Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century

Manuscripta Publications in Manuscript Research (MSSP) S. Drechsler Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century Add to basket ->Add to basket 275 p., 192 b/w ill. + 22 colour ill., 47 b/w tables, 7 b/w line art, 216 x 280 mm, 2021 ISBN: 978-2-503-58902-2 Languages: English Hardback The publication is available. Retail price: EUR 150,00 Exemplifies the international societal and artistic contexts of book production in medieval Scandinavia and beyond. This book examines a cultural revolution that took place in the Scandinavian artistic landscape during the medieval period. Within just one generation (c. 1340-1400), the Augustinian monastery of Helgafell became the most important centre of illuminated manuscript production in western Iceland. By conducting interdisciplinary research that combines methodologies and sources from the fields of Art History, Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript studies, codicology, and Scandinavian history, this book explores both the illuminated manuscripts produced at Helgafell and the cultural and historical setting of the manuscript production. Equally, the book explores the broader European contexts of manuscript production at Helgafell, comparing the similar domestic artistic monuments and relevant historical evidence of Norwich and surrounding East Anglia in England, northern France, and the region between Bergen and Trondheim in western Norway. The book proposes that most of these workshops are related to ecclesiastical networks, as well as secular trade in the North Sea, which became an important economic factor to western Icelandic society in the fourteenth century. The book thereby contributes to a new and multidisciplinary area of research that studies not only one but several European cultures in relation to similar domestic artistic monuments and relevant historical evidence. It offers a detailed account of this cultural site in relation to its scribal and artistic connections with other ecclesiastical and secular scriptoria in the broader North Atlantic region. Stefan Drechsler is a Postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen. He received his PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Aberdeen in April 2018. His principal research interests lie in the fields of Old Norse Philology and Art History, and he has published numerous articles and book chapters on interdisciplinary and societal aspects of Scandinavian and English manuscript cultures. Table of Contents List of Illustrations, Notes on Terminology, Abbreviations, and Images, Acknowledgements Introduction: The Helgafell Manuscripts Chapter 1: An Anaysis of Medieval Icelandic Manuscript Cultures Chapter 2: Helgafell: An Augustinian House of Canons Regular in Western Iceland Helgafell in the Thirteenth Century Personal Contacts Chapter 3: The Scriptorium Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 233 a fol. (ff.?1-12 and ff.?27-28) Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, AM 350?fol. (Skarðsbók) The Network of the 'Helgafell Master' The Book Painting of AM 350?fol. (Skarðsbók) The Historiated Initials of AM 350?fol. (Skarðsbók) Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 226?fol. Magnús Þórhallsson, Illuminator of AM 226?fol. The Art of Magnús Þórhallsson Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 239?fol. The Illuminations of AM 239?fol. Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket, MS?Isl.?Perg. fol.?5 Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 325 X 4to & AM 325 VIII 3a 4to Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket, MS?Isl.?Perg. 4:o 34 Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, AM 347?