Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Side 38
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Irish liturgical books are recorded in the Icelandic church registers
from the late fourteenth century up to the Reformation. In the diocese
of Skålholt, the Church of Kvennabrekka (Dal.) c. 1500 possessed
‘dominicor a sumarmessur samsett. jrsk’, probably the Sunday masses
from Trinity to Advent, and ‘Messobok fra advenntu til paska samsett
jrsk’, an Irish missal from Advent to Easter (DI 7, p. 68).
They appear more frequently in the diocese of Holar. The Church of
Laufås (ting.) in 1394 possessed an Irish epistolary, ‘jrsk pistla bok’
(DI 3, p. 567). According to Bishop Olafs register, dated ‘1461 and
later’, three churches had Irish books: the Church of Ås i Kelduhverfi
(E>ing.), an unqualified Irish book, ‘irsk skrå’ (DI 5, p. 279); the
Church of Hals i Fnjoskadalur (Ding.), an unqualified Irish book, ‘ein
bok jrsk’, and an Irish ‘saungbok’ (DI 5, p. 298); the Church of
Saurbær (Eyj.), also an Irish ‘saungbok’, from Advent to Easter,
described as ‘not according to the ordo’ (DI 5, p. 310). The register of
1525 credits the Church of Saurbær with ‘irskur texti med silfur’, Irish
Gospels bound in silver (?), while the ‘saungbok’ of the previous charter
is not expressly mentioned (DI 9, p. 328); the Church of GrenjaSarstab-
ir (E>ing.) with an Irish gradual, ‘jrskur grallari’, from Christmas to
Easter, and with an Irish missal containing the Common of the saints,
‘commons messobok irsk’ (DI 9, p. 322); the Augustinian Modruvalla-
klaustr (Eyj.) with an Irish missal, ‘messobok irzk fra adventu til paska
alfær’, along with an English and a Dutch missal (DI 9, pp. 317-18).
Finally, in 1540, the Church of Svalbarb (E>ing.) possessed an ‘jrsk
messobok med commonsmessum og cana’, an Irish missal containing
the Common of the saints and the Canon, a description which has an
Irish ring (DI 10, p. 557).
No liturgical fragments in Irish script has hitherto come to light in
the Icelandic manuscript collections. It should, however, be noted that
in the late Middle Ages ‘Irish’ could also apply to books written in
Latin hånd on the English fringe of Ireland, where English Benedicti-
nes and Austin canons settled in the twelfth century and where the rite
of Sårum was widely accepted.