This book is a very early edition of a medieval Icelandic work, the Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), which as its name suggests describes the early colonisation of Iceland by settlers from Scandinavia and elsewhere, including the British Isles, in the late ninth century AD.

The original manuscript on which this edition is based is now part of the Arnamagnaean Manuscript Collection, formerly owned by the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian Árni Magnusson (1663-1730), who bequeathed it to the University of Copenhagen. In 1760 the Arnamagnaean Foundation was created and in 1772 a permanent Commission (Kommissionen for det Arnamagaeanske Legat) was established to govern that Foundation. One of the Commission's tasks was to publish scholarly editions of medieval texts relating to Scandinavian history and literature found in the manuscripts belonging to the Arnamagnaean Collection. This particular work was edited by the Icelandic clergyman Hannes Finnsson, Bishop of Skálholt, and published at the expense of the Danish historian Peter Frederik Suhm (1728-98). Intriguingly, Suhm's name is written in ink on the title page of this copy, suggesting that he may perhaps have owned it. In 1796, just before his death, Suhm's collection of books was purchased by the Royal Library in Copenhagen, from which a handwritten note in the back of the volume claims this copy also came.