Gripla - 01.01.1980, Síða 328

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PSALTER AT SKÁLHOLT 323
psalter had been brought from England most likely was due to the
handwriting or scribbles in English from the 16th century on folio 7
recto in the calendarium, which originally had been left empty. Kr.
Kálund said: ‘Bl. 7r er der med en kursivhánd fra 16. árh. skrevet
forskellige udkast til kontrakter og lign., pá engelsk, men -—• som det
synes — nedskrevne i Island, samt navnet “Wyllym Bernard yss” (On
folio 7r are written in a cursive 16th century handwriting various rough
draughts for contracts and the like in English, but — as it seems —
written in Iceland, together with the name ‘Wyllym Bernard yss’).4
I sent a photo of this page to D. H. Turner, Deputy Keeper, Depart-
ment of Manuscripts in the British Library in London, and asked him
whether he could find any meaning to this strange text. After con-
sulting the Assistant Keeper, Janet M. Backhouse, along with two other
colleagues, D. H. Turner replied: ‘We feel it only amounts to scribbles,
and ones not of an entirely serious nature. What we can decipher is as
follows.
‘In the name of god amen this indenture was mad in eyslonde the
12 day of apryll And in the yere of ye rayne of or soffrayne Lord
kynge henry the eyght betwyne drombok? & thorlok ??? & the bere
pote p me hand your wyll.’ ‘Wyllym Bernard’. ‘Wyllym Bernard
yss a good fellow’. ‘.. . dothe I praye you . . . and let the Coppe
.’ *
Francis Wormald, who was an expert on calendaria, has written an
article on AM 249a fol., published in 1966 under the name ‘An Early
Carmelite Liturgical Calendar’.5 F. Wormald dates it 1294-1312, or
around 1300, because of the illuminations and the handwriting. He
adds: ‘.. . but the manuscript to which it was attached was certainly
in England in the first half of the sixteenth century, since the name of
St. Thomas Becket has been erased on 7 July and 29 December. This
was done in 1538 as the result of an order by Henry VIII. On 12
March, 23, and 26 November the word ‘pape’ has been erased, also
as the result of Henry VIII’s order. The names of SS. Dominic, 5
August, and Francis, 4 October, have also been removed in the same
way, but this seems to have been unofficial distaste since there was no
* Lecturer Davíð Erlingsson reads the word Rote after Coppe, and that word
seems to fit well into the context. — According to Stefán Karlsson the name,
occurring twice in the scribbles, is Wyllym Barnard.