Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Qupperneq 50
The leaves were still in the bindings in the years 1888-1894 when
Kr. Kålund’s catalogue of the Arnamagnæan Collection was printed. But
later Kålund removed the greater part of them, and they were then
registered as Acc. 7 (see above p. XLIII). Apart from trimming, the leaves
from Årni Magnusson’s own bindings are comparatively well preserved;
the hooks and manuscripts to which they were attached have since been
kept in libraries.
The staves in the music notation of the MSS are sometimes black (the
colour of the writing), sometimes red. The red colour has often faded,
and possibly some lines were originally only striated. Moreover, red lines
which are discernible in the originals do not always show up on the
photographs.
In the MSS from Norway red staves prevail. Black staves are carried
through in K and T, and they occur also in B, C and F, although the
red colour is more frequent. In Z almost no staves are discernible.
Icelandic MSS with red staves are a, b, c, d (much faded), e, f
(AM 241a, fol.), i, j, n, o, and the single leaves rendered as facs.
328-329, 334-335, 338—339. The staves are black in £ (AM 241b, fol.
IV), g, h, k, 1, m, p, and on the single leaves rendered as facs. 330-
333, 336-337, 340-342. Exceptionally, red staves occur in h, not only
on ff. 15v—16v, which are written by the scribe of i, but also on ff.
42-43.
According to Johannes Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskunde I, p.
138, as early as the 12th century occasionally all lines of the staff were
drawn either in black or red; and this became standard usage, especially
in France and England, from the 13th century on, whereas on German
soil the Guidonian staff, with a red line for F, and a yellow one for c,
still held sway until the 15th century.
XLVIII