Lasse Mårtensson

Lasse Mårtensson is Professor of Nordic Languages at Uppsala University's Department of Nordic Languages, specializing in medieval Nordic philology, paleography, and digital manuscript analysis. His current research focuses on scribal attribution, text transmission, and Nordic onomastics, with leadership roles in major projects like the Riksbankens jubileumsfond-funded 'Digitization of West Nordic Manuscripts' (2022–2025).

Research Interests: Martensson's work spans three core areas:

• Grafonomy & Paleography: Developing computational methods to analyze scribal habits in medieval manuscripts using digital tools like quill-feature analysis.
• Textual Criticism: Critical editions of Old Norse/Icelandic texts (e.g., Codex Upsaliensis) for the Medieval Nordic Text Archive (MENOTA).
• Onomastics: Quantitative study of personal names in medieval Swedish runic inscriptions, highlighting Viking Age naming traditions.

Publication Trends: His 15 most recent articles (2010–2025) demonstrate a consistent focus on integrating digital humanities with traditional philology, particularly in scribal identification, orthographic analysis, and Old Norse textual studies. Computational paleography and quantitative approaches dominate his methodological innovations.

Awards & Honors:

• Dag Strömbäcks belöningsfond (2015) for the monograph Skrivaren och förlagan.
• Westinska priset (2008) for his doctoral dissertation.
• Icelandic Ministry of Education Scholarship (1999–2000).

Supervision & Projects: Advises PhD student Birger Mård on Old Swedish bynames. Secured 13.4M SEK (2016–2020) for the project 'Nya ögon på Sveriges medeltida skrivare,' applying digital paleography to Swedish medieval scribes. Co-investigator in 4+ international projects including 'Konungsbók Snorra Eddu' (Iceland, 2016–2018).

Academic Service: Co-editor of Scripta Islandica (2013–present), chair of the Icelandic Society, board member of Svenska fornskriftsällskapet and Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet, and coordinator of the Early North European Seminar (ENES).