Þórður Þorláksson

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Þórður.

Painting of Þórður Þorláksson and Guðríður Gísladóttir by an unknown artist circa 1697

Þórður Þorláksson (14 August 1637–17 March 1697), also known by the Latinized name Theodorus Thorlacius, was the Lutheran bishop of Skálholt from 1674 until his death. Under Þórður's direction, the Church of Iceland's printing press was moved from Hólar í Hjaltadal to Skálholt where he established the first print archive in the country.

Family and early life

Þórður was the son of Þorláks Skúlason, bishop of Hólar, and Kristín Gísladóttir. He studied at the Hólaskóli college before travelling to Denmark to attend the University of Copenhagen. Þórður returned to Iceland in 1660 to serve as headmaster of Hólaskóli but went abroad again in 1663 to study in Rostock and the Wittenberg. He also travelled to Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as visiting Stangaland, Norway, where he worked with the historian Þormóður Torfason. During this time, Þórður wrote a history of Iceland, Dissertatio chorographico-historica de Islandia, which was published in 1666.

Bishop

Þórður was ordained as a Lutheran minister in Copenhagen on 25 February 1672. The following year, he returned to Hólar and took office as Bishop of Skálholt upon the resignation of Brynjólf Sveinsson in 1674. In 1685, Þórður received approval from King Christian V to move the church's printing press from Hólar to Skálholt, where a lively printing business for both ecclesiastical and secular works began, including the first printed edition of the medieval Landnámabók in 1688. Other works published under Þórður's direction include Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók, the Kristni saga, and a two-volume edition of The Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. This last work included a number of the Icelandic sagas

Þórður also produced maps of Iceland and Greenland, as well as a copy of Sigurður Stefánsson's map of ancient Norse sites in the western Atlantic. In addition to geography, Þórður was interested in agriculture and he oversaw experiments with different varieties of wheat in Skálholt.

Personal life

In 1674, Þórður married Guðríður Gísladóttir (1651–1707), daughter of Vísa-Gísla Magnússon, governor of Hlíðarendi. Their sons were Þorlákur, a school headmaster in Skálholt, and Brynjólfur, a farmer and district magistrate in Rangárvallasýsla.

References

• Bricka, Carl Frederik (1903). Dansk biografisk lexikon: tillige omfattende Norge for tidsrummet 1537-1814 (in Danish). Gyldendal (F. Hegel & Søn). pp. 275–276. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
• Halldór Hermannsson (1926). Two Cartographers: Guðbrandur Thorláksson and Thórður Thorláksson. Cornell University Library. ISBN 978-0-527-00347-0.
• Gottskálk Jensson (8 July 2019). "Hypothesis Icelandica, or concerning the initially supportive but ultimately subversive impact of the rediscovery of medieval Icelandic literature on the evaluation of Saxo Grammaticus as a historical authority during the heyday of Danish antiquarianism". In Bernd Rolling; Bernhard Schirg (eds.). Boreas rising: Antiquarianism and national narratives in 17th- and 18th-century Scandinavia. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-3-11-063707-6. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
• Thorlacius, Theodorus (1690). Dissertatio Chorographico-Historica de Islandia.