Gripla - 20.12.2015, Qupperneq 58

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the poor state of the texts is such that assigning them to a known
Latin source has proved unsuccessful. Gustav morgenstern attempted to
connect the Icelandic translation to the Amphilochian version of the Vita
Basilii,3 but the Icelandic differs greatly from the Latin, and, in addition,
Morgenstern was forced to assume that the Icelandic translator rearranged
sections of the Latin original. Fortunately, a single, unedited Latin leaf of
the vita exists in Iceland on the second leaf of a thirteenth-century bifo-
lium, Lbs fragm 74,4 which owes its preservation to its having once been
used as a book cover. Seven rows of small holes indicate that it was once
sewn to something, e.g. the spine of a book, and several larger holes have
destroyed text at 1r–v2–6, 1r–v9–10, and 1r5 (1v4). Folds parallel to each
of the four sides of the bifolium also indicate that it was used to cover
papers or a book at one time. the worn pages f. 1v and especially 2r not
only support this view, but demonstrate that they must have been on the
outside of the object covered, meaning that the leaves are currently folded
the wrong way and that the Vita Basilii preceded the passio in the original
manuscript. estimates of the amount of missing text support this asser-
tion, and in the discussion below, the Basilius text begins on 1r. the other
half of the bifolium contains the passio of julian and Basilissa, though a
strip of vellum 3.7 cm wide has been cut off the outer margin, destroying
1.3 cm of text on each side of the leaf.5
Lbs fragm 74 is written in a small, regular hand and is doubtless the
work of a careful, practiced scribe. the use of e instead of the ligature æ in-
dicates the manuscript’s provenance as Icelandic as opposed to norwegian.
A dating to the thirteenth century is supported by the rounded character
of the script in general, the form of y with a right-hand stroke as the de-
scender, the use of Caroline, unclosed a, long s not extending appreciably
3 Amphilochius, Vita et miracula Basilii Magni, in S.S. Patrum Amphilochii Iconiensis, Methodii
Patarensis, et Andreæ Crewtensis Opera omnia, quae reperiri potuerunt, ed. Franciscus Com-
befis (Paris: simon Piget, 1644), 155–225; morgenstern, “Notizen,” 97.
4 jakob Benediktsson, “skrá um skinnblöð í Landsbókasafni íslands,” in Páll eggert ólason
and Lárus Blöndal, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins, supplement 2, viðauki (Reykja-
vík: Landsbókasafn Íslands, 1959), 16. the manuscript is dated there to the fourteenth
century.
5 Cf. Peter jorgensen, “st. julian and Basilissa in medieval Iceland,” in Sjötíu ritgerðir helg-
aðar Jakobi Benediktssyni 20. júlí 1977, eds. Einar g. Pétursson and Jónas Kristjánsson, vol.
2 (reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 1977), 473–480.
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