Gripla - 20.12.2010, Side 66

GRIPLA66
a prose legend of Saint Catherine, a prose and a poetic legend of Saint
Cecilia, a prose and a poetic legend of Saint Dorothy, a Latin verse in praise
of Saint Dorothy, a Latin prayer to Saint Dorothy, a prose legend of Saint
Agnes, a prose legend of Saint Agatha, a prose legend of Saint Barbara, and
a prose legend of Saints Fides, Spes, and Caritas. All the texts are preserved
in their entirety with the exception of the legend of Saint Catherine and the
legend of Saints Fides, Spes, and Caritas. It is reasonable to assume that in
its original form, the codex consisted of 94 or 98 leaves.16
The vellum manuscript AM 433c 12mo consists of 56 leaves. Like AM
428a 12mo, it is a miscellany, and in addition to the legend of Saint
Margaret, it includes a number of short texts in Latin and Icelandic. A
detailed description of the contents of the manuscript is given by Hans
Bekker-Nielsen, who also edited the prayer in AM 433c 12mo for a good
delivery for women in childbirth.17 The manuscript has red chapter titles
and red or blue initials. On an inserted slip of paper, Árni Magnússon
notes that he received the codex in 1708 from the lawman Páll Jónsson,
who in turn received it from the priest Guðmundur Bjarnason at Staður in
Hrútafjörður. Guðmundur inherited the codex from his father, who had
owned it when he had been Páll’s teacher thirty years previously.18
3. Comparison of AM 428a and 429 12mo
A comparison of AM 428a 12mo and AM 429 12mo with the Latin source
shows that AM 429 12mo is not a copy of AM 428a 12mo.19 On several
occasions, AM 429 12mo preserves the better reading or text omitted in
AM 428a 12mo, as evident from the following examples:
16 For a discussion of AM 429 12mo, see Kirsten Wolf, “Female Scribes at Work? A Con-
sideration of Kirkjubæjarbók (Codex AM 429 12mo),” Beatus Vir: Studies in Early English
and Norse Manuscripts in Memory of Phillip Pulsiano, ed. A. N. Doane and Kirsten Wolf,
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 319 (Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, 2006), 265–295. An edition of AM 429 12mo is forthcoming in
Kirsten Wolf, ed., A Female Legendary from Iceland: Kirkjubæjarbók (AM 429 12mo in the
Arnamagnæan Collection, Copenhagen), Manuscripta Nordica: Early Nordic Manuscripts
in Digital Facsimile 3 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press).
17 Bekker-Nielsen, “En god bøn,” p. 54.
18 See also [Kr. Kålund, ed.,] Arne Magnussons i AM. 435 A–B, 4to indeholdte Håndskrift-
fortegnelser med to Tillæg (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1909), 18.
19 Rasmussen, “Unpublished materials,” provides a complete variant apparatus from AM 429
12mo and AM 433c 12mo in relation to AM 428a 12mo.