Typographorum Emblemata

Silvia Hufnagel

Iceland’s Lack of Printer’s Devices: Filling a Functional and Spatial Void in Printed Books during the Sixteenth Century

Iceland is in the unique position that no printer’s devices are to be found in printed books from the sixteenth century: of all the books that were printed in Iceland none contains a printer’s device, neither on the title-page nor at the end.696 This perhaps surprising lack stands in close connection with the general development of the printing press in Iceland697 with all its implications. Situated at the Atlantic fringe of Europe and under Danish rule since 1380, Bishop Jón Arason, Iceland’s last Catholic bishop, invited the Swedish printer and clergyman Jón Matthíasson to his bishopric in Hólar in northern ...