The manuscript exhibition World in Words opened in Edda in November last year. The manuscripts in the exhibition need to be replaced regularly to ensure their best possible preservation. The National Library of Iceland's Manuscript Collection is a partner of the Árna Institute and occasionally lends manuscripts to the exhibition. There are currently four manuscripts from the Manuscript Collection in the exhibition and they can be viewed there for the next three months.

The manuscripts are in the section of the exhibition that deals with human nature, in the section “From the Outermost to the Innermost”. In two of them, ÍBR 3 8vo and Lbs 1228 9vo, you can find the story of Margaret, but Saint Margaret was the patron saint of women in childbirth. Manuscripts that contain the story are usually in a small format that made it easier for midwives to travel with them and for midwives to keep them close to them. It is not known who wrote Lbs 1228 8vo, but it is believed to have been written around 1775. A named woman whose identity we do not know, Sigríður Jónsdóttir, wrote the story of Margaret in ÍBR 3 8vo in 1773. At the back of the story she writes the words “These [papers] belong to me, Sigríður Jónsdóttir. Written in that year 1773.”

JS 109 8vo contains an educational text in conversational form where a disciple asks various questions concerning conception and birth and a master answers. The manuscript was written in the early years of the 18th century by an unknown scribe. Finally, the exhibition features a beautifully decorated manuscript by Jakob Sigurðsson (1727–1779), Lbs 781 4to, on astrology and palmistry, written in 1759. Jakob is generally considered one of the greatest artistic scribes of his time. Despite his limited material and no education, he did some work on manuscript transcriptions, many of which are artistically decorated.

The following photos of the manuscripts were taken by Sigurður Stefán Jónsson, photographer at the Árna Institute.