Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1964, Page 17

GJAFARAMYND í íslenzku handrití
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ment officer, who in 19041 suggested that the lawman Ormur Snorrason on Skarð
might have had the book made.
Ormur Snorrason was born around 1320. It is known that he went abroad in
1344 and again in the 1360s. In the years 1359—1368 he was a lawman and again in the
1370s. Ormur Snorrason held the highest office in Iceland for a year or two in the
1360s. He died around 14028.
Skarðsbók must have been an expensive book; it is 157 leaves on parchment,
richly and beautifully decorated (5 and 9). Jakob Benediktsson edited a facsimile
of the MS in 1943«.
Desmond Slayto who has edited the facsimile of the sumptuous MS in fol. Codex
Scardensis, which contains the lives of the Apostles, has reasoned that Ormur
Snorrason had had that MS made for him. A large MS in folio which came to
Sweden is also known and was referred to there as Ormur Snorrason’s book. It
contained The Saga of Troy and Medieval Romances.n
Ólafur Halldórsson M. A. who has studied the paleography of several Icelandic
MSS, has discovered, that Skarðsbók and Codex Scardensis were written in the
same place together with AM 233a fol., AM 653a 4t» and AM 239 fol. He also found
out that this scriptorium was in the Augustinian Monastery at Helgafell. (He read a
paper on this subject in Dec. 1963, now in print). Helgafell is not far from the
farm, Skarð, so this supports further the theory that Ormur Snorrason had had
Skarðsbók made.
The author has studied the illuminations of several Icelandic MSS of the 14th
century, for ex. Skarðsbók, AM 233a fol., Stockholm Perg 5 fol., AM 226 fol., Codex
Scardensis and several other MSS and has established that most likely all were
illuminated in the same place and some even by the same artist. The author
is of the opinion that the Icelandic Sketchbook AM 673a 4to must be one of the
books of this school, and has recognized in it two models for donors (figs. 8 and 9).
It seems almost certain that Ormur Snorrason had some MSS made and these
seem to have been costly books in folio size. Presumably Skarðsbók was one of
them. If so, the picture of the donor on fol. 2r is of Ormur Snorrason.
But which person or institution was supposed to receive this splendid book
as a present? Did the book ever reach its destination? Both question are open.
Up to the 18th century, it seems, the book remained in the vicinity of its origin, or
at least in the Western part of Iceland.