The work comprised of three areas: the database, the manuscripts as such, and the data collected from those manuscripts. For the database, I drafted a structure to be developed by IT experts and fine-tuned it in collaboration with them, together with a homepage to display the database and feature additional material. The manuscripts were examined based on the photograph collection in Copenhagen together with their existing catalogues entries. In single cases, the artefacts had to be accessed directly for clarification. Following a priority-based schedule, I studied the manuscripts, created descriptions/catalogue entries, transcribed the Latin texts on three levels (facsimile, diplomatic, normalised) and entered all data in the database. The data itself was studied in a comparative approach, enabled through systematising the key features of both manuscripts and Latin entities. However, the evidence showed that the material did not lend itself to a comparative study, as it was too disperse. Instead, single manuscripts were studied in more detail.
Out of 629 manuscripts in the corpus, 400 have been thoroughly investigated. Out of these 400 manuscripts, 31 % have been shown to contain Latin text. The data suggests an even higher percentage for complete manuscripts compared to fragmentary ones, as Latin entities obviously had a higher chance of survival if none of the pages were lost. Only a third of the bilingual manuscripts had actually been listed previously as containing Latin. Contentwise, most Latin text is somehow related to the Christian faith, be it in the form of prayers, quotations from the bible, or constituting parts of the ecclesiastical law. There is an overall preference of short texts as opposed to longer texts. Despite its oftentimes religious character, Latin text is found in all kinds of manuscript and not limited to religious manuscripts as such. For 82 manuscripts, the project rendered complete descriptions and editions on facsimile, diplomatic, and normalised level together with an introduction setting the Latin entities into a wider perspective. For single manuscripts, in-depth analysis rendered new findings, among these the identification of new texts, the revelation of mechanisms of international knowledge transfer, the use of manuscript based on their Latin marginalia, and the identification of a characteristic mise-en-page for Latin poetry in Iceland. All findings of the project are accessible in an open-access database available at www.invisibilia.hum.ku.dk. Beyond that, there are two forthcoming articles, one on devotional manuscripts co-authored with Beeke Stegmann, and the other on the mise-en-page of Icelandic Latin poetry together with Gottskálk Jensson. The project has been presented in four invited lectures at the Universities of Bonn, Copenhagen, Bergen, and Lund.
