A material history of 15th-17th century paper used for
Icelandic handwritten and printed texts from
production to use and reuse

As many of you might already know, a new project on paper in Iceland has started earlier this year: Life of Paper. In Life of Paper we...

Today, Þorláksmessa, the Mass of St Þorlákur, is celebrated in Iceland. Born in Hlíðarendi in 1133, Þorlákur Þórhallsson was ordained as...

When paper was on the rise and began to supplant parchment, some manuscripts were made of both materials, paper and parchment. In these...

Welcome back to Paper Trails’ blog! Part of the summer was spent in the manuscript vaults of Iceland, and we have returned with exciting...

In my last blog entry I wrote about the paper uses of the last Catholic bishop of Skálholt, Ögmundur Pálsson, and of his Lutheran...

The rise of paper in Iceland is connected to several bishops. In this post, I will focus on two bishops of Skálholt: Ögmundur Pálsson,...

On 21-22 May I was kindly invited to participate with a presentation in the virtual conference “Wasserzeichen und Musikwissenschaft”...

In the recent online conference Care & Conservation of Manuscripts 18, my colleague Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson gave a lecture on lost...

Today, we find paper everywhere. But when did it become common in Iceland? The earliest uses of and references to paper stem from the...

Early modern paper was made of rags, as I have written in the last blog entry, and was thus a true recycling product. Even though the...

I was once asked why there have been no paper mills in Iceland. I started explaining that there was hardly any linen clothing available,...

For December Paper Trails has a special present for you: a devotional relief, depicting the Adoration of the Magi. The three Magi have...

We are back from summer holidays and hope that you are all safe and sound in the pandemic, the social upheavals and the fires. Fire is a...

Dear all, now that the summer with potential holidays has arrived, I compiled a short list of books that will make great holiday reads...

Coat of arms were popular motifs for watermarks and are often found Icelandic paper charters and manuscripts. On the occasion of the...

Dear all, I hope you are all healthy and doing well in self-isolation and with home office. Since many of you, including me, cannot go on...

One year ago I wrote about the oldest paper charters and manuscripts of Iceland, and this blog post is about the watermark that I found...

For the watermark inclined paper enthusiast there are several powerful portals, databases and applications that are, or hopefully will...

Making discoveries is perhaps the biggest goal of every scholar and scientists. The paths leading to such discoveries can be very varied....

Recently Paper Trails Iceland went to a conference in Cork, Ireland. Watermark specialists gathered from 16th to 18th October for the 5th...