Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Side 120
Scribal Hånds in AM 655 4to X
By John J. Tucker
AM 655 4to X comprises two rather badly damaged parchment leaves.
The first has two holes in the centre and has partially disintegrated along
the bound edge, the second is torn along the same edge, and both are
torn along the top and bottom. Despite its fragmentary State, however,
the MS. has been the object of scholarly interest for some time because it
preserves very early, although incomplete, texts of two saints’ lives: the
end of the Mauritius saga (lr- lvl6, HMS I 656-58) and the beginning of
the Icelandic version of the Plåcitus saga (lvl6-2v, HMS II 204-07).
More recently the MS. has received attention for another reason. In an
article of 1960,1 Ole Widding argues on the basis of script and
orthography that the MS. is the work of two scribes. Assigning these the
names A and B. he divides the MS. as follows:
Hånd A: lr 11. 5-16, 11. 27-40,
lv, all but 11. 23-24,
2r,
2v 11. 1-10 and 11. 30-31.
Hånd B: lr 11. 1-5, 11. 16-27 (first word),
lv 11. 23-24,
2v 11. 10-30.
Hreinn Benediktsson, in an article on the same MS. written several
years later,2 suggests certain modifications to this scheme. On page 1 r, he
points out. hånd B has written as far as tuum, 1. 6, and recommences
1 "Håndskriftanalyser. Én eller flere skrivere. 1-1V.", Bibliotheca Arnamagnceana XX,
81-93 (Copenhagen, 1960).
2 "Tvo handritsbrot", Islenzk Tunga V (1964) 139-49.