The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies presents a new and extensive volume, Structural Alteration of Manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Collection, written by Beeke Stegmann, a researcher at the Institute.

The contents of the book

The Arnamagnæan Collection, now jointly housed in Reykjavík and Copenhagen, is one of the most important collections of Old Norse and Icelandic manuscripts.

Structural Alteration reveals that both paper and parchment codices in this collection underwent physical restructuring at the hands of the collector, Árni Magnússon (1663–1730). The study examines the nature of these structural changes, the methods involved, and the motivations behind them.

Many of the manuscripts in the collection consist of smaller units of one or several texts each, extracted from larger volumes and variably recombined. The resulting physical arrangements therefore often reflect later interests and priorities rather than the original production circumstances. 

While Árni Magnússon was exceptional in how frequently he altered codices, his approach to manuscripts was not unique. Both his contemporaries as well as people before and after his time intervened with the physical form of codices. 

Structural Alteration not only contributes to a better understanding of the history of manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Collection but also sheds light on the practices of manuscript owners and caretakers over the centuries.

About the author

Beeke Stegmann is a Research Associate Professor (rannsóknardósent) at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík. She holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen (2017) and specializes in the codicology and history of Icelandic manuscripts.

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