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

An important part of Life of Paper is the analysis of quire structures* in combination with watermark analysis and textual contents of...

Happy Þorláksmessa, merry Christmas and a very festive season! The 23rd December is known as Þorláksmessa, the Mass of St Þorlákur who is...

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...

How are you, Icelandic manuscript style, on Friday the 13th (a-c, I hope!). Also, today is Árni Magnússon's birthday! Hip hip, hooray! a)...

Encouraged by some recent twitter threads, I conducted a short survey of book storage. In continental monasteries in the twelfth century,...

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...

Last month we presented you with a little game of Spot the differences between watermarks. Here are the solutions: Easy: These images...