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the list by folding tristitia into superbia and adding invidia (‘envy’).3 the
modern Catholic Catechism lists the sins in Latin as superbia, avaritia, lux-
uria, ira, gula, invidia, and accidia and subdivides them into three spiritual
sins (superbia, invidia, ira) and four corporal sins (accidia, avaritia, gula,
luxuria).4 According to Catholic tradition, the seven deadly sins are not
discrete from other sins, but they are capital sins because they engender
other sins.
2. the manuscripts
An Icelandic treatise on the seven deadly sins is preserved in two
manuscripts. one is AM 672 4to, an Icelandic miscellany of religious
literature dating from the latter half of the fifteenth century. the codex
is written in three hands; Jonna Louis-Jensen has identified one hand as
being likely that of a son of Gísli Filippusson at Hagi in Barðaströnd.5
It contains Parva pars oculi dextri sacerdotis (fols. 1r−55r; defective), an
epitome of the legend of Saint Bartholomew (fol. 55r−v), an epitome of
the legend of Saint Barbara (56r),6 a section on the Lenten fast (56r−v),
the parable of the sower (56v),7 an explication of the Mass (57r−61r),8 an
epitome of the legend of Saint Agatha (61r−v),9 an epitome of the leg-
end of Saint Blaise (61v−62r), an epitome of the legend of Saint nicholas
(62r−62v), a translation of John 20:24−31 (62v),10 and a theological treatise
3 Carol Straw, “gregory, Cassian, and the Cardinal Vices,” in newhauser, In the Garden of
Evil, 38–39.
4 the acronym SALIgIA was popularized as a mnemonic device in the thirteenth century, cf.
richard newhauser, “‘these Seaven Devils’: the Capital Vices on the Way to Modernity,”
in richard g. newhauser and Susan J. ridyard, eds., Sin in Medieval and Modern Culture:
The Tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins (York: York Medieval Press, 2012), 159.
5 Jonna Louis-Jensen, “Seg Hallfríði góða nótt,” Opuscula 2, no. 2 (1977):149–53.
6 edited in The Old Norse-Icelandic Legend of Saint Barbara, ed. kirsten Wolf, studies and
texts, vol. 134 (toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2000), 114.
7 this is a translation of Luke 8:5–15. Edited in Leifar fornra kristinna frœða íslenzkra:
Codex Arna-Magnæanus 667 4to auk annara enna elztu brota af ízlenzkum guðfræðisritum, ed.
Þorvaldur Bjarnarson (Copenhagen: Hagerup, 1878), 188.12–32.
8 edited in Messuskýringar: Liturgisk symbolik frå den norsk-islandske kyrkja i millomalderen, ed.
oluf Kolsrud, norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt (oslo: Dybwad, 1952), 57–64.
9 Edited in Kirsten Wolf, “Agǫtu saga IV and V,” Opuscula 14 (forthcoming).
10 edited in Ian j. kirby, Bible Translation in Old Norse, université de Lausanne Publications
de la faculté des lettres, vol. 27 (geneva: Librairie Droz, 1986), 152.19–33.