✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ Script and print in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Iceland. The case of Hólar í Hjaltadal Margrét Eggertsdótir T he history of Hólar is the history of the Icelandic church and printing press; and the history of influential ofcials, bishops and schoolmasters and of students preparing for their careers; and the history of political and cultural power. 1 The present article focuses on manuscripts and manuscript culture at Hólar during three diferent periods: firstly, 1660–1680; secondly, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, both at Hólar and at Gröf, a farm in the north of the diocese, where a group of young women lived with the bishop’s widow; and, thirdly, ca. 1770, shortly before Hólar lost its printing monopoly in Iceland, when a new printing press was established at Hrappsey in 1773. This article is one of the products of a research project the aim of which was to examine the relationship between poetry preserved in manuscripts and poetry that was printed, the interaction between script and print, the impact of the printing press and the role of the cathedral school and church in the dissemination of poetry. Such an investigation raises questions about the impact of the church as an institution. Did influential episcopal ofcials determine which hymns were written, and where, and how they were used? What is the nature of the connection between hymns in printed books I wish to thank Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir for reading through and giving useful comments on this article. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for useful suggestions. 1 Jürg Glauser, Island – Eine Literaturgeschichte (Stuttgart/Weimar, 2011), p. 110.