Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.10.1957, Page 484
466
SUMMARY
German bookbinder who was called to Iceland from Hamburg to bind
the Gudbrandsbiblla, or it was bound with his tools. A single defect page,
which has been used to line the inner side of the front cover of the MS
originates from a Latin missal MS presumably from the beginning of the
13th century. In addition to black ink, red and green ink have been used
in transcribing A. In certain places towards the end of the MS, this has
resulted in offset transfer phenomena (page 18 ff.). A later hånd filled in
the subsequent lacunae incorrectly. With the aid of a mirror it is, however,
possible to decipher the original text. The orthography of this MS is
especially characterised by a tendency towards unetymological doubling
of vowels and consonants and by the insertion of consonants, all of which
points to a North Icelandic school. The section on the scribe (pages 32-43)
assesses the attempts which have been made up to date to establish his
identity. Among other things, it is now possible, with the aid of ultra-
violet photography, to read somewhat more of the scribe’s name in the
Prov. colophon than had been the case earlier. With the help of biogra-
phical and genealogical evidence it is demonstrated that the scribe is
séra Jon Gislason (1534-1621), who, like his grandfather on his father’s
side, also appears in Icelandic sources under the name of Jon Porgilsson.
This MS appears as the main text in the Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana vol.
XV.
GI. kgl. saml. 1380,4t0 (B) is also a parchment manuscript. It was
written approximately 1550-75, and was presented to Halldora Årna-
dottir by her great grandfather, séra Sigurdur Jonsson of Grenjadarstadur,
a son of Bishop Jon Arason. Earlier investigators have tried to establish
séra Sigurdur Jonsson as the scribe, but Jon Helgason has already satis-
factorily demonstrated the incorrectness of this supposition.
AM 617,4t0 (C) is a rather large parchment manuscript which con-
tains considerable portions of Stjorn and the Book of Job, and which
concludes with the two Books of Wisdom. This MS can be traced back
to Bishop Gisli Jonsson of Skålholt (circa 1513-1587), whose hånd is also
known from AM 622,4to. In the chapter on the scribe responsible for C
(pages 62-74), that which is known about Gisli Jonsson’s literary work is
reviewed. The transcript of the two Biblical books appearing in C cannot
be Gisli’s first copy since a fragment written in the same hånd, AM 696,4t0,
IV (fragment a, cf. pages 100-101), containing Eccli. XV, 14-XVIII,2, can
with a rather large degree of certainty be said to be the exemplar of this
text. Gisli cannot have prepared his transcriptions of these books until