Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan ("A Guide and List of Cities") is an itinerary written by Nikulás Bergsson (a.k.a. Nikolaos), the abbot of the monastery of Þverá in Eyjafjörður, Northern Iceland.
It is a guidebook for pilgrims about the routes from Northern Europe to Rome and Jerusalem. It contains two descriptions of lands around Norway that the Abbot seems to have acquired for his book from independent sources.Luana Giampiccolo: Leiðarvísir, an Old Norse itinerarium: a proposal for a new partial translation and some notes about the place-names, skemman.is
Manuscript The Leiðarvísir is found in a manuscript known as AM 194 8vo, copied in 1387 by two scribes. The greater part by far was copied by Óláfr Ormsson, a priest from Snæfellsnes, while only a few pages are the work of Brynjólfr Steinráðarson. Although AM 194 8vo contains an eclectic mix of texts, it was compiled with a view towards making a coherent whole.Arngrímur Vídalín (2018), "Óláfr Ormsson's Leiðarvísir and its Context: The Fourteenth-Century Text of a Supposed Twelfth-Century Itinerary", Journal of English and Germanic Philology 117(2): 212–234.
Itinerary The following is a list of the towns in the different itineraries described in Leiðarvísir:
Denmark Aalborg Viborg Hedeby
Germany
France Seltz Strasbourg
Switzerland Basel Solothurn Avenches Vevey Saint-Maurice Bourg-Saint-Pierre
Italy
Greece Peloponnese Kos Constantinople Rhodes Kastellorizon Patara Cyprus Paphos
Holy Land
Notes
References
Further reading Gelsinger, B. E. (1972). "The Mediterranean Voyage of a Twelfth-Century Icelander." The Mariner's Mirror, 58(2), 155–165.
External links Ericus Christianus Werlauff: Symbolae ad Geographiam Medii Aevi, Ex Monumentis Islandicis, Copenhagen, 1821 - septentrionalia.net (Leiðarvísir in Old Icelandic, including a Latin translation) Luana Giampiccolo: Leiðarvísir, an Old Norse itinerarium: a proposal for a new partial translation and some notes about the place-names Tommaso Marani: Leiðarvísir. Its Genre and Sources, with Particular Reference to the Description of Rome. 2012, Durham. Interactive map of all locations mentioned in Leiðarvísir (Marani, 2011)