Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2000, Page 340

CCCXXXVIII
104 leaves. Two leaves would also seem to have been lost from the
gathering added at the back.
The text in C' is with the exception of a few words written by a single
hand, clearly that of a skilled professional scribe. Another individual
wrote f. 15vbl8-20 ‘hafdi-hofdingiar’ (I 186.11-12); the same writer
also provided all the chapter titles, but it is uncertain whether he or some-
one else wrote f. 43vb26 ‘Sva-flesta’ (II 133.9). There are two columns
per page and 40 lines per column. The initial letters at ordinary chapter
divisions are in red and blue, and at the beginning of chapter 43 (describ-
ing the birth of Olaf Tryggvason) there is a large initial in yellow, red,
green, light blue, and dark blue. Now and then, to the left of an initial ca-
pital or inside it, there are drawings of a man’s face seen in profile.
The scribe of C' also wrote ff. 17ral3-36v in AM 325 VI 4to (Hand
G). A peculiarity of this hand is an insular/consisting of the usual stem
with a curl to the right; the curl resembles a small c and its lower part is
joined to the stem by a hairstroke. This / is unlikely to be found in any
Icelandic manuscript after ca. 1375. In C' ð is rare, which indicates that
the codex is somewhat later than the middle of the century.
Ami Magnússon obtained AM 54 fol. from Amgrímur Þorkelsson
Vídalín (ca. 1667-1704), who in tum obtained it from Ámi Guðmunds-
son in Bíldudalur. It is apparent from personal names occurring in the
marginalia that the manuscript was at Barðaströnd in the seventeenth
century. In BL Add. 11242 there are two phrases copied from C' by Gott-
skálk Jónsson, pastor at Glaumbær in Skagafjörður. From 1551 to 1553
Gottskálk was supervisor of the monastery at Þingeyrar, and here he may
perhaps have seen the manuscript. If it was indeed at Þingeyrar it may
well be that the sýslumaður Ámi Gíslason, who was supervisor of the
nronastery in 1559 and great great-grandfather to Ámi Guðmundsson,
acquired it there. On the other hand, as has already been said, C1 is obvi-
ously affiliated with manuscripts written in the north of Iceland.
AM 62 fol. (D1) is a vellum codex containing only ÓlTr. There are 53 extant
leaves, the largest measuring 32.7 x 23.6 cm, distributed in five gatherings
of unequal size. The first extant gathering has 10 leaves, and the third origin-
ally had 16 leaves, while the rest originally had 12 each. The following
gatherings can be seen to be missing: at the beginning of the codex a whole
gathering probably of eight leaves; after the first extant gathering a whole
gathering of uncertain size (eight, 10, or 12 leaves); and after the fourth ex-
tant gathering another whole gathering of 12 leaves. In addition, nine leaves
have been lost from extant gatherings. It is likely that AM 62 fol. also con-
tained the Saga ofSt Olaf but if so not a single leaf of that saga has survived.