Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 9

1. THE CODEX AND ITS HISTORY
AM 227 fol is one of the principal manuscript sources for parts I and III of the
early Norse-Icelandic biblical translations known collectively as Stjórn, and
the handsomest of them all.1 Although it has not survived the centuries un-
✝ JAKOB BENEDIKTSSON
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON STJÓRN
AND THE MANUSCRIPT AM 227 FOL
1 The manuscript has been published in facsimile, Corpus codicum Islandicorum medii aevi
(CCI) XX, with an introduction by D.A Seip. The only printed edition of Stjórn is Stjórn
(1862), ed. by C. R. Unger. The Stjórn texts in 227 have never been printed in their entirety.
Unger cited variants from them in his critical apparatus but far from exhaustively. Konrá›
Gíslason was the first editor to publish specimens from 227 (Konrá› Gíslason 1846:xii–xiv).
He gave extracts from the prologue and the last folio in a very accurate diplomatic transcript,
not expanding abbreviations but reproducing the manuscript forms by typographic means.
Unger also printed passages from 227 in order to supply matter missing in 228 (pp. 3496–
35224, 51510–51730, 54029–54324, 54911–55129); his transcripts are unnormalised and generally
free of error. The first of the passages listed is from a part of 227 written by Hand B, the rest
from parts by Hand A, so examples of the orthography of both scribes are available in his
edition.
Besides the facsimile reproductions of individual pages or parts of them have also appeared
in a number of other publications. The following short list gives a selection of those among
them which contain whole pages in facsimile, usually though in a somewhat reduced format:
Kr. Kålund, Palœografisk Atlas. Ny Serie (1907), nr 15; fol 71v.
Halldór Hermannsson, Icelandic Illuminated Manuscripts (CCI VII, 1935), pl. 1: fol 23v (in
colour); pl. 16–21; fols. 1v, 33v, 38r, 71v, 88v, 115r; pl. 22–23: parts of fols. 14v and 5r.
Kristján Eldjárn, Íslenzk list frá fyrri öldum (1957), nr 20; fol 23v (in colour).
Jónas Kristjánsson, Handritin og fornsögurnar (1970), p. 33: fol 23v (in colour).
Jónas Kristjánsson, Handritaspegill (1993), p. 51: fol 10r (in colour).
Jónas Kristjánsson, Icelandic Manuscripts. Sagas, History and Art. (1996), p. 42: fol 10r (in
colour), p. 51, fol 87v.
Selma Jónsdóttir, L‡singar í Stjórnarhandriti (1971; also in English: Illumination in a
Manuscript of Stjórn), colour plates I–VII: fols. 1v, 23v, 33v, 38r, 71v. 88v, 115r; and with
illustrations of many individual elements from other pages.
Handritin. Ritger›ir um íslensk mi›aldahandrit, sögu fleirra og áhrif (2002). Eds Gísli Sig-
ur›sson & Vésteinn Ólason, p. 6o: fol 71v (in colour); also in English: The Manuscripts of
Iceland (2004), p. 6o: fol 71v (in colour).