A symposium on May 9 to present the results of research conducted within four major research projects funded by the Icelandic Research Fund in the years 2010‒15. The research projects are
- The People's Printing Press: Manuscript and Literary Culture of Later Centuries (project director: Matthew Driscoll);
- The cultural and social role of Icelandic poetry and hymn manuscripts after the Reformation (project manager: Margrét Eggertsdóttir);
- The Poetry Book of Rev. Ólafur Jónsson of Sóndar: Analysis, Context, Distribution (project manager: Árni Heimir Ingólfsson);
- The diversity of Njáls saga (project manager: Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir).
The projects have in common a focus on manuscripts and manuscript culture of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, but the topics and themes are diverse. Research projects include Njála manuscripts from later centuries, drawings and music in manuscripts, reception and distribution, opportunistic poems, 19th-century folklorists and manuscript writers, little-known Bible translations, and the social and cultural role of poem manuscripts, to name a few.
The research was conducted by the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, the Árni Magnússon Museum in Copenhagen, and the Reykjavík Academy, with the participation of the National and University Library of Iceland. A total of 22 scholars and students participated in the projects.