Matthew James Driscoll

Matthew James Driscoll

Professor

ORCID: 0000-0001-9662-1271

Primary fields of research

  • Icelandic saga literature, in particular the late medieval mythical-heroic sagas (fornaldarsögur) and chivalric romances (riddarasögur).
  • Popular literature in post-Reformation Iceland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. This includes both prose sagas and metrical romances (rímur).
  • Manuscript and textual studies.
  • Text encoding and digital humanities.

Fields of interest

Icelandic language and literature in general, textual scholarship, book history, manuscript studies.

Current research

My research interests include manuscript and textual studies, particularly in the area of Old and Early-Modern Icelandic.

In addition to my work with manuscripts copied by ordinary people in 18th- and 19th-century Iceland I have recently recieved funding for a research project devoted to the study of one of the Spanish manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 377 fol., recently identified as El libro de los epítomes, one of the catalogues or inventories from the great library of Hernando Colón (1488-1539), son of the famous navigator Christopher Columbus. The project's chief deliverables are a bilingual (Latin-English) critical edition of the Libro, to be published by Oxford Univeristy Press, and a database of the books summarised in the Libro hosted by the Consortium of European Research Libraries..

Selected publications

  1. Published

    Forgotten books: The application of unseen species models to the survival of culture

    Driscoll, Matthew James, Kestemont, M., Karsdorp, F., de Bruijn, E., Kapitan, Katarzyna Anna, Ó Macháin, P., Sawyer, D., Sleiderink, R. & Chao, A., 17 Feb 2022, In: Science. 375, 6582, p. 765-769 5 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

  2. Published

    Finnur Jónsson: Editor of everything

    Driscoll, Matthew James, 2022, Old Norse-Icelandic philology and national identity in the long nineteenth century. Gunnlaugsson, G. & Glad, C. (eds.). Leiden: Brill, p. 417-439 22 p. (National Cultivation of Culture, Vol. 28).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

  3. Published

    Writing in the twilight: The manuscripts of Magnús í Tjaldanesi

    Driscoll, Matthew James, 2021, In: Opuscula - Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. 19, p. 187-223 35 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

  4. Published

    Udgivelse af norrøn litteratur 1879-1936

    Driscoll, Matthew James, 2021, Dansk Editionshistorie: 2: Udgivelse af norrøn og gammeldansk litteratur. Frederiksen, B. O. (ed.). København: Museum Tusculanum, Vol. 2. p. 215-311 96 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

  5. Published

    Pleasure and pastime: The manuscripts of Guðbrandur á Hvítadal

    Driscoll, Matthew James, 2017, In: Opuscula - Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. 15, p. 225-276 52 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

ID: 4705