Íslendingabók

thumb|The '''''' (, , ; ) is a historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally existed in two different versions but only the younger one has survived. The older contained information on Norwegian kings, made use of by later writers of kings' sagas.

==Manuscripts and dating== Íslendingabók is preserved in two paper manuscripts from the seventeenth century, AM 113 a fol. (B) and AM 113 b fol. (A), which have been used as the basis for all modern print editions and are currently housed at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík. The two manuscripts are copies made by the priest Jón Erlendsson in Villingaholt (died 1672) at the behest of bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson using the same exemplar. The latter of the two was made because the bishop was unhappy with the first version, which can be dated to 1651. The exemplar, likely a medieval manuscript dating from c.1200, was apparently lost in the course of the late 17th century, and when Árni Magnússon looked for it, it had disappeared without a trace. Because of certain references in the prologue to Bishops Þorlákur Runólfsson (1118–33) and Ketill Þorsteinsson (1122–45), scholars commonly date Íslendingabók to the period from 1122 to 1133.