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8vo no. 1, and four of the AM 696 4to fragments. I have looked at the
Arnamagnean collection of Icelandic diplomas from 1531 to 1590 (Dipi.
Isl. Fase. XLVIII-LVIII) without finding any hånd resembling that of
AM 696 XI 4to.
4.0. Although the identity of the scribe seems to be hidden, that of the
translator is af least a subject for interesting speculation. If we exelude
Gubbrandur f>orlåksson himself — on the grounds that the Preface to
Daniel in his Bible of 1584, judged by Westergård-Nielsen to be his own
work,9 is so different from the AM 696 fragment — three other
prominent candidates present themselves.
4.1. One of these must be Gisli Jonsson (1513-1587), bishop of
Skålholt from 1556 until his death, of whom Jon Halldorsson wrote:
Hann var liti5 lær6ur i latinu, en kunni vel byzku, var og vel lesinn i (jyzkum og
donskum bokum. Af Bibliunni utlagQi hann Spåmannabækurnar velflestar e6a
allar ur byzku måli; og su utlegging e6a nokku5 af henni hefur til skammrar
stundar til veri5 hjå hans niSjum.10
The Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London has a
manuscript containing Icelandic translations of the Prophets and the
two books of the Maccabees, written, according to a note at the end of
the text, at Skålholt in 1574-75.* 11 It was formerly assumed,12 on the basis
of the remarks by Jon Halldårsson and the faet that Gisli was bishop at
Skålholt at the time this manuscript was copied there, that these
9 “Um J)y5ingu Gudbrandarbibliu”, Kirkjuritid, 12 (1946), pp. 318-29; see especially p. 327.
10 Biskupasogur Jons profasts Halldor ssonar i Hit ardal, I (Reykjavik, 1903-10), p. 128. See also
Halfdan Einarsson, Sciagraphia Historiæ Literariæ Islandica (Copenhagen, 1777), pp. 210-11: “Eidem
Gislavo Johannis filio versio librorum Propheticorum plerorumqve ad Germanicam Lutheri adornata
tribuitur, qvam tamen versionem non vidi, nec typorum beneficio publici juris facta est”.
11 The manuscript was presented to the Society by Ebenezer Henderson, who acquired it during his
travels in Iceland in 1814-15. For descriptions of the manuscript see Henderson’s Iceland, Volume II
(Edinburgh, 1818), pp. 275-78; Påll Eggert 6lason, Menn og menntir sidskiptaaldarinnar å Islandi, IV
(Reykjavik, 1926), pp. 373-77; and Chr. Westergård-Nielsen, op. cit. (note 7 above), pp. 68-70. The
Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen has a microfilm of this manuscript. The hånd is clearly not that
of AM 696 XI 4to.
12 By Henderson, loc. cit.; by T.H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, Historical Catalogue of the Printed
Editions of H oly Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 2 vols. (London, 1903-
11), II, p. 781; and by Halldor Hermannsson, Icelandic Books of the Sixteenth Century, Islandica, IX
(Ithaca, 1916), p. 33.