Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Page 32
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INTRODUCTION
at translations of Icelandic historical sources for him. At the
same time, he got to know some of the younger historians, espe-
cially Niels Krag and Jon Jacobsen Venusin, who both became
Royal Historiographers. The significance of these friendships
will be dealt with more fully in the next chapter; here we may
content ourselves with noting that AJ’s humanist friends clearly
encouraged him strongly to devote himself to historical studies
and historical writing as soon as he returned to Iceland. They
must also have promised him financial aid in such an undertaking,
as indeed was to be shown by the circumstances of following
years.
In Apotribe (III 56-8) AJ gives a list of the men, other than
those already mentioned, whom he met during his sojourn
abroad. Amongst them may be noted Peder Vinstrup (see III
5623 and note), Poul Madsen’s successor as Bishop of Sjælland,
with whom AJ boarded whilst in Copenhagen, the physician,
Thomas Fincke (see III 5632 and note), with whom AJ main-
tained a lifelong correspondence, and the theologian, Jørgen
Dybvad (see III 5 6 28 and note). Even if we make due allowance
for AJ’s position as Bishop GuSbrandur’s representative and his
own dignity as rector of a cathedral-school, we must still presume
that his personal qualities played no small part in winning him
the popularity he so evidently enjoyed abroad. The confidence
shown in the 24-year old rector by much older and more learned
humanists, the high hopes they entertained of his future and the
demands they made on him in the following years, must all go
back to the personal impression they had received of him. Natur-
ally, it was also of decisive importance that AJ possessed or had
access to knowledge in which, precisely at this time, the Danish
humanists were deeply interested: the Icelandic sources for the
history of Scandinavia were still terra incognita for most foreign-
ers. But AJ must have known how to create in his new friends the
faith that he was just the right man for the task, and in this his
personal qualities and conduct must have had an essential part.
Fie was after all not the only Icelander in Copenhagen at the
time. We may mention, for instance, SigurSur Stefansson, later
rector at Skålholt (ti 595), who studied at the University of
Copenhagen and spent the winter 1592-3 there (see I 8428 and