Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 269

Reykjahólabók
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vocabulary is marked.44 Arnór Sigurjónsson assumed Björn to be the
translator of Reykjahólabók and did not consider it out of the question that
the work of translation was begun during his sojourn in Bergen.45 Although
this is purely speculative, the thesis is not implausible. Björn could have
obtained the necessary Low German texts in Bergen, but it is also likely that
these could have been available to him in Iceland. Björn Þorleifsson’s
relationship to the Church and especially to Bishop Ogmundur Pálsson
(+1541) of Skálholt were good. In return for helping him in an inheritance
quarrel, Björn promised, as Ogmundur Pálsson put it, “at wera oss og
formonnum heilagrar skalholltzkirkiu til gagns og goda j þui honum wæri
móguligt.”46 Presumably the reference is to assistance of a worldly nature,
but it might also have been understood in a more spiritual or intellectual
sense.
At Skálholt the compiler of Reykjahólabók, be that Björn or another,
certainly would have found a good library containing not only the standard
Latin but also non-Icelandic hagiographical works, the latter in the form of
incunabula.47 The inventories show that the library contained three copies of
the Historia Lombardica seu Legenda aurea, that is, Jacobus de Voragine’s
legendary. One of these is the Níirnberg imprint of 1482, a second, also
dated 1482, is without place of publication; the third copy is not identified
by either place or date. Additionally, Skálholt possessed a Dutch imprint of
a compilation of saint’ lives, Passionael, ofte Gulden Legende, dated Zwolle
1490.48 This is one of thirteen imprints of the so-called Siidmittelnieder-
landische Legenda aurea, a greatly revised Dutch version of the Legenda
aurea, compiled by the so-called “Bijbelvertaler van 1360.”49 Furthermore,
the library owned the winter portion (Winterteil) of the Low German
Passionael in the Basel imprint of 1517 by Adam Petri. In sum, at Skálholt
there were available imprints of at least three different compilations of
saints’ lives, divergent not only in language - Latin, Dutch, and Low
German - and their selection of legends, but also in the redactions of shared
legends. Also to be noted is the entry “Epistolæ et Evangelia Dominicalia
per anni circulum, cum brevibus expositionibus, Germanicé (Plattýdsk)”
44 DI, VII, pp. 769-71. Note such forms as arlighre, byplicthar, bytala, kvith.
45 Arnór Sigurjónsson, Vestfirðingasaga 1390-1540 (Reykjavík, 1975), p. 395.
46 DI, IX, pp. 236-38; cf. also Agnete Loth, Reykjahólabók, I, XXXIII; Vestfirðinga-
saga, p. 464.
47 I am grateful to Gunnar Harðarson for having drawn my attention to the inventories,
which can be found in the manuscript AM 227 8vo, as well as for having given me
access to page proof of Hörður Ágústsson’s contribution in Skálholt. Skrúði og
áhöld. Kristján Eldjárn and Hörður Ágústsson (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska
bókmenntafélag, 1992). See “Bækur,” pp. 285-356..
48 AM 227 8vo, 80v.
49 See Williams-Krapp, Die deutschen und niederlandischen Legendare des Mittelalters,
pp. 53-84.