Iceland has a particularly rich and long-lasting manuscript culture. Over the centuries several important changes took place, such as the introduction of paper in the fifteenth century.
Paper came rather late to Iceland. We have evidence that the Norwegian priest Michael Jónsson wrote the draft of a charter at Möðruvellir in Northern Iceland on 3 April 1423. Alas, this draft is not extant. The oldest extant paper document is some 14 years younger, dated 13 September 1437. It is a sales contract for a farm that chieftain Þorvarður Loptsson ríki (the Wealthy, c. 1410-1446) drew up (The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, Reykjavík, AM Fasc 8,5). Although we know that a few more paper documents were written, this is the only extant paper document from the fifteenth century, and only after 1540 do we see an increase in paper usage.
The situation regarding manuscripts written on paper is similar. The oldest extant paper manuscript is probably the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, Reykjavík, AM 232 8vo, which contains Bishop Gizzur Einarsson’s book of correspondence from 1540-1548. The second oldest is AM 264 fol., comprising five different parts of accounts, taxes and administrative information on the royal farms Bessastaðir and Viðey, as well as of the official Eggert Hannesson (c. 1515-1583). The number of paper manuscripts increases at the end of the sixteenth century.
Both paper documents and manuscripts were written for or by members of the highest sphere of Icelandic society and people with the highest possible education of the time. Most of the scribes or patrons of these paper objects had spent some time abroad. How or from where they obtained the new writing material is difficult to ascertain, as historical sources on the paper trade in Iceland are scarce. The little information that we have, including preliminary results from watermark analysis, points towards Germany.
If you want to hear more about the Icelandic paper trade, come to Erlangen next week and listen to my conference presentation on Wednesday, 26 February 2019, at 12:10:
Further reading:
Arna Björk Stefánsdóttir, “Um upptöku pappírs á Íslandi á sextandu og sautjándu öld,” Sagnir 30 (2013): 226-236.