Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Qupperneq 14

XII
As Hondius’ description is not easily accéssible it is here reprinted
from the edition of 1607. For convenience’ sake it is divided into
sections similarly as the treatises of the two bishops. There is one
point in which the arrangement of the two treatises does not cor-
respond to the arrangement of Hondius. In Hondius the text cor-
responding to §§ 12 and 12a has been inserted in § xo in a way
rather disturbing to the meaning (indicated below by putting the
numbers of the paragraphs in parentheses). The two paragraphs
have probably been moved and placed after § 11 in the copy sent
to the two bishops. Only in this way can the agreement in the ar-
rangement of the two treatises be explained.
1. Islandia in ter varias Oceani Occidentalis Insulas quæ Norvegiæ
Regno subjectæ sunt, maxima, nornen håbet a gelu, quo ex parte riget.
Dicitur et Snelandia, a nive: item Gardartsholnn, i. Gardarti Insula.
2. Plerique hane voluerunt esse antiquorum Thulen. Quam et Ptole-
mæus T hulen vocat, cujusque medium ponit gradu Lat. XXX. 20. Long.
63. Hæc quinque dierum et noctium navigatione ab Orcadibus a Solino
statuitur. Insula si qua alia Poetis celebratissima, eum disjunetissimum
aliquid innuerent, quasi totius Orbis remotissima. Hine Virgilius, Tibi
serviat ultima Thule. Verum enimvero an Thule aliqua fuerit, dubitat
Sinesius, et nusquam comparere scribit Giraldus, ancipitique de ea sen-
tentia distrahuntur doctiores. Plerique Islandiam Thulen (vti diximus)
olim vocatam asseruerunt: his tamen Saxo Grammaticus, Crantzius,
Milius, Iovius, Peucerus refragantur. Sed de his satis, redeo ad Islandiam.
3. Sita est non sub Meridiano primo, vt notavit quidam, sed octavo
inde gradu. Longitudo ejus est C. milliarium Germanicorum, vt vulgus
scriptorum håbet, his addit quadraginta quatuor, dictus Ionas. Latitudo
milliarium Germ. 65.
4. Cælum håbet inclemens, ac pro majori parte inculta est, præser-
tim versus Septemtrionalem, ob austera spiracula venti Circij: qui nec
frutices, vt scribit Olaus, elevari permittit.
5. Tellus autem sementi faciendæ minime idonea, neque vllum fert
frumentum: at graminis adeo fæeundum solum ferunt in hac insula
omnes qui de ea scripsere, vt nisi pecus a pabulo interdum arceatur,
ab arvina ne suffocetur, periculum sit. Præter equos et boves nullum
jumentum apud hos esse, fatetur ipse Ionas: bovesque et vaccæ hic
omnes comibus carent: oves non item. Catellos habent albos quos im-