The rise of paper in Iceland is connected to several bishops. In this post, I will focus on two bishops of Skálholt: Ögmundur Pálsson, the last Catholic bishop, and his Lutheran successor Gissur Einarsson.
Ögmundur Pálsson (c. 1465-1541) studied in England and the Netherlands, before he was ordained as priest in Skálholt in 1499. From 1499 until at least 1508, he was also captain of the seafaring vessel of the Skálholt-diocese and acted as the bishop’s agent abroad. He served as bishop from 1519 until 1539, when he elected his successor, Gissur Einarsson, and passed away in 1541. During his time as bishop he kept a now lost bréfabók (book of correspondence), and mid-17th-century copies of the book testify that it was made of paper. A letter that he sent to his colleague in the northern diocese Hólar, Jón Arason, in 1528, still survives; its watermark is a small coat of arms with a rearing lion. Several other documents were written on paper, too, such as a receipt for the tithe in 1536.
His successor, Gissur Einarsson (c. 1512-1548), came from a poor family. At an early age he became a servant of Bishop Ögmundur, who paid for his schooling in Hamburg for three or four years; Gissur then studied three years in Wittenberg, where he converted to the Lutheran faith. Upon his return to Iceland, he taught the monks of Þykkvabæjarklaustur, the Augustinian monastery in south Iceland, for two years, and conducted business for Bishop Ögmundur in Norway in 1536–1537; afterwards he was ordained as Catholic priest, despite his Lutheran faith, and subsequently elected as Ögmundur’s successor. Gissur became the first Lutheran bishop of Skálholt and of all of Iceland and introduced the Reformation to the country. He died already in 1548. He translated parts of the Bible into Icelandic, and it is said that he wrote down everything he heard. His notebook is the oldest extant paper manuscript: AM 232 8vo from 1539-1548. Within its 121 paper leaves we find several watermarks, all variations of the letter p, it seems: some with a trefoil on top, others with a quatrefoil, some with a tripartite descender and others with a forked descender. We also find several references to paper purchases; Gissur purchased three reams of paper, and shortly afterwards two more reams during his journey to Copenhagen via Hamburg in 1539-1540, and one ream on two occasions during another journey to Copenhagen in 1542-1543. Several paper documents are connected to him, too, such as a letter that he wrote to the king’s representative Christoffer Huitfeldt in 1541. The inventory that was drawn up after Gissur’s early demise in 1548 was written on one side of a large sheet of paper, mayhap taken from Gissur’s paper supply.
Both bishops, Catholic Ögmundur and Lutheran Gissur, presumably became acquainted to paper during their time abroad, where paper had long been a staple; Gissur may have seen or used paper already during his time as servant of Ögmundur. They both used paper for similar purposes: for notebooks and books of correspondence, for writing letters, issuing receipts, confirming witness statements, etc. And they are both connected to the rise of paper in Iceland, as well as their colleague Jón Arason in Hólar. Stay tuned for more details!
Further reading:
Íslendingabók, www.islendingabok.is
Jón Halldórsson, Jón Þorkelsson and Hannes Þorsteinsson, eds., Biskupasögur Jóns prófasts Haldórssonar í Hítardal. Með viðbæti. 2 vols., Reykjavík: 1903–1915.
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