Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Qupperneq 29

XXVII
35"54 (DG: 16), The treatise must have been written by a skilied
copyist but has throughout been corrected by another hånd, which
has also written notes of contents and chapter divisions in the margin.
There is no doubt that these corrections and additions have been
made by Stephanius for whom HR was copied, and who himself
wrote most of the remaining contents in DG: 12-16. In the variants
of the edition the scribe’s hånd has been called 161, that of Ste-
phanius 162.
We know that Stephanius borrowed a copy of HR from Ole
Worm and had it copied. Stephanius writes about this to Worm on
Jan. 31, 1649: “Per amicitiam te nostram oro atqve obsecro, ut
facilis mihi ignoscas, qvod Historicam illam M. Brynolphi de Islandia
Relationem, qvam non ita pridem mecum communicasti, tam diu
penes me detinuerim. Per varias etenim occupationes, qvæ me indies
circumstant, prius describere non licuit.”1
The manuscript which Worm lent Stephanius was probably not
the author’s original but a copy which Worm had had made for his
own use. This assumption is further strengthened by the circumstance
that Stephanius in the above-mentioned letter asks Worm to obtain
for him on loan those drawings of Icelandic whales that Bishop
Brynjolfur had sent Krag with the HR (see p. 3o20 ff.). As will now
be shown in detail below, Stephanius cannot have corrected 16 after
the copy he borrowed from Worm. Further we know that Worm
could not at once procure for Stephanius the drawings he wanted as
Krag had left Copenhagen2. It therefore seems natural to suppose that
Stephanius returned to the question at a later date and on the same
occasion received the original manuscript itself on loan, after which
he then corrected his copy. We shall see below that this assumption
is supported by a comparison of the variants of the three manuscripts.
This gives 16 an advantage over the other manuscripts which justifies
the use of its text as a basis for the edition.
The marginal notes of Stephanius in 16 are omitted in our text
since they are no doubt his own and besides are of no interest for the
text, being only indications of the contents of the various sections and
the like.
1 Wormii Epp. I 286.
2 Wormii Epp. I 287 (3/3 1649).