Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 177

THE GENESIS OF A COMPOSITE 175
AM 239 fol. was recently described as a composite manuscript, consisting
of two fourteenth-century “production units” based on the division of the
two main scribal hands.5 According to this description by Stefan Drechsler,
the first unit extends from fols. 1r to 35v and is written by one hand (H1).
The second unit is written by another unidentified hand (hereafter H3)
and has been said to extend from fols. 36r to 85v and again from fols. 96r
to 109v.6 The hypothesized two production units were furthermore pre-
sented as “most likely written together, indicating that, in the fourteenth
century, it was common practice to produce composite manuscripts at
Helgafell.”7 This presumption draws support from a table of contents
on fol. 1r, which lists four of the five texts that are still contained in the
manuscript today. Like the note of ownership on 1r, this table of contents
is partially illegible due to the worn state of the page. It names Tveggja
postula saga Jóns ok Jakobs, Jóns saga baptista, Pétrs saga postula and Viðræður
Gregoríusar (Dialogues of Pope Gregory); Andrés saga postula cannot be
read here.8
This article suggests that the proposed division into two units deserves
to be revisited. The present codicological study indicates that AM 239
fol. consists of not two but rather three major production units from the
late fourteenth century, as well as several younger ones. Through detailed
qualitative analysis, not only of the paleography but also of other book-
production features, these three production units and their relationship to
one another become apparent, giving a comprehensive understanding of
the manuscript’s genesis and its use as exemplar.
postulasagna. Nokkrar athuganir á skriftarþróun,” in Handritasyrpa: rit til heiðurs Sigurgeiri
Steingrímssyni sjötugum 2. október 2013, ed. Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir, Rit 88 Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar á Íslandi (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, 2014),
203–22.
5 Stefan Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland Literary and
Artistic Activities of the Monastery at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century (Turnhout, Belgium:
Brepols, 2021), 116–17. The division of scribal hands is based on earlier research by Ólafur
Halldórsson 1966 and Stefán Karlsson 1967.
6 Fols. 86r–95v are a later paper addition from the seventeenth century, written by Magnús
Jónsson í Vigur and supplementing the lost end of Pétrs saga postula, as will be discussed
below.
7 Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production, 117.
8 For a discussion on the relationship between the ownership note and the tables of content,
as well as its dating, see below.