Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1948, Page 37

XXXV
the original manuscripts now lost of several printed letters were
burned on the same occasion is not known with certainty, but it
must be considered probable. In 1751 another edition appeared is-
sued by Jacob Langebek. It is a pure reprint of the old edition
without any utilization of the original manuscripts. The two editions
are in the following called WE; only in places where they differ
ed. 1 and ed. 2 is added.
The manuscripts of fifteen letters printed below, nos. 27, 29,
43> 58> 63> 65, 67, 88, 116, 132, 134, 136, 141, 143, 145, are now
wholly or partially missing. The said letters are therefore printed
(or supplemented) after WE; the same applies to all the extracts
from the letters by Stephanius in the Appendix.
The edition in WE does not satisfy the claims of the present day,
nor could it very well be expected to do so. In the first line it consists
of a selection only; it does not, however, only leave out whole let-
ters, but also passages and sentences from the letters included, and
as a rule without any indication or statement to the effect that any-
thing has been left out. In places the text has been altered from
stylistic reasons, see for instance the notes to the letters nos. 78, 140,
144. Besides there are not a few minor defects in the rendering.
In several places in the letters we meet mention of letters from
Iceland, which Worm has received, but which are now lost. Whether
they still existed in 1728 is of course idle speculation. Further some
letters from Worm are mentioned which are not to be found in his
copy-book (see p. 14520 and the notes to pp. 14227 and 15928). Final-
ly there is a certain number of letters which has been lost through
shipwrecks and other accidents. Thus we may with certainty see that
letters nos. 31 and 40 from Worm to Amgrimur Jonsson have never
reached their destination. On the other hånd no letter from Am-
grimur has reached its destination during the years 1634-36, and a
letter from Bishop borlåkur has been lost in 1635 in which was in-
cluded an otherwise unknown treatise by Bjorn Jonsson at SkarSså
(see the note to p. 2g224).
4. The Present Edition. The letters have been edited
literally after the manuscripts (or in lack of the latter after WE)
though subject to the following alterations:
1) The use of large initials has to a certain extent been nor-