In the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden, there is a manuscript called B 127 from the early fifteenth century containing Magnus Erikson’s law book, Magnus Erikssons Landslag. In the scholarly debate this manuscript was earlier thought to have originated in Finland. Therefore it was called Codex Aboensis (from the Swedish name of the town Turku; in those days Finland was part of Sweden), and it certainly aroused a lot of interest in Finnish historical research. For instance, some of the manuscript’s illustrations of clothing supported this perspective. However, later investigations have resulted in a more or less settled consensus of a Swedish origin, and more precisely scholars maintain that the manuscript was created in the eastern parts of Sweden (near Finland), which explains the presence of some cultural characteristics found also in Finland.
Among other things this manuscript is interesting because of its illustrations.
In Den Predikande Räven, Janken Myrdal, an expert on agrarian and other tools, meticulously analyses the manuscript’s illustrations. This beautiful and colorful book starts with an informative introduction in which Myrdal describes the world of medieval manuscripts and the painting of images in them. He introduces his readers to marginal illustrations in general and to those in this manuscript in particular. Myrdal deals with various difficulties in connection with the analysis of the pictures and presents his thoughts about the writer, the purchaser, and the artist of this manuscript.
Myrdal maintains that the manuscript originated either in Stockholm or in northern Uplandia in 1436 or 1437. He takes his readers through a discussion of the “nationality” of the manuscript, and he declares that many efforts to clarify the illustrations have been affected by nationalistic feelings and biased perspectives, which have blurred the conclusions. Den Predikande Räven, Myrdal says, is an attempt to free the interpretation from these kinds of hindrance. He prefers to consider the manuscript and its illustrations against the broader background of the European tradition of illuminated books.
After the introduction, the presentation of the illustrations begins. Each picture, together with a piece of text, is reprinted on a separate page in an extremely clear way. This makes it possible to follow Myrdal’s thoughts in detail. He concentrates his work on the marginal illustrations and on the initial letters. Mydral’s goal is to explain why the illustrator has chosen to paint his motifs the way he did. Why was a specific section of the law illustrated in exactly this way? What was so central to the artist that it needed an illustration? Myrdal looks for a kind of subtext or context and thereby is able to create different perspectives on and build linking bridges between the details of the text and the illustrations.
Myrdal investigates in all some eighty texts, comparing them with archaeological findings, parallel manuscripts from Central Europe, ethnographic collections in museums, ethnographic descriptions of later rural societies, and paintings in Swedish medieval churches. He makes use of modern technological equipment such as powerful microscopes and cameras. Myrdal also calls attention to parallels with illustrations and proverbs from medieval and later times. He compares his findings with Pieter Brueghel’s famous painting of more than one hundred proverbs, studied from a folkloristic perspective by Alan Dundes.
In his analysis Myrdal finds humor, a critical perspective on contemporary society, and a later puritanism in the manuscript’s illustrations. Often the connection between the legal text and the illustration is hardly evident until Myrdal explains the illustrator’s ways of thinking.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Myrdal is extremely careful in his work. He openly and very frankly states when he cannot guarantee that his interpretations are correct. He also admits when he cannot understand what he sees in the illustrations.
Pia Melin adds a small article on medieval garments in this and other manuscripts, and Olle Ferm tries to answer the question: “Who was Bengt Jönsson (Oxenstierna)?”, the purchaser of the manuscript. In this way the manuscript is contextualized, and the reader gains a fuller knowledge of both medieval Sweden and this specific manuscript. The book is nice to read and enjoyable to handle. The only things I miss are a small dictionary of rare Swedish legal and rural words, and a summary in English.
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[Review length: 699 words • Review posted on April 9, 2008]