Medieval Studies Faculty Colloquium – “Looking ahead to the past : the medial strata of a late medieval Icelandic MS”
Sarah Anderson, English
Wed, 2/25 · 12:00 pm—1:15 pm · 103 Scheide Caldwell
Program in Medieval Studies
Join Medieval Studies for our first faculty colloquium of the spring with Sarah Anderson, Senior Lecturer in English.
Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP.
AM 152 fol. is a capacious double-columned vellum manuscript (c. 300 × 240 mm) made in Iceland during the first quarter of the sixteenth century (Stefán Karlsson 1970). Chockful of sagas – there are eleven of them between its boards – the manuscript seems designed to impress as well as to do the social work of the book in late medieval Iceland. This manuscript shows off the power of its patrons, links it to influential models of bookmaking, and valorizes a prose form that is almost definitional of Iceland herself.
But these are the easiest claims to make about AM 152 fol.
Here are some of the knottier issues. Unusually for a medieval Icelandic manuscript, the name of a scribe who copied some of the sagas into it is known – but that identity is conveyed in an oblique formulation and covers only a part of the text in the book. Despite the information provided by way of the scribe’s name, it is not clear where the manuscript was copied or for whom. The manuscript’s design changes – its grand aspirations are dropped and never fully resumed. Plentiful marginal notes throughout show that the book was opened and used – but for what? Had it ceased being a book for reading from and become a book for writing on?
This event is open to Princeton University faculty, students, and staff only.
**Location is subject to change pending spring classroom assignments.
Book exhibit in the history reading room
Alain St. Pierre and the Princeton University Library invite the Medieval Studies community to the History reading room in Firestone Library (Floor A: turn left out of the main staircase) each semester to view recently acquired titles in all subject areas of Medieval Studies. The books for fall 2025 will be on display from the afternoon of Tuesday (February 24) through Thursday (February 26). Come browse!
