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and Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar texts and the statutes are compiled
indicates that it is not unlikely that the codex was indeed written for
him or a direct member of his family and was soon after used at the
church at Hafrafellstunga. Nevertheless, it remains a conjecture whether
Skinnastaðabók was written for Finnbogi directly as there is no indication
in the oldest production unit to suggest that it was used by him or any
members of his family. At the time the single leaves on ff. 144–147 were
written, the two inventories of the rich church at Hafrafellstunga were
added, a church which did in fact come into the possession of the family of
Finnbogi during that time.41 Considering the focus of the manuscript text
on ecclesiastical and select secular matters, it is likely that Skinnastaðabók
was used at a church with a considerable number of land possessions, such
as the one at Hafrafellstunga.
Like the modes of textual (re-)compilation of Skinnastaðabók that
mirror the production of fourteenth-century law manuscripts such as
Skarðsbók and Belgsdalsbók, the overall modes of production of Icelandic
law manuscripts did not change significantly during the fifteenth century.
Perhaps most surprisingly, this is illustrated in the prolonged use of Gothic
book script in many of the law manuscripts from the fifteenth century (for
examples, see Figure 1 and Figure 5). Generally, book script is most com-
monly used in Icelandic manuscripts during the thirteenth and especially
fourteenth century, yielding to a more constant use of Gothic hybrid/
charter script in the following century.42 Although a number of scribes are
known to have written both charters and law manuscripts in charter script
in the fifteenth century,43 the influence of clearly defined charter script
appears less frequent in the law manuscripts than in codices featuring
other kinds of vernacular literature. Apart from related scribal training, an
explanation may be found in the use of the textual models that were gener-
ally written in the same script type (for examples, see Figure 2 and Figure
41 Karl Axelsson, Allan V. Magnússon and Benedikt Bogason, “Úrskurður óbyggðanefndar:
Mál nr. 5/2005 Öxarfjarðarhreppur,” Óbyggðanefnd (29. maí 2007), 24–25. See https://
obyggdanefnd.is/wp-content/uploads/05_2005-5_urskurdur.pdf [Accessed 10.4.2021].
42 Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson, “Manuscripts and Palaeography,” A Companion to Old
Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 254–
55; and Stefán Karlsson, “The Development of Latin Script II: In Iceland,” 836.
43 Stefán Karlsson, “The Localisation and Dating of Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts,” 146–
49, 152–55.
LAW MANUSCRIPTS