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extends this context to medieval norway11 and Gunnar Harðarson con-
cludes that the theoretical interests in man and the world as demonstrated
in Hauksbók – for example, with the treatise Af natturu mannzins ok bloði
– are “a fine example of the personal intellectual culture of an aristocrat in
the norwegian fourteenth century.”12
In what follows, the ideas presented in the first part of Af natturu
mannz ins ok bloði will be put into the context of currents of thought trans-
mitted in a body of medieval learned and theological texts, while maintain-
ing a focus on the writings that we have grounds to believe were extant
in medieval Iceland and norway. furthermore, the elucidation of the
theory of the four humours, which appears in the second part of Af natturu
mannz ins ok bloði, will be traced to a popular and widespread learned Latin
text: Epistula Vindiciani ad Pentadium. the two texts will be compared,
and it will be argued that the latter part of Af natturu mannzins ok bloði is
an Old Norse translation derived from Epistula Vindiciani.
Manuscript and dating
Stefán Karlsson has dated the bulk of Hauksbók to 1302–10 on the grounds
of a comparison between Haukr Erlendson’s hand in the book and his
dated autograph letters.13 However, the treatise in question is not writ-
ten in Haukr’s hand, but by a norwegian scribe whose hand is one of
at least fourteen that Jón Helgason has established in Hauksbók, apart
from Haukr’s own.14 the treatise is written on folios 16r–17r in AM 544
4to.15 these folios belong to the third gathering in the manuscript, which
contains seven leaves (folios 15–21).16 this quire is notably different from
other quires in the manuscript. the support is thicker and it originally
11 Eriksen, “Body and Soul,” 410.
12 Gunnar Harðarson, “old norse Intellectual Culture,” 63.
13 Stefán Karlsson, “aldur Hauksbókar,” Fróðskaparrit: Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis
13 (1964): 118–20.
14 on the hands, see Jón Helgason, “Introduction,” ix–xi.
15 Hauksbók is divided into three parts in the arnamagnæan Collection, with the shelf marks
aM 371 4to, aM 544 4to, and aM 675 4to. on the codicology and palaeography of aM
544 4to in context with the compilation as a whole, see Gunnar Harðarson, “Hauksbók og
alfræðirit miðalda”.
16 Jón Helgason, “Introduction,” viii.
HUMORAL THEORY IN THE MEDIEVAL NORTH