Birgittahandskrifter och medeltida skriftmiljöer

Abstract

This article is an attempt to identify the scribes of four anonymous and undated manuscripts containing the Old Swedish version of the Revelations of St Birgitta of Sweden: C 61 (Uppsala University Library), A 33 and A 44 (The National Library of Sweden), and Mh 20 (Lund University Library) and by means of textual comparison formulate a hypothesis of their place of origin. It is shown that the youngest of these, C 61, was compiled from exemplars representing different versions of the Old Swedish text and that the editio princeps of the Latin text (Ghotan 1492) was used for comparison. One of the main hands in C 61 and the only hand in A 33 are attested in the Registrum ecclesie lincopensis. The scribe of A 44 and Mh 20 is identified as Lars Finvidsson, canon and notarius publicus in Linköping at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This suggests that these books were produced at a learned and highly literate scribal centre by professional scribes, possibly commissioned for this purpose by the abbey in Vadstena.