On Wednesday, May 4, Gunnar Örn Hannesson, historian and archivist at the National Archives of Iceland, will present the talk "On Watermarks in Some Icelandic Paper Letters from the 17th Century" in the lecture series Icelandic Book History , which will take place in the National Library's lecture hall between 12:05 – 12:45.

The abstract of the talk states:

"The oldest recorded watermarks are believed to date from the second half of the 13th century. The discipline that deals with watermarks is called filigranology and is much younger. The history of watermarks is intertwined with the history of paper and papermaking. The value of watermarks and their potential uses in document and paper research will be discussed. The limitations that watermarks themselves place on the discipline will also be discussed. We will then examine several watermarks found in the pages of an Icelandic letter book from the 17th century."

Everyone welcome