Jón Ólafsson

Alessia Bauer (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

Born 1705
Died 1779

Places

Active in Iceland

Activities

Primary

Writer / Author

Resources

Ólafsson's Works

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The Icelandic polyhistor Jón Ólafsson is one of the most important representatives of Icelandic scientific history in the eighteenth century. Jón of Grunnavík (Grunnvíkingur) was born in 1705 in the Westfjords; after his father’s premature death in the smallpox epidemic of 1707, he was sent to be fostered to the lawman Páll Vídalín (1667–1727), who got him interested in literacy and books and subsidized his studies. Still very young, Jón moved to Copenhagen in 1726, where he attended university and became the secretary of the famous manuscript collector Árni Magnússon (1663–1730). On his behalf he copied several Old Norse manuscripts. He finished his studies in theology in 1731.

After Árni Magnússon’s death, Jón was commissioned to edit a catalog of the whole

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388 words

Citation: Bauer, Alessia. "Jón Ólafsson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 August 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14987, accessed 21 November 2024.]