Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Qupperneq 110

92
4
Jon Porlåksson’s Breviary
As mentioned above (p. 56), together with an early fourteenth-
century missal fragment (a), two leaves of a breviary written by Jon
t>orlåksson (b) were used for the binding of Stockholm Kungl. Bibi.
Isl. papp. 4:o, no. 27. The leaves have been trimmed at the top.
Twenty-four lines are extant; when whole, the page probably ran to
26 lines, with the written space measuring c. (17/18)xl2/13 cm. The
zodiac signs of pisces and aries decorate the lower margins of f. (1).
See Plates 62-65.
F. (1) contains part of the lessons for Sunday 3 after Easter,
beginning imperfectly in the second lesson, Apoc. 8,5-6, followed by
the third lesson, Apoc. 8, 7-9. The Gospel homily is as usual Bede’s
‘Leta domini et saluatoris’, cut short in the third lesson at ‘quia
plorabitis et flebitis uos mundus autem’ = Bedae horn. II, 13 = PL 94,
154C-155C; Grégoire, p. 96 (PD II, 21).
F. (2) contains part of the lessons for Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday after Sunday 4 after Easter: 1 Petr. cap. 3, 15-cap. 5,2.8
8 Fragments of nine Icelandic antiphoners, dating from the late thirteenth to the
fifteenth century, have been described in AN, pp. 255-61, with photographic reproduc-
tions of fragments 1-5, Plates 74-78. Nos. 1-8 of these fragments, all in the Arnamagnæan
Collection in Copenhagen, follow the thirteenth-century Nidaros Ordinary (ON); no. 9 is
a late-medieval Benedictine antiphoner, discovered in Reykjavik by Christopher Hohler.
The oldest of these fragments, no. 1, which consists of four leaves, was written by the
same scribe as that of the psalter fragment MS /; see below, p. 112, and Plate 114.
So far, only two fragments have been identified as representing antiphoners used in
Iceland before the introduction of the Nidaros Ordinary. A fragment in the State Archi-
ves of Iceland has been published by R. A. Ottosson in: Scientia Islandica, 2
(Reykjavik 1970), pp. 3-12, with photographic reproductions of the whole fragment. It
consists of a bifolium of non-consecutive leaves, written in the early thirteenth century,
containing part of the chants following the Old Testament lessons during the months of
September-November.
The other old fragment consists of one leaf, MS AM Access. 7b, detached from the
binding of MS AM 422 4°, now very dark and partly damaged. The written space
measures c. 24x15,5 cm, with 14 lines to the page, and with musical notation on four
red lines. It was probably written somewhat earlier than the Ottosson fragment, in the
late twelfth century or around 1200. This leaf is interesting as an early witness of the
responses of Quinquagesima Sunday, found in Normandy, England, and Scandinavia
(see AN, pp. 110 sqq.). The order of the responses comes nearer to that of the Wor-