Old Norse Law Books from a Material Perspective

4. Codex Hardenbergianus – A Prachthandschrift from Medieval Norway

Stefan Drechsler

The vernacular Codex Hardenbergianus (GKS 1154 fol.), preserved at the Royal Library in Copenhagen and currently on long-term loan at the National Library of Norway in Oslo, can easily be titled the most splendid of all surviving medieval Norwegian law manuscripts. Apart from a well-written and well laid-out text, it features the most

Figure 1: Codex Hardenbergianus, open to fol. 15 –16 , the beginning of Mannhelgi (Human Inviolability).

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Old Norse Law Books from a Material Perspective

Published on Jun 12, 2024

Nasjonalbiblioteket

This volume presents new research on manuscripts, archival material and printed books containing Old Norse laws from the high middle ages until the twentieth century. The study begins with three fourteenth-century parchment codices: the illuminated Codex Hardenbergianus and two smaller, somewhat older volumes containing King Magnus the Lawmender’s Laws of the Land. It passes through sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paper manuscripts containing the laws in Old Norse as well as in translation, and goes all the way to modern printed editions and translations as well as archival material. Each of the objects expresses the ideas of their makers and owners through its material, provenance and physical aspects such as paratext, and these features provide clues about how laws were regarded and used throughout history.

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