Three Scripts, One Scribe: Ingólfr Dagfinsson and his Lawbook AM 68 4to

Most medieval manuscripts provide very little direct information regarding their clients, scribes and earliest users. In most instances, researchers are left with only a handful of distant hints such as script type, dialect features and, if available, some information the book painting is able to offer about its place of production. A Norwegian law manuscript which provides us with a fairly unique glimpse into the life and politics of its time is AM 68 4to, today stored at Den Arnamagnæanske Samling in Copenhagen. Written during the first quarter of the fourteenth century by a single scribe and rubricator, the overall design consisting of one column with red headings and at times small red initials of the manuscript does not impress the eye with a similar splendidness as more well-known manuscripts from that period such as the famous Norwegian Prachthandschrift Codex Hardenbergianus (Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, GKS 1154 fol., ca. 1350–60). Nevertheless, as will be shown, AM 68 4to was a manuscript that was made and used in the highest clerical circles of early fourteenth-century Norway.

AM 68 4to contains today 66 leaves of moderate size (195 x 145 mm) and features primarily the Norwegian Laws of the Land (Landslǫg) from 1274 for the province of Eidsivathing. After the end of the second section entitled Kristindómsbǫlkr, which, among others, regulates the separation of ecclesiastical and royal powers in a Christian commonwealth, the manuscript features a complete version of the older Christian law for Eidsivating (Kristinréttr hinn forni). Such a particular focus on older provincial Church laws within the authoritative – and not least largely secular – Landslǫg is unique for its time and already indicates that the client of the manuscript must have had a particular interest in both secular and ecclesiastical matters. And indeed, the ecclesiastical focus of AM 68 4to is a direct reflection of its first owner, Ingólfr Dagfinnsson. According to the colophon at the end of Landslǫg, it was Ingólfr himself who not only owned but also wrote the manuscript (Fig. 1):

Blezsan ok varðueizlla foður ok sonar ok heilags andda eins guðs j þriningu ok arnaðar orð fru sancte marie ok hins hælga Olafsa. konungs ok allra heilagra manna se með oss bu oc iafnan late guð oss heila skiliazt ok suo finnazt oc gefe þæim æíganda er ritaðe þessa goða starflaun firir sin møðo amen (AM 68 4to, f. 63v)

“The blessing and protection of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God in Holy Trinity, and the holy Lady Mary and the holy King Olaf and all holy men be with us now and forever. God let us part in health, and so to meet, and give the owner who wrote this a good salary for his work, Amen.” (in most parts taken from Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir 2024, 130)

In slightly differently coloured inks, the same hand added shortly after the words “Ingulfer dagfínz ſon” (“Íngólfr Dagfinnsson”) and “a þeſſa logbok” (“owns this law book”). Ingólfr was active as a royal scribe, clerk and, later, chancellor of Oslo during the first quarter of the fourteenth century. His name appears in two forms: as Ingólfr klerkr and Ingólfr Dagfinnsson. An Ingólfr klerkr appears as scribe in a royal letter from Öckerö in present-day Bohuslän (Sweden) and dated to 22 June 1300 (Fig. 2; Hødnebø 1960, 118–20) (copied in DN I, 83–84). Shortly before, on 9 June 1300, an Ingólfr klerkr wrote two royal letters in Buskär, Bohuslän, both of which are connected to St Mary’s Church in Oslo (copied in DN XXI, 4–5). Finally, on 10 May 1324, Ingólfr klerkr is named in a letter from Oslo (DN II, 130–31). An Ingólfr Dagfinsson, on the other hand, is named as a scribe in a letter from 15 July 1303 from Bergen (copied in the manuscript AM 902 a 4to from 1427, on f. 52r–v), and as a witness and entitled chancellor in a letter dated to 28 April 1321 from Oslo (DN V, 60–61).

Unfortunately, of the letters written by Ingólfr himself, only the one from 22 June 1300 survives in its original. Nevertheless, it is likely written by the same scribe who wrote the ownership note in AM 68 4to (Rindal 1983, 28; Halvorsen & Rindal 2008, xxv). Since Ingólfr names himself klerkr in that letter and with full name in the manuscript, we can conclude it was the same person in all named historical sources. Thus, in 1300, Ingólfr klerkr Dagfinnsson was a royal scribe and worked together, according to the texts in his royal letters, with important people of his time, such as chancellor Åke and chancellor Snare Asláksson of Oslo. Åke may have already become the provost of St Mary’s Church in 1299–1312 (Bagge 1983, 69, 144–45), and it is not unlikely that Ingólfr himself was trained there. Around that time, the same church became the royal chancellery in Oslo, which enabled, among others, Ingólfr to become a royal scribe in 1300. The letter Ingólfr wrote on 15 July 1300 describes the division of inheritance of the knight and kings’ man Ívarr Lóðinsson in western Norway, among others to the influential Benedictine abbey at Munkeliv in Bergen. Ingólfr, with other words, was part of the highest circles of the Norwegian clergy in the early fourteenth century. In what way is this reflected in AM 68 4to?

It is assumed that AM 68 4to was written at St Mary’s Church directly, due to the Eastern Norwegian orthography of the scribe, and not least the particular textual content described above (Folkedal 1970, 109–25). There is little doubt that the scribe was able to write longer texts, compile them professionally and modulate them according to individual needs. This is for example found in the fact that the previously mentioned Christian law for Eidsivating is fluently integrated in the text flow of the Landslǫg. Also, the concluding law amendments and the epilogue of the same law code were taken from several sources: The law amendments state they originally belonged to redactions of the Landslǫg in Frostathing, and the epilogue from Gulathing. Yet, considering the status of Ingólfr, he may well have written the manuscript at his own office, which was likely attached to the royal chancellery. Another manuscript related to this workshop, AM 309 fol., was primarily written by two scribes during the same time frame as AM 68 4to, i.e. in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. However, no scribal or textual connection between the two law codes have been found thus far, apart from that they both contain a Landslǫg redaction related the named law assembly, Eidsivating (Rindal 1983, 60). Yet, similar to other law manuscripts related to churches in eastern Norway, such as AM 309 fol., the inclusion of a presumably outdated church law in AM 68 4to is not surprising: Due to a prolonged struggle between Crown and Church in Norway following the death of King Magnús in 1280, law amendments issued in 1290, 1316 and 1327 decree that the older Church laws were to be followed in Norway. It is likely in this context that also AM 68 4to was used.

If the ownership note is taken seriously, it was Ingólfr alone who was responsible for the entirety of the manuscript in its earliest form. This is a problematic issue, since the oldest part of AM 68 4to features two different script types: a late Gothic Textualis in the main text and a Cursive Antiquor that starts four lines above the ownership note and finishes in a law amendment on the following leaf. It was assumed that both scripts were written by the same scribe, but whom that was had remained unclear (Storm 1885, 562; Folkedal 1970, 109). As the colophon states, it was Ingólfr himself who was responsible for both scripts. Interestingly, a change-over from the Cursive Antiquor script to the Gothic Textualis script is found in the text following the ownership note and on the following leaf (Fig. 1). It displays a transformation from one medieval script to another. The Cursive Antiquor script of the ownership note, on the other hand, is found elsewhere in the lower margin on f. 61v (Rindal 1981, 28), where Ingólfr added a further text to chapter 7 of the last section of the main text of Landslǫg, on thieves (Fig. 3). The charter from 1300 mentioned above (Fig. 2), written by Ingólfr, shows another form of the Gothic Cursive script, this time which thicker shafts in the upper horizontal lines and closer arrangements of single letters. Nevertheless, similarities in the palaeography of all three script types, such as the individual forms of the letters g, r and s, indicate it was indeed the same scribe responsible for all three.

Few medieval Norwegian scribes have been found that were responsible for more than one manuscript or, alternatively, more than a handful of royal letters or charters. Perhaps the most famous is Páll Styrkársson who, in addition to 29 letters dated to 1325–51 (Sandstedt 2014, 44-45), wrote a unique copy of the famous Speech against the bishops (Varnaðarrǿða móte klerkom) by King Sverrir Sigurðsson in the compilation manuscript AM 114 a 4to (on ff. 3va–9ra) in ca. 1315–40 (Holtsmark 1931, 53), contemporary with Ingólfr. Unlike Ingólfr, however, Páll employs the same script type throughout his career, which is a more or less classic Gothic Cursive script. The example of how Ingólfr worked in AM 68 4to may thus be the only known Norwegian manuscript example where a royal scribe has shown two worlds of his profession: Book and charter scripts.

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