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perhaps the ecclesiastical-oriented Arnarbælisbók from c. 1350,76 where a
miniature of the enthroned Bishop and Saint Þorlákr Þórhallsson (1133–
93) next to Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar is also found.77 Like a number of
legal codices mentioned above, Arnarbælisbók was partly extended during
the fifteenth century,78 which indicates both ongoing use and potential
inspiration of the illumination for book painters. Nevertheless, it is first
and foremost in the fifteenth century that iconographic images of Óláfr
helgi appear more often, a trend that increased in the following century,
and which is possibly already related to raised religious interests around
the middle of the fifteenth century,79 when international bishops served
in the two dioceses of Iceland.80 It is very likely that this trend mirrors
the change in both domestic and international politics mentioned earlier:
while texts related to Norwegian royal supremacy and trade such as the
Norwegian court law Hirðskrá, or trade-related Réttarbœtr, feature less
often in law manuscripts produced in Iceland during the fifteenth century
than they did in the previous century, the texts most used for domestic is-
sues such as the Búalǫg appear more frequently.
On the other hand, statutes and concordats continue to be included just
as regularly in these manuscripts. Undoubtedly, this indicates permanent
and ongoing contact with the Norwegian Archdiocese of Niðaróss, to
which the two dioceses of Iceland had belonged since its establishment in
1152/53. As exemplified above with the codex Skinnastaðabók, apart from
the textual redactions of Jónsbók, changes in the selection of texts are seen
in law manuscripts written in Icelandic during the fifteenth century. The
decreasing secular influence on the Icelandic politics that “Enska öldin”
76 For the dating of the oldest production unit of AM 135 4to (Arnarbælisbók), see Jón
Helgason, Handritaspjall (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1958), 50. For the iconography
of Óláfr helgi and the textual conception, see Jens Eike Schnall, “Recht und Heil. Zu
Kompilationsmustern in Handschriften der Jónsbók,” 77–87.
77 Selma Jónsdóttir, “Biskupsmynd í Arnarbælisbók,” Skírnir 144 (1970): 111–14.
78 For the dating of the younger production units of AM 135 4to (Arnarbælisbók), see
Kristian Kålund, Katalog, I, 422, 424, and Jón Þorkelsson, Introduction to Diplomatarium
Islandicum, Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn, I, xxii, and Diplomatarium Islandicum, Íslenzkt fornbréfa-
safn, II, ed. Jón Þorkelsson, 299.
79 Baldur Þórhallsson and Þorsteinn Kristinsson, “Iceland’s External Affairs from 1400 to the
Reformation,” 131.
80 Jón Jóhannesson, Íslendinga saga II. Fyrirlestrar og ritgerðir um tímabilið 1262–1550 (Reykja-
vík: Almenna bókafélagið, 1958), 158.