Gripla - 2021, Page 185

183LAW MANUSCRIPTS
teenth century feature no significant influences from abroad. At the same
time, illuminators reuse said motifs in partly new ways, which resemble
the working practices of illuminators of the previous century.50 The best
example of this practice is perhaps the manuscript AM 132 4to from
1450–75,51 which shares a number of ornamental models with Skarðsbók
and Svalbarðsbók, but it has no textual relation to any of them. On the
contrary, AM 132 4to features a version of the uninterpolated I-redaction
of Jónsbók, which, to some degree, shares a textual model with the law
manuscript AM 347 fol. (Belgsdalsbók). Since Belgsdalsbók was written
in the same cultural sphere as Skarðsbók and Svalbarðsbók in western
Iceland in c. 1350–70, it is likely that similar textual models and sketch
books were used at the site of production of AM 132 4to. Accordingly,
the Romanesque ornamentation and overall design of the main initials
of AM 132 4to are clearly inspired by Skarðsbók (Figures 1–2), while
the ornamentation of select main initials has models in common with
Svalbarðsbók (Figures 3–4). Like many illuminated law manuscripts from
the fourteenth century, Skarðsbók usually features initials painted in two
different forms of stepped gables: irregular stepped gable forms in dark
and light red, and a stylised, mirrored vine leaf or acanthus frieze, filled in
with green alongside light and dark red colours. All of this is found in a
number of Icelandic law manuscripts from the fifteenth century, too, such
as AM 354 fol. (Skálholtsbók yngri), AM 39 8vo, and AM 138 4to, which
features a direct copy of the Jónsbók text of Skarðsbók, while Skálholtsbók
yngri is considered a copy of Svalbarðsbók.52 AM 138 4to shares close
ornamental and zoomorphic models with the codex AM 227 fol., suggest-
ing that the book painting was most likely directly copied from it (Figure
5–6).53 The text of AM 227 fol. consists of two major sections of the Old
Norse version of (parts of) the Old Testament, Stjórn, and includes a par-
50 For examples of the working modes of illuminators in the fourteenth century, see Guðbjörg
Kristjánsdóttir, “Introduction,” Íslenska teiknibókin (Reykjavík: Crymogea, 2013), 29–39.
51 For the dating of AM 132 4to, see Christopher Sanders, “Introduction,” Manuscripta
Nordica. Early Nordic Manuscript in Digital Facsimile, I: Tales of Knights: Perg. fol. nr 7 in the
Royal Library, Stockholm (Copenhagen: Reitzels Forlag, 2000), 43–44.
52 Ólafur Halldórsson, “Introduction,” Jónsbók, xlv, xlvii.
53 Nothing is known about the production of AM 138 4to. For a summary of its content, see
Bengt Chr. Jacobsen, “Håndskriftet AM 138 4to (Samtíningur),” Gripla 8 (1993): 279–80,
with further references.