Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Side 287

Acc. 7c, Hs. 94
273
Since there is no other evidence that these two manuscripts were ever
in the same place before Åmi acquired them, one might assume that
Åmi himself first used the fragments of Acc. 7c, Hs. 94 to cover these
new additions to his library. This would not have been the only time
that the great collector vandalized Latin church hooks and used the
leaves for binding.8 In this case, however, Ami probably cannot be held
responsible for destroying a venerable old Latin book, for various de-
tails suggest that AM 142 4to and 145 8vo were already bound in these
fragments when he received them. If Åmi had been the first to use the
leaves for binding, one would expect both covers, housed in his own
library, to be in comparable condition. However, the shrinkage and dis-
coloration of the third leaf would suggest that it was kept in very differ-
ent conditions from the bifolium for a prolonged period. It is striking
that only these two fragments have survived in the Amamagnæan col-
lection. If Åmi had harvested binding material from a Latin text he
owned himself, one might expect to find more covers in his collection
taken from the same vandalized book.9 Most significantly, marginal
scribbles on the bifolium indicate that AM 142 4to was already bound
in this fragment when Åmi acquired the book, and had passed through
the hånds of more than one Icelandic owner.
8 See Åmi’s own comments (some of which I have italicized for emphasis) regarding
liturgical manuscripts he acquired and subsequently took to pieces: “'Falterium Latinum
feck eg til eignar 1703 af Mag. Birne Porleifssyne, biskupe å Holum ... Satis bonum
exaratumqve, ut videbatur, circa 1360-70. Pad er nu eydilagt” (Arni Magnussons Levned
og Skrifter 1930, II, 219); “Lesbokar stycki: ... Eg tok hana i sundur strax epter J)ad
bækumar voru virdtar og selldar 1704” (Ibid. II, 223); “Petta fyri framan skrifad er excer-
perad ur Psalterio latino Vulgatæ Versionis Msto. er eg keypte fra Skalholltskirkiu, og reif
i sundur” (Ibid. II, 251. This dismembered psalter represents a particular loss, since Åmi
goes on to say that it contained Icelandic glosses of the Latin). Cf. comments by Jon Helga-
son in Eggen 1968, I, xlvii; Gjerløw 1980, I, 7; MGA 1979, 2. It is curious that Åmi
showed an antiquarian interest even in books he had no intention of preserving, and went
to the trouble of selecting and at least briefly describing Latin books from the cathedral
library at Skålholt which in many cases he would end up using simply as binding material.
See, for example, Åmi’s annotations on such books, transcribed by or for him in AM 227
8vo (Kålund 1889-1894, II, 456-457, nr. 2441; I am grateful to Stefan Karlsson for draw-
ing the booklists in AM 227 8vo to my attention).
9 Compare, for example, the reconstructed Missale Scardense (65 leaves) and Graduale
Gufudalense (37 leaves; see MGA 1979, 19-24, 31-34); or Acc. 7c, Hs. 100, fragments of
a fifteenth-century text of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in lob, 13 leaves of which were
used to bind 7 different volumes in the Amamagnæan library: 93 fol., 124 fol., 134 fol.,
143 fol., 254 fol., 461 fol., and 378 4to.