Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1991, Qupperneq 82

82
ANDREW WAWN
I shall put into the lst vol. I am going to send you a specimen of
one [of the] English facsimiles, which you will see is printed on
thinner paper than Mr Bárentzen’s,19 and I ask the handsomest
whole page of the Flatey Book to be selected. I leave the choice to
Mr Vigfusson & yourself, and after you & Mr Bárentzen have
considered the matter & looked at the English specimen, I should
be glad to know for what sum he will execute such a facsimile &
strike oíf 1500 copies of it. As the book is only a large 8V0 the
facsimile will have to be folded, & that is chiefly why I send the
English facsimile, that he may see the sort of paper. If he has no
such Paper he might engrave the facsimile and send the stone
over. I see from the Antiquités Russes that the Flatey Book would
make a very handsome facsimile. A while ago, you told me you had
drawn up a list of Icelandic legal (technical) expressions with their
explanations. I should very much like to have such a [list].
Jan. 30th [? 1860]. I write a line to say that I have written to the
‘authorities’20 here about the [Ed. third - and coloured - Flatey-
jarbók] Facsimile & in support of it. The sum is large & it appears
the most they have yet paid for any facsimile is £36 (without paper
I believe). I shall have their answer in a day or two & then I will
write at once... I am not at all aware of having at all changed in
character or in feeling towards my friends, but one has more work
to do than one can well get over, & when I write I have little time so
that it wants a friend’s eye to read the friendship between the lines
which is omitted in the text itself.
March 2 [? 1860]. I have heard nothing from the same OíFice as
to the facsimile but I have little doubt that it will be authorized.
August 9 [?1860]. This comes to say that I am going ... to
Orkney, where I want to look at some of the places mentioned in
the Saga. I shall be away about a month and in the mean time about
the end of August the final proofs of a good portion of the
Icelandic text will be sent to Mr Vigfússon. I will write to you more
fully from Kirkwall... I have sent you two copies of the Norse
19. The engravings are marked ‘Er. Bærentzen & Co., Lith.Inst., Copenhagen’, one of the
largest such companies in the Danish capital.
20. The commissioning agent was the Master of the Rolls.