This book appears in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the birth of the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian Árni Magnússon (1663 1730), who, in addition to his duties as secretary of
the Royal Archives and, from 1702, professor of Danish Antiquities at the University of Copenhagen, spent much of his life building up what is by common consent the single most important
collection of early Scandinavian manuscripts in existence.
While consisting predominantly of Icelandic manuscripts, the Arnamagnæan collection also contains many important Norwegian, Danish and Swedish manuscripts, along with about one hundred of
continental provenance. In addition to the manuscripts proper, nearly 3000 items, there are about 14000 Icelandic, Norwegian and Danish diplomas, both originals and first-hand copies.
In this book are presented descriptions of 66 manuscripts, one for each year Árni Magnússon lived. Half of these 66 are now housed in Copenhagen and the other half in Reykjavík. There are
contributions by 35 scholars from eleven countries, each in some way connected to one of the two institutions which bear Árni Magnússon’s name. High quality colour photographs complement the
texts. Descriptions and pictures of a selection from the many diplomas found in the collection have also been included, along with a comprehensive introduction to Árni Magnússon’s life and
work and a chapter on book production in the Middle Ages.
The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection is, as this volume attests, remarkably diverse, containing works of literature and science, religious texts and law books, calendars and music, to name
only a few of the many genres represented. The manuscripts and documents in the collection are invaluable sources on the history and culture of medieval and early-modern Scandinavia, but
their relevance is far greater than that. This was recognised when the collection was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2009 following a joint submission by Iceland and
Denmark.
