Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 14

GRIPLA12
as the one recorded in the transfer document of 1588 and the inventory of
1674. Since most of the old books which Bishop Brynjólfur had valued in
1644 reappear with unaltered prices in the 1674 list, we gather that he had
succeeded in disposing of only comparatively few of them. We can presume
that the man who made the list did not realise that „Helgra manna blömstra“
was the same book as „Partur af Stiörn“ and so did not keep it at its old price.
But the fact that 227 was counted among defective vellum books in 1644 is a
firm indication that leaves had already been removed from it. It seems in fact
to have been common practice for students in the Skálholt school to pillage
old manuscripts for covers for their own books.4 That Torfi Jónsson should do
the same is not surprising, nor that Bishop Brynjólfur should attach less value
even to a volume like 227 when it had suffered such depredation.
Two facts emerge from the above, first that 227 belonged to Skálholt
cathedral in 1588, second that it was then called Stjórn — this is our earliest
record of the name. It may be possible to detect the volume in still older
sources. Two Skálholt inventories from 1548 refer to a manuscript Bible in
Icelandic: „jslendzk biblia“ (DI XI:618) and „Nauckut af bibliu j Islenzku“
(DI XI:652). The two lists doubtless refer to one and the same book, and it is
natural to infer that it was 227.5 On the other hand, we have no means of
telling how long the codex had then been in Skálholt; we shall return to this
problem in section (2) below.
Since the lost leaves of 227 were removed from gatherings here and there
in the codex, it appears likely that whatever binding it had was in a perished
state already before the time of Bishop Brynjólfur. Bishop fiór›ur fiorláksson
proved a better custodian of the manuscript than his eminent predecessor,
inasmuch as it was he who had 227 put into its present binding. Árni Magnús-
son says (Kålund 1909:61), that it was bound „i svart band“ (in a black bind-
ing) and it has long been noted that a fair number of other manuscripts are
extant in the same sort of binding.6 Many of these, e. g. AM 81a fol, AM 351
fol and Sth papp 4:o nr 9, show the same decorative blind stamping as is
found on the covers of 227. This binding is certainly from the time of Bishop
fiór›ur.
4 Cf. Árni Magnússon’s recollection of what fiormó›ur Torfason, at school in Skálholt just
after Torfi Jónsson, told him of the treatment accorded there to AM 234 fol; see Kålund
1909:6; Foote 2003:12.+
5 Cf. Westergaard-Nielsen 1957:127, though he does not mention 227 in this connection.
6 See Seip 1956:8; Holm-Olsen 1961; fullest information in Westergaard-Nielsen 1971:27–29.