Libraries and Museums in Iceland
Libraries and Archives
The National Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands) was founded in 1818 on the initiative of the Danish philologist C.C. Rafn, in collaboration with Icelandic scholars. Until then, there had been no public collection of books or manuscripts in Iceland. Monasteries and cathedral churches had owned libraries of texts and records of various kinds, but these were dismantled and dispersed after the Reformation. Some private individuals subsequently amassed libraries that were large by the standards of their time, for example Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson in the seventeenth century. However, such collections were always dispersed on the death of the owners.
The Library owns the only surviving leaf of the codex called Kringla - the oldest-known manuscript of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, transcribed c. 1260, which was presented as a gift by Sweden in 1975. Printed catalogues of the manuscript collection have been issued, and the Library publishes an annual list of books printed in Icelandic, the Icelandic National Bibliography, as well as a Bibliography of Icelandic Sound Recordings and a Year-Book containing articles of bibliographical interest. All Icelandic publishers are required by law to deposit copies of all printed matter, irrespective of size, with the National Library.
The University Library was founded in 1940 to meet the teaching and research requirements of the University, which was established in 1911. In 1994, both above libraries were merged under the name the National Library of Iceland - University Library. Situated on the edge of the University campus, it equally serves scientific researchers and scholars, students of the university and the general public. The new library has a total collection of about 700,000 printed volumes and some 15,000 manuscripts.
The Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar), Reykjavík, named after the renowned manuscript collector and scholar (d. 1730), operates as a centre for research in the area of medieval Icelandic manuscripts, and began work (under a different name) in 1962. Its staff are engaged exclusively in the study and editing of early texts, apart from a separate department devoted to folklore collecting. Among the most famous medieval manuscripts now in the Institute's care are Flateyjarbók, (transcribed c. 1390), the largest of all the early Icelandic manuscript volumes, containing a great miscellany of material but chiefly Sagas of the Kings of Norway; the Codex Regius collection of Eddic poetry (transcribed c. 1200), including ancient mythological and heroic verse; various copies of a legal code, known as Jónsbók, which went into effect in 1281,some versions of which are notable for their fine illuminations; and Skarðsbók, containing Icelandic versions of the Lives of the Apostles.
The National Archives (Þjóðskjalasafn Íslands) were founded in 1882. By law, all public records - documents, plans, pictures, photographs, films, recordings, and hard and soft copy of computer data - must be deposited with the Archives thirty years after their production. The National Archives supervise preservation of records of all public bodies and bear ultimate responsibility for the fourteen local archives elsewhere in the country. The Archives also contain the records of the Danish state departments formerly concerned with Icelandic affairs, the earliest of which are vellum documents from the fifteenth century.
Museums and Art Galleries
The National Museum of Iceland (Þjóðminjasafn Íslands) is the chief body for preservation of antiquities in the country, and by far the oldest. It was founded in 1863, largely on the initiative of the artist Sigurður Guðmundsson (d. 1874), who had wide cultural interests and a particular enthusiasm for Iceland's ancient national culture. Initially the collection was accommodated in various buildings, but to mark the foundation of the Republic in 1944, a new facility was provided and finally taken over by the Museum in 1950. The first exhibition rooms were opened in 1952 and the rest during the intervening period until 1955.
The State Antiquary's responsibility also extends to a large number of ancient buildings in different parts of the country. Their restoration, repair and conservation rank with the most important of the Museum's activities. Such buildings include large turf-built farms, constructed in the ancient style with both walls and roofing of turf and stones; turf-built churches, together with a number of timber ones and a few of stone; and secular buildings of timber or masonry. Most of these buildings date from the nineteenth century, some from the eighteenth. Hardly any buildings from before that time are to be found in Iceland, although some elements of existing ones have earlier origins. Other old buildings are maintained by other museums or by local authorities, and some ancient churches by their congregations. Conservation work by these bodies is often assisted in the form of consultation and financial contributions from the National Museum and special preservation funds.
Field archaeology is undertaken under the aegis of the Museum, for the most part by members of its staff. Investigations
relate to the Viking Age and also to houses and other buildings of the Middle Ages and later.
In the past thirty years, the Museum has been actively developing an extensive archive relating to folk customs and traditional ways of life in Iceland. This has been done chiefly through questionnaires prepared and processed by the Folk Department of the Museum. A sizeable library on the subject of Icelandic and Nordic folk culture is also housed in the Museum.
The National Gallery of Iceland (Listasafn Íslands) was founded in 1884 on the initiative of Björn (Stefánsson) Bjarnarson (d. 1918), who endowed it with paintings from his private collection and others donated by artists of his acquaintance. This nucleus mainly comprises Danish works of the nineteenth century. In 1988, the National Gallery moved to its own separate premises overlooking the Lake in the old centre of Reykjavík. Part of the premises is an old but carefully restored building, and the other part a new and impressive building specially designed for the Gallery's activities. The Gallery now has some 5,000 catalogued items, chiefly oils, watercolours, drawings and engravings, with some sculpture. The vast majority of the collection comprises works by twentieth-century Icelandic artists - before the turn of the century, there was little independent art to speak of in Iceland.
The Ásgrímur Jónsson Collection (Ásgrímssafn) in Reykjavík is housed in the home and studio of painter Ásgrímur Jónsson, who died in 1958. He bequeathed his house and works of art to the nation, and his paintings are exhibited in his studio. Comprising about 500 oils and watercolours, the Gallery has its own curator.
The largest museum operated by the Reykjavík Municipal Art Museum is Kjarvalsstaðir, named after the artist Jóhannes S. Kjarval (d. 1972) who bequeathed his private collection of his own work to the city. Regular exhibitions of works of Icelandic art are staged at Kjarvalsstaðir. A separate part of the building is devoted to Kjarval and includes a permanent display of selections of his paintings from the City collection.
A number of museums have been established in Reykjavík which are variously owned by the State, municipal authorities or privately, and are dedicated to the works of individual artists. These include The National Einar Jónsson Gallery (Listasafn Einars Jónssonar), containing works donated to the State by Iceland's first professional sculptor (d. 1954); the Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum (Ásmundarsafn), a bequest to the city of sculptures by this artist (d. 1982) which forms part of the Reykjavík Municipal Art Museum; and a private museum housing sculptures by Sigurjón Ólafsson (d. 1982). All these galleries are housed in the studios where these artists produced most of their life's work.
The Árbær Open Air Folk museum has buildings and artefacts from different periods. Actors re-enact old crafts and activities.
The Icelandic Natural History Society (Hið íslenzka Náttúrufræðifélag) founded the Natural History Museum (Náttúrugripasafn) in 1947 and donated the collection to the State in 1947. The Museum contains specimens of every Icelandic land mammal, bird, rock and plant, as well as a large number of foreign items. It now forms part of the Institute of Natural History (Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands), the research centre for all areas of study relating to Icelandic geology, botany and zoology.
Small natural history collections have been established throughout the country, some of them specifically intended for educational purposes. The largest outside Reykjavík, and the only regional one with its own full-time staff, is the Natural History Museum in Akureyri. In the Westman Islands is a natural history museum which includes the only aquarium in Iceland, containing not only live specimens of most commercial species caught off Iceland, but also rare fish which have been taken as by-catch by fishing vessels and donated to the museum.
A special pecularity is the Icelandic Phallological Museum which houses 99 specimens from all but a few of the country's 40 mammal species, plus eight from other countries in the "foreign section." There are salted, dried penises from whales mounted on wall plaques like hunting trophies, but most specimens are pickled in preserving alcohol or formalin. A sperm whale's massive, trunk-like organ, one of 29 whales' specimens from 12 species, fills a small tank while a tiny jam jar holds the barely visible penis of a German pygmy shrew. There is a penis bone from an Ohio skunk and some flattened, dried, tanned skins of whale penises that can also be converted to a soft suede.
Adapted from "Iceland - The Republic", Handbook published by the Central Bank of Iceland, ed. by Mr. Jóhannes Nordal and Mr. Valdimar Kristinsson, Reykjavik 1996. The Ministry is responsible for the adapted texts.
