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the vowels “ꝏ” and “” makes it highly unlikely that it was written by an
Icelandic scribe of this time.23 Additionally, the scribeʼs use of “r” with a
superscript tittle above it to denote “ir”, as in “fingr’” for “fingir” (that is,
fingr), reflects “the regular notation in documents written in the period
1320–30 at the royal chancery in Oslo and the closely associated St. Mary’s
Church.”24 The use of the “ꝏ” ligature is seen in such words as næst and
bæði, written as nꝏſt and bꝏðe in GKS 1812 but nęſt and będi in Hauksbók.
Other Norwegian influences are seen in words such as hleypr, written
lypir in GKS 1812 but hleypr in Hauksbók, as well as words in which g
is written gh, such as merkingh in GKS 1812 for merking in Hauksbók.
However, the Norwegian influence gives us no indication as to where the
text was composed. Moreover, the scribe who copied the Algorismus col-
laborated with the scribe who copied another section of the manuscript,
and the evidence points to the latter scribe having been Icelandic.25
The Transcription
The following transcription of the Algorismus from GKS 1812 4to is based
on the black-and-white images at the Institut for Nordiske Studier og
Sprogvidenskab in Copenhagen which were taken in 1982.26 Color images
are now available at handrit.is, a digital library at Landsbókasafn Íslands –
Háskólabóksafn in Reykjavík; however, all but the last two of these images
Borgarting og Bohuslän (Oslo: Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, 1930), 39, and
Didrik Arup Seip, Palæografi: B Norge og Island, Nordisk kultur 28B (Stockholm: Albert
Bonniers forlag, 1954), 121.
23 Op.cit., 110–12.
24 Op.cit., 112. Here Haraldur cites Didrik Arup Seip, Norsk språkhistorie til omkring 1370, 2.
utgave (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1955), 137–39, and Jan Ragnar Hagland, Riksstyring og språknorm:
Spørsmålet om kongens kanselli i norsk språkhistorie på 1200- og første halvdel av 1300-talet
(Dragvoll, 1984), 161–62.
25 For more detail on the history of GKS 1812 4to and medieval Iceland encyclopedic works,
see Gunnar Harðarson, “Medieval Encyclopedic Literature and Icelandic Manuscripts.”
For more on the scribes of GKS 1812 4to, see Haraldur Bernarðsson, “Scribes and Scribal
Practice in GKS 1812 4to.”
26 “GKS 1812 4to, 13v–16v,” digitalesamlinger.hum.ku.dk (Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprog-
videnskab), http://digitalesamlinger.hum.ku.dk/Home/Samlingerne/33608.
ALGORISMUS IN GKS 1812 4TO