The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies has now completed the transfer of all the manuscripts in its care to its new secure storage facility in Edda, located at Arngrímsgata 5 in Reykjavík. This includes approximately 2,000 manuscripts, 1,345 charters, and around 6,000 charter transcriptions. A few manuscripts were moved last November for the exhibition World in Words, which opened on Icelandic Language Day in Edda. This week, all other manuscripts and charters were transferred to Edda. The transfer was completed quickly and efficiently, with the manuscripts being transported across Suðurgata with the assistance of the police.

The Icelandic Manuscript Institute acquired several manuscripts in the 1960s while housed in the House of Collections on Hverfisgata. In 1970, the institute moved to Árnagarður, a new building on Suðurgata. The first manuscripts brought from Copenhagen under the agreement between Iceland and Denmark for the division of Árni Magnússon’s manuscript collection arrived in 1971, when the institute was named after Árni Magnússon. Approximately 140 manuscripts also came from the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The transfer of manuscripts from Copenhagen took 26 years. The manuscripts were stored in Árnagarður under good conditions, but that chapter is now closed. When the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies merged with four other institutions in 2006, the decision was made to erect a new building for this unified organization, providing excellent facilities for displaying and preserving the manuscripts in optimal conditions. Árni Magnússon’s manuscript collection (or The Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection) was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.