Gripla - 2023, Page 251

THE LIBRARY AT BRÆÐRATUNGA 249
• Hákon’s widowed mother, Margrét Jónsdóttir, was still alive
and would presumably have remained the primary keeper of her
family’s books and manuscripts; and
• family manuscripts were not necessarily considered inventory in
the same way as items of clothing, farming implements or other
objects.
One extant manuscript that did belong to Hákon Gíslason is GKS 3672
8vo, a tiny copy of the law code Jónsbók, tightly bound in leather over
wooden boards, with two intact metal clasps. The manuscript is plain
but neatly written, and the leather binding has been stamped to produce
an elegant volume. Two inscriptions, in different hands, on the first leaf
declare Hákon Gíslason to be the owner.12 His signature is also found
on the inside of the rear board. The manuscript was copied in 1631 by an
unknown scribe and is one of 103 surviving manuscript copies of Jónsbók
from the seventeenth century, of a total of 286 manuscript copies in all
(Már Jónsson 2004, 26–27). Hákon Gíslason’s book is in an excellent state
of preservation and seems to have been a practical “travel copy” of Jónsbók
that could be taken on work-related journeys, with extensive marginal
notes in the section on personal rights but no observed doodles, verses or
other casual uses of the page that might suggest use outside administrative
settings.13 On the verso side of the back flyleaf is a unique key to reading
(or perhaps writing?) common manuscript abbreviations. This would have
aided a less expert reader or writer whose main interactions were with
printed books.
While conclusively demonstrating that inventories are not reliable
sources of information on manuscript ownership, the inventory also makes
it clear that library-building at Bræðratunga was Helga’s project rather than
Hákon’s. His death was likely a motivation for acquiring a larger library:
her biography states that she became a mother and father to her children
following her loss (Margrét Eggertsdóttir 1998, 273), yet she lacked the
formal education from which Hákon had benefited. Before their marriage,
12 “Hakon Gyslason A Mig med Riettu Enn Einginn Annar” (‘Hákon Gíslason is my rightful
owner and none other’) and “Hakon Gyslason A Bokena med Riettu Enn Eingen Annar”
(‘Hákon Gíslason rightfully owns the book and none other’) (1r).
13 The only other known manuscript with a potential connection to Hákon Gíslason, ÍB 315 a
4to, is highly fragmentary but might have once contained his notes as district administrator
(see below).