Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 247

247
is first recorded in a document dated 1464, and strax first occurs in 1463.51
other late-fifteenth-century neologisms in the sermon, not borrowed from
German or East norse, include útvega “provide, procure” (aM 696 IX 4to
1v12; first appearance dated ca. 1500) and neinstaðar “nowhere, in no way”
(aM 696 IX 4to 1r8; first attested 1477).52 A terminus ante quem for the
sermon would be around 1540, at which point the diocese of Skálholt —
where, as discussed above, aM 696 VIII and IX 4to were probably written
— became Lutheran. Whether the sermon was originally composed in the
Skálholt diocese is not possible to determine.
the sermon in aM 696 VIII and IX 4to is the only Icelandic preaching
text hitherto brought to light that is demonstrably based on a Dominican
source. the importance of this connection should not be overstated — of
course, the works of Vincent ferrer had an impact far beyond Dominican
houses and foundations, especially after the invention of the printing
press. nevertheless, this source identification remains significant, in that
it provides further evidence of the participation of Icelandic clergy in the
wider intellectual and spiritual life of Europe in the late medieval and very
early modern period. More such indications will surely be found when the
remaining unedited Icelandic sermon fragments are given due attention.
6. Edition
Editorial conventions employed below are based on those described in
“Leiðbeiningar um frágang greina” §14, in Gripla 10 (1998). Spellings of
expanded abbreviations (printed in italics) follow scribal orthography as
much as possible. oooo enclosed in brackets represent characters that are
visible but indecipherable, while a triple em-dash (———) represents text
lost where the vellum has been cut away. Large lacunae due to loss of folia
are represented by ellipses. Square brackets enclose reconstructed text;
where such reconstructions are more speculative and rely on comparison
with the Latin source, superscript question marks appear within the left
bracket. Canceled words are marked by ├...┤. Supralineal additions are
placed within insertion marks (`...´). Manuscript punctuation and capitali-
FRAGMENTS OF AN ICELANDIC CHRISTMAS SERMON
51 Veturliði óskarsson, Middelnedertyske låneord, 254, 324.
52 See Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog s.vv. See also the textual note to AM 696 VIII 4to
1v19 below.