Icelandic Legal Manuscripts Research Network
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The Icelandic Legal Manuscripts Research Network brings together scholars and students of the unique legal material that survives from medieval and early modern northern Europe. Their work focuses in particular on the legal manuscripts preserved in the Árni Magnússon Manuscript Collection, which preserves much of this great cultural inheritance. The network is designed to foster collaboration, develop ongoing scholarly dialogue and disseminate research on this unique heritage. Interested parties are encouraged to join, using the form under “Join the network.”
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Members
Network members
Publications
Recent publications in the field, including new editions and translations. This list is updated regularly, please feel free to contact us with publications for inclusion.
- Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir. “Two Models of Marriage? Canon Law and Icelandic Marriage Practice in the Late Middle Ages.” Nordic Perspectives on Medieval Canon Law. Ed. By Mia Korpiola. Helsinki: Matthias Calonius Society, 1999, 79–92.
- Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir. Property and Virginity: The Christianization of Marriage in Medieval Iceland 1200–1600. Aarhus, 2010.
- Anderson, Joel. “Disseminating and Dispensing Canon Law in Medieval Iceland.” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 128 (2013): 79–95.
- Auður G. Magnúsdóttir. “Islänningarna och arvsrätten 1264–1281.” Arverettens handlingsrom: Strategier, relasjoner og historisk utvikling, 1100–2000. Ed. by Per Andersen. Speculum Boreale 15. Stamsund: Orkana Forlag, 2011, 27–38.
- Bandlien, Bjørn. “Sexuality in early church laws in Norway and Iceland.” Law and private life in the Middle Ages: proceedings of the sixth Carlsberg Academy Conference on Medieval Legal History 2009. Ed. by Per Andersen, Mia Münster-Swendsen and Helle Vogt. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2011, 191–204.
- Boulhosa, Patricia Pires. “Narrative, Evidence and the Reception of Járnsíða.” Sturla Þórðarson: Skald, Chieftain and Lawman. Ed. by Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Sverrir Jakobsson, Northern World, 78. Leiden: Brill, 2017, 223–32.
- Boulhosa, Patricia Pires. “Ideas of Law in Medieval Icelandic Legal Texts.” Legislation and State Formation: Norway and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages. Ed. by Steinar Imsen. Trondheim: Akademika forlag, 2013, 169–81.
- Boulhosa, Patricia, Pires. “The Laws on Tithe in the Manuscripts Konungsbók and Staðarhólsbók of Grágás.” ‘Ecclesia Nidrosiensis’ and ‘Noregs veldi’: The Role of the Church in the Making of Norwegian Domination in the Norse World. Ed. by Steinar Imsen. Trondheim: Akademika forlag, 2013, 231–41.
- Brink, Stefan and Lisa Collinson (eds.) New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014.
- Drechsler, Stefan. “The Illuminated Þjófabálkr in Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Jónsbók Manuscripts.” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 12 (2017): 1–40.
- Drechsler, Stefan. “Illuminated Manuscript Production in Western Iceland in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries.” Gripla 28 (2016): 169–196.
- Drechsler, Stefan. “Zur Ikonographie der AM 350 fol. Skarðsbók.” Collegium Medievale 27 (2016): 63–113.
- Hoff, Hans Henning. Hafliði Másson und die Einflüsse des römischen Rechts in der Grágás. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 78. Berlin and Boston, 2012.
- Járnsíða og kristinréttur Árna Þorlákssonar. Ed. by Haraldur Bernharðsson, Magnús Lyngdal Magnússon and Már Jónsson. Reykjavík: Smárit Sögufélags, 2005.
- Landro, Torgeir. “Kristenrett og kyrkjerett: Borgartingskristenretten i eit komparativt perspektiv.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Bergen, 2010.
- Lára Magnúsardóttir. Bannfæring og kirkjuvald á Íslandi 1275–1550: Lög og rannsóknarforsendur. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2007.
- Lára Magnúsardóttir. “Icelandic Church Law in the Vernacular 1275–1550.” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 23 (2015): 127–43.
- Leslie-Jacobsen, Helen F. “Perspectives on Translating Medieval Law: The Norwegian Landslov of 1274.” Filologie medievali e moderne 17 (2018): 131–147.
- Magnús Lyngdal Magnússon. “Kátt er þeim af kristinrétti, kærur vilja margar læra: Af kristinrétti Árna, setning hans og valdsviði.” Gripla 15 (2004): 43–90.
- Már Jónsson. “Textatengsl nokkurra elstu handrita Jónsbókar.” Líndæla. Sigurður Líndal sjötugur. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2001, 373–89.
- Rohrbach, Lena (ed.) The Power of the Book. Medial Approaches to Medieval Nordic Legal Manuscripts. Berliner Beiträge zur Skandinavistik vol. 19. Berlin: Nordeuropa-Institut, 2014.
- Rohrbach, Lena. “Repositioning Jónsbók. Rearrangements of the Law in Fourteenth-Century Iceland.” Legislation and State Formation. Norway and Its Neighbours in the Middle Ages. Ed. by Steinar Imsen. Trondheim: Akademika forlag, 2013, 183–209.
- Sunde, Jørn Øryehagen. “Daughters of God and Counsellors of the Judges of Men: Changes in the Legal Culture of the Norwegian Realm in the High Middle Ages.” New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia. Ed. by Stefan Brink and Lisa Collinson. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, 131–83.
- Schnall, Jens Eike. “Recht und Heil: zu Kompilationsmustern in Handschriften der Jónsbók.” Gripla 16 (2005): 75–114.
- Tveit, Miriam Jensen. “The Introduction of a law of the realm in northern Norway.” Legislation and State Formation. Norway and Its Neighbours in the Middle Ages. Ed. by Steinar Imsen. Trondheim: Akademika forlag, 2013. 41–54.
- Tveit, Miriam Jensen. “Integrasjon gjennom lovgivning? Rettsresepsjon i Hålogaland 1000–1500.” Heimen, Tidsskrift for lokal og regional historie (2015): 1–16.
- Vadum, Kristoffer. “Bruk av kanonistisk litteratur i Nidarosprovinsen ca. 1250–1340.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oslo, 2015.
- Viðar Pálsson. “Landslög Magnúsar lagabætis” and “Staðarhólsbók Grágásar.” 66 handrit úr fórum Árna Magnússonar. Ed. by Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir. Reykjavík: Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, Bókaútgáfan Opna, 2013, 102–103 and 112–113. [Also published in Danish and English.]
- Winroth, Anders. “Canon Law in the Arctic.” Texts and Contexts in Medieval Legal History: Essays in Honor of Charles Donahue. Ed. by Sara McDougall, Anna di Robiland and John Witte Jr. Berkeley, Calif.: Robbins Collection, 2016, 301–309.
- Winroth, Anders. “The Canon Law of Emergency Baptism and of Marriage in Iceland and Europe.” Gripla 29 (2018): 203–229.
- Walgenbach, Elizabeth. "The Canon Si quis suadente and Excommunication in Medieval Iceland." Gripla 30 (2019): 155–185.
Events
On Friday, 22 November 2019, experts in medieval manuscripts, history, and legal studies gathered in Reykjavík to discuss Jónsbók and Kristinréttur Árna Þorlákssonar. Both are key sources on the legal and political history of Iceland and among the country’s greatest manuscript treasures. The full day of lectures examined a variety of questions, e.g. the reasons why Jónsbók was compiled, the ways that Jónsbók and Kristinréttur have been interpreted and reframed in different manuscripts, and the ways Jónsbók is still valid law today.
Resources
Resources for the study of Icelandic legal manuscripts:
- A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law
- Online catalogue of manuscripts held by Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, and the National Library of Iceland
Join the network
We welcome new members working on legal manuscripts and related topics.
Ongoing and completed research projects
Contact us if you would like to link your project here.
- A new edition, including a translation and explanatory notes, of Bishop Árni Þorláksson's Christian laws for Iceland (Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar).
- An international and interdisciplinary project (2019–2023) on the vernacular Law Manuscripts of Western Scandinavia
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