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resemblances as regard to their mise en pages and size. Either way, accord-
ing to Guðbjörg, they have loose links to the yet unlocated workshop at
which the C-painter of the famous Icelandic sketch book AM 673 a III
4to (Íslenska teiknibókin) worked.60 Like other illuminators from the
fifteenth century, the C-painter mainly draws on iconographic models
known from previous centuries.61
In iconographic terms, much fewer law manuscripts illuminated in the
fifteenth century feature text-related images than those in the previous
century. While the use of iconographic images was well established during
the fourteenth century for the guidance of the reader,62 it seems to have
become less fashionable during the following century, perhaps due to the
practice of adding tables of contents to a few older law codices, or due to
the more constant use of the margins for annotations. It is likely that tables
of contents and historiated book painting served similar purposes in the
60 For the C-painter of AM 673 a III 4to (Íslenska teiknibókin), see Guðbjörg Kristjánsdóttir,
“Introduction,” Íslenska teiknibókin, 45–61.
61 Guðbjörg Kristjánsdóttir, “Lýsingar í íslenskum handritum á 15. öld,” 165–66.
62 Lena Rohrbach, “Die Fabrikation des Rechts. Implikationen medialer Ausformungen in
west- und ostnordischen Rechtsbuchhandschriften,” Á austrvega. Saga and East Scandinavia,
2, eds. Agneta Ney, Henrik Williams and Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist (Gävle: Gävle
University Press, 2009).
LAW MANUSCRIPTS
Figure 5: AM 138 4to, f. 14v (Detail):
Jónsbók. 1500. Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum.
Image: Sigurður Stefán Jónsson.
Figure 6: AM 227 fol., f. 38r (Detail):
Stjórn. 1350. Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum.
Image: Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.