David Olafsson

HANDWRITTEN BOOKS IN 19TH CENTURY ICELAND

Printed books in 19th century Iceland were relatively rare, both titles and copies. Until the year 1783 the bishop of Holar held a monopoly in printing and publishing and the only printed books were religious texts which people were obligated to have in each home. In the enlightment age the educators started to publish secular books on farming, medicine and arithmetic but literature, entertainment and political books were very rare. At the same time more and more common people were learning to read and write and the 19th century became the age of handwritten books. This manuscript-culture has been described as "the peoples press", a substitute of publishing companies and bookstores in a rural society were the farm was a school, a working place and a field of social life, entertainment, production and consumption.

The manuscript department of the National Library in Iceland holds a little less than 15.000 manuscript-numbers, but one number can contain hundreds of letters, a large collection of poems or diaries of many years or decades. This quantity of manuscripts preserved in the National Library is a strong sign of the importance of handwritten books in a society lacking formal cultural institutions and a real bookmarket. Many autobiographers, born on the later half of the 19th century, write about the role of handwritten books in children's education, people's entertainment and distribution of literature and ideas. We have the stories of enthusiastic, semi-professional manuscript writers, feeding people with handwritten material like stories, poetry and historical writing. Many of them left behind personal writings like autobiographies, diaries and letters, which gives us a first hand view in to the world of handwritten books and manuscript culture. These things all add up to the fact that handwritten books played a great roll in the mental life of 19th century rural Icelanders at the same time when printed, secular books were rare and published under the "monopoly" of the church or a cultural elite.