Gripla - 20.12.2010, Page 34

GRIPLA34
3. Preservation, Layout, and Paleography of AM 382 4to
There are eight gatherings and eight separate fragments of at least two
more gatherings preserved of the manuscript AM 382 4to, which origi-
nally contained at least 84 leaves.64 In general, the parchment of
AM 382 4to is rather dark, especially on the edges and margins, which are
somewhat undulated and cockled and have all been trimmed to a small
degree. Many pages have been damaged and show tears, slits, holes and
signs of mold. The first recto page of AM 382 4to containing the Latin
praise poem is very dark, suggesting that it did not have a protective cover
for some time, and some of the ink is worn off and hardly legible. In addi-
tion, there is a hole in the page, and parts of the text are now missing in the
middle of lines 18, 19, and 20.
The text of AM 382 4to is not separated into columns but written in
one block across the page. The number of lines per writing block is 24 lines
on every page, despite the ample space for additional lines on the pages.
This also holds true for the Latin praise poem. Together with the content
of the carmen Latinum, it indicates that AM 382 4to is the original for
which the poem was composed.65
The poem in AM 382 4to extends to exactly 24 lines and is written in a
way so that every line stands by itself. The lines are shorter than in the
prose section of the manuscript, so that the margin on the first recto page
is wider than elsewhere in the manuscript. The first letter in each line is
written with particular care and decorated with red ink. The rubric capitals
stand slightly separated from the next letter. In order to ensure that the
writing block always has the same width, the scribe quite often leaves an
open space between the penultimate and last letter, which he fills with a
small red ornament. This means that the last letters of every line stand
vertically above each other.66 The layout of the carmen Latinum, which we
64 For a detailed codicological description of AM 382 4to, see Fahn, “Revealing the Secrets,”
11–76.
65 A unique feature of this manuscript are the black dots in the outer margins beside every
fifth line on some folios, which were added after the main text was finished and the
initials had been inserted. The ink appears to be the same as that of the main text of the
manuscript, which suggests that they derive from the same time. These dots seem to have
no other purpose than to faciliate the checking of the number of lines, 24, on each page, and
thus give evidence of the careful planning of the manuscript’s layout.
66 Jón Helgason, “Archive Box 12”.