Исландский переписчик Йоун Эрлендссон

Abstract

The article analyzes the activity of the Icelandic copyist of the mid-17th century, the priest Jón Erlendsson from Villingaholt. He had copied over 60 ancient Icelandic manuscripts, many of which have survived only in the lists made by Jón. Two-thirds of the lists of his manuscripts include historical works and sagas, so they are constantly attracted by scholars of the Icelandic Middle Ages. Most of them are kept in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collec-tion in Reykjavik. We have analyzed the characteristic features of the design of the manu-scripts and Jón’s handwriting. He was distinguished by attention to the spelling of the origi-nal and a small number of stamps. However, his lists cannot be attributed to the illuminated “ceremonial” manuscripts (so typical for frakturing writing), which belonged to the pen of other scribes of his time. Due to the lack of ruled lines, as Jón’s “arm fatigue” increased, the number of lines on the sheet and the number of abbreviations and pronunciations in-creased. However, since the dates of most of his lists are very broad, it is not possible to find out how Jón’s handwriting changed over time.