Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 255
THE LIBRARY AT BRÆÐRATUNGA 253
1689), systematically marked books in their possession. Complicating
the study of Sigríður Halldórsdóttir’s books, the library at Gaulverjabær
already contained many items produced, inherited or otherwise acquired
by Torfi, who was Brynjólfur’s nephew. One manuscript, AM 114 fol. (in
Torfi’s father Jón Gissurarson’s hand), contains an inscription on f. 2r
signed by Sigríður, dated 1691, declaring that she gave it to her son Sveinn
Torfason. Immediately above this is an inscription from 1649 stating that
her late husband is now the book’s owner (uniquely incorporating Hebrew
letters into the ownership statement). Jón Gissurarson, Brynjólfur’s older
half-brother, died in November 1648, and the manuscript’s provenance
can thus be reconstructed with unusual certainty. For other manuscripts,
evidence for Sigríður Halldórsdóttir’s ownership is through family ties
with later owners: Páll Eggert Ólason (1927) traced the provenance of
Ragnheiður Brynjólfsdóttir’s copy of Hallgrímur Pétursson’s Passíusálmar
(JS 337 4to) to Sigríður Halldórsdóttir’s great-grandson, Jón Björnsson
(1731–1815). Similarly, a copy of the annals of Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá
in Lbs 40 fol. contains marginalia in the hands of Brynjólfur Sveinsson
and Sigríður’s husband Torfi Jónsson; Sigríður and Torfi’s daughter
Ragnheiður (c. 1651–1712) received it, and it later passed to Ragnheiður’s
son-in-law, the Rev. Hannes Halldórsson (1668–1731). Manuscripts in
Árni Magnússon’s collection that may have passed from Brynjólfur to
Sigríður include items from her sons Sveinn (e.g., part of AM 19 fol., AM
64 fol.) and Halldór (e.g., two leaves of AM 20 b I fol., AM 105 fol., AM
107 fol., AM 748 I b 4to) and Halldór’s widow, Þuríður Sæmundsdóttir
(e.g., AM 724 4to). A more extensive study of manuscript ownership
among the descendants of Sigríður and Torfi would be valuable, as manu-
scripts may appear in catalogues under the names of spouses or other
family members.17
The case of Helga Magnúsdóttir’s library differs from that of Sigríður
Halldórsdóttir in several important ways: (a) there is no evidence for her
husband’s participation in scribal networks, (b) she was a widow at the
time she received the manuscripts from Brynjólfur Sveinsson and thus
17 For instance, a large volume of sagas and þættir copied by Jón Gissurarson and given to
Árni Magnússon by Högni Ámundason (1651–1704) would have belonged to Högni’s wife,
Sigríður’s daughter Þórunn Torfadóttir (1660–after 1709). Árni Magnússon disassembled
this paper manuscript, cf. Stegmann forthcoming, potentially discarding evidence of prov-
enance. See also Slay 1960, 146–57.