Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Page 165

BREVIS COMMENTARIUS
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tion of Iceland. Jacob Ziegler (t 1549) did use Saxo in his
Schondia (1532)1, but he also added some information of more
doubtful provenance.
Next in the series is Olaus Magnus (1490—1558). Here we
are not concerned however with his famous Historia de gentibus
septentrionalibus (Romae 1555), but with his Carta marina
(1539) and the short commentary that accompanies it. The latter
exists in Latin as the legend on the map and also in a separate
and somewhat expanded form in Italian and German: Opera
breve and Ain kurze Auslegung . . . Venedig 1539; it is also
found in later versions2. All the passages cited by AJ from Olaus
Magnus were derived from the commentary of 1539 (see I 14,
27, 4219-20 and notes). The last of these passages can only be
referred to that work, since nothing corresponding is to be found
in Olaus Magnus’s Historia. It is true that he is not named here
as the source for the statement in question, but it is found in al-
most exactly the same words on Carta marina (under D). A
similar passage occurs in Gemma Frisius (taken from Carta
marina), but he omits the word picæ which is found both on
Carta marina and in AJ. On the other hånd, one would have
expected AJ to discuss some of the material which is in Olaus
Magnus’s Historia but not in the 1539 commentary, if he had
made use of this larger work. It cannot be decided with certainty
whether AJ had Carta marina itself or one of the separate edi-
tions of the commentary: possibly he possessed copies of both.
An argument for his knowledge of the map is found in the quota-
tion just mentioned; and his knowledge of the longer commen-
tary is strongly suggested by I 27, where in the margin AJ attri-
butes to Olaus Magnus as well as to Gemma Frisius a statement
on ghosts in the bottomless chasms around Hekla. The wording
1 Here the edition used is Argentorati 1536; the description of Iceland occurs on
fol. XCIII r-v.
2 See K. Ahlenius, Olaus Magnus och hans framstallning af Nordens geografi,
Uppsala 1895, especially 84-7, 158-83; H. Richter, Olaus Magnus och hans Carta
marina 1539, Ymer 59, 1939, pp. 97-112.—Carta marina has been published by O.
Brenner 1886 (Die achte Karte des Olaus Magnus, Christiania Vidensk. Selsk. For-
handl. 1886 No. 15) ; in Lychnosbibliotek 11:1, Sth. 1949, and in The Carta marina
of Olaus Magnus, Venice 1539 & Rome 1572, by Edw. Lynam, Jenkintown 1949.—
Opera breve appeared in facsimile, Stockh. 1887, Ain kurze Auslegung ibid. 1912.
10 Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XII