The Illuminated Þjófabálkr in Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Jónsbók Manuscripts

Abstract

This article is concerned with a number of historiated initials that introduce one specific chapter of the widely copied Icelandic law code Jónsbók, the so-called Þjófabálkr. The overall aim is to show that the content of a single historiated initial in a widely copied and illuminated vernacular law text is more subject to change than the text itself, while still being partly dependent on the relation of the individual text to other texts. The minimal word and content changes to be found in the text generally relate to the content of the painted image. Accordingly, the first part of this article will give a brief overview and introduction to these visual motifs and an investigation of the various text-image relations. In the second part of this article, the initials are compared with a historiated initial from an early fourteenth-century East Anglian canon law manuscript, followed by a discussion of the historical circumstances for the establishment and creation of the different initials.