsbók, Skinnastaðabók also features – along with Jónsbók and
Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar – a number of vernacular ecclesiastical law
texts that are uniquely arranged and combined in the codex.32
Today, Skinnastaðabók contains four further leaves on ff. 144–47
with various contents. The first of these is perhaps best described as a
miscellany,33 since it contains parts of a stanza from the religious Old
Norse poem Lilja; an oath formula for lawmen on violence; an inventory
and list of homesteads that belong to the northern Icelandic church at
Hafrafellstunga;34 and a resolution made at the Alþing in 1404 on workers
and fishermen; as well as a list of names of rune staves. These texts were
written by five scribes (c, d, e, f, g) throughout the sixteenth century.35 The
31 Stefán Karlsson, “Lovskriver i to lande: Codex Hardenbergensis og Codex Belgsdalensis,”
Festskrift til Alfred Jakobsen, eds. Jan Ragnar Hagland, Jan Terje Faarlund and Jarle
Rønhovd (Trondheim: Tapir, 1987), 167, 179.
32 For the textual content of AM 347 fol. (Belgsdalsbók), see Stefan Drechsler, Illuminated
Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland, 131–33, with further references.
33 For this term in the context of medieval manuscripts, see Arthur Bahr, “Miscellaneity and
Variance in the Medieval Book,” The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches, eds.
Michael Johnston and Michael Van Dussen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2015), 181–98.
34 Diplomatarium Islandicum, Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn, X, ed. Jón Þorkelsson (Reykjavík: Fé-
lagsprentsmiðja, 1911–21), 56–57.
35 Diplomatarium Islandicum, Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn, II, ed. Jón Þorkelsson (Copenhagen:
Møller and Thomsen, 1893), 364; Kristian Kålund, Katalog, I, 425.
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