Aresson, Jon

Aresson, Areson, or Arason, Jon

(all: yōn ä`rĕsôn), 1484?–1550, Icelandic churchman. The last Roman Catholic bishop in Iceland before the Reformation, he was executed together with his sons, Ara and Bjorn, for resisting the new religious ordinances brought about by the Reformation in Denmark. Aresson established the first Icelandic printing press at Holar in 1528. His poetry, secular and sacred, has been preserved.