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century. An example is the depiction in an initial in AM 132 4to (f. 38v) of
a man cutting driftwood. While they are iconographically poorly related,
images at the start of the same section in manuscripts from the fourteenth
century seem to prefer to depict the cutting up of whales washed ashore,
such as the mid-fourteenth-century law codex GKS 3269 a 4to, on f. 61r.69
Although the content differs in the two manners of depiction, their iconog-
raphy is equally well reflected in the text section of Jónsbók.70 Accordingly,
in the known instances, the working modes of illuminators of fifteenth-
century law manuscripts did not deviate much from the practices of the
previous century in Iceland.
What appears to start dominating the iconographic content of Icelandic
law manuscripts in the fifteenth century are depictions of one of the
spritual patrons of the law code, the king and Saint Óláfr helgi Haraldsson
(995–1030),71 seated as rex perpetuus Norvegiae and thereby performing his
known function as the major patron of the law code. Illuminations depict-
ing Óláfr helgi appear at various sections of Jónsbók, as well as one further
text. Examples are the depiction of the enthroned Óláfr helgi together
with St Þorlákr at the beginning of the first major section of Jónsbók,
Þingfararbálkr, in the named AM 351 fol. (Skálholtsbók eldri) on f. 2v;72
in miniatures set before Jónsbók in the codices AM 152 4to (f. 1v) and AM
132 4to (f. 1r);73 and, finally, at the beginning of the court law Hirðskrá,
in the codex AM 126 4to (f. 109v), dated to c. 1400.74 Nevertheless, the
earliest iconographic link between Óláfr helgi and vernacular law texts in
Icelandic manuscripts appears in two older law manuscripts, GKS 3268 4to
(f. 2v) and AM 135 4to (Arnarbælisbók).75 The most important of them is
69 For these, see Stefan Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland.
70 For Rekabálkr in the II-redaction, see Jónsbók, ed. Már Jónsson, 199–207.
71 For an overview, see Friederike Richter, “Das Buch im Buch: Artefactual Philology in
zwei sich überlagernden Schichten,” From Text to Artefact. Studies in Honour of Anne Mette
Hansen, eds. Katarzyna Anna Kapitan, Beeke Stegmann and Seán D. Vrieland (Leeds:
Kismet Press, 2019), 70.
72 For this, see Guðbjörg Kristjánsdóttir, “Lýsingar í íslenskum handritum á 15. öld,” 189–93,
and Stefan Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland, 230–32.
73 For the erased miniature in AM 132 4to, see Jens Eike Schnall, “Recht und Heil. Zu
Kompilationsmustern in Handschriften der Jónsbók,” Gripla 16 (2005): 103.
74 For the dating of AM 126 4to, see Kristian Kålund, Katalog, I, 416.
75 For the illumination in GKS 3268 4to, see Jens Eike Schnall, “Recht und Heil. Zu Kom-
pilationsmustern in Handschriften der Jónsbók,” 92.
LAW MANUSCRIPTS