Social Circularity of Books and Manuscripts: Sharing Economy and the Material Culture of Text in Nineteenth-Century Iceland

This paper will explore the circulation/circularity of handwritten texts via lending and borrowing of manuscripts in rural Iceland of the second half of the nineteenth century. Various studies from the last two decades have made case for vigorous manuscript culture, grounded on vast and varying archive of 15,000 manuscripts archived in the National and University Library of Iceland. Preliminary surveys into probate inventories from nineteenth century suggest that the ownership of manuscripts and writing utensils among ordinary people was scarce and limited. Considering these two conflicting aspects this paper asks whether ownership tells the whole story about the popular literacy practice in and after the mid-nineteenth century or whether any kind of “sharing economy” has mattered more? Is it possible that relatively few individuals have owned and shared literacy in their surroundings, thus performing the role of informal literary institutions? Studying testimonies from the diaries of one prolific popular scribe and active collector of books and manuscripts, this paper will explore the dynamics of the sharing economy of texts in a rural community in nineteenth-century Iceland. Finally, it will consider the function of auctions, following probate inventories, as important events for the sharing economy and material culture of texts.