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book lists they contain are an invaluable glimpse into a massive corpus of
lost Latin and liturgical manuscripts; the combination of Latin and vernac-
ular terminology they use to describe those books is distinctive, sometimes
even unique. In many respects, this terminology is almost all that remains
of the medieval Icelandic liturgy, a central part of the culture and life of the
island about which precious little is known.
The present discussion of the term aspiciensbók has aimed to show,
among other things, the relationship between these Icelandic book lists
and a broader European terminology for the Antiphonal. The distinctive-
ness of the Icelandic usage, however, should not be overlooked. The use
of aspiciens to describe books in England and France is much less frequent
or consistent, and in some instances aspiciens is clearly more of a nickname
than a category.81 Though the evidence may simply be richer for Iceland, it
is notable that the full compound aspiciensbók is almost always used there,
while even the Norwegian and Anglo-Saxon examples use aspiciens alone.
This evidence may suggest that the Icelanders really did more thoroughly
adapt the term as referring to a category of liturgical book. Considering
how little is known about the Icelandic liturgy, this is a valuable, if small,
aspect of distinctive religious culture on the island.
Investigating the Icelandic book lists allows us to better understand the
massive quantity of Latin books that have been lost and their overwhelm-
ing importance in the manuscript and textual culture of medieval Iceland.
But perhaps even more importantly, the lists grant us a peek into the van-
ished diversity and distinctiveness of these books. Thinking of liturgical
books as simple, functional things, detached from the active and creative
culture of literary production, does them a disservice. Their contents were
a significant part of daily life, and as objects they had significant value and
presence. Although the term aspiciens was not itself used as a nickname for
particular Antiphonals in Iceland, Icelandic liturgical books did still some-
times attract their own personal names.82 Such practices remind us that
81 See footnote 13.
82 There are at least three surviving examples, from Skarð in Skarðsströnd, Breiðabólstaðr
in Fljótshlíð, and Helgafell monastery. In a late máldagi for Skarð, from sometime around
the end of the fifteenth century, there is a messubók compiled with several different texts,
including material for Matins – a rare instance of Office and Mass texts compiled together
– but only covering the temporale from Advent to Easter, and it is called Loginrá (DI VII,
75), which may suggest something like “flame-post,” but the exact meaning is not clear.
THE LOST LITURGICAL BOOKS OF ICELAND