Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 49
THE S RECENSION
11*
and b and 51vb in Hand A, in 66ra and b in Hand B. It looks as if the
isolated 51vb was reduced by a line for the sake of the register (to
match 5 lra), and this may give some indication of the care with which
the work was undertaken.
Hand A wrote fols. 79-81, and presumably the rest of Thómas saga,
before he began the Antonius saga, fol. 1 et seq. The clearest evidence
of this is the shape of the round <d) and (ð). In the Thómas saga frag-
ments and the beginning of Antonius saga, the long ascender is com-
paratively near the vertical and the tip sometimes has a tilt to the right.
Between fols. 5 and 11 the tip of the ascender becomes established at
a point farther to the left of the vertical and has no initial wriggle. It re-
mains consistently in this form to the end of Hand A’s contribution on
fol. 61v.
Consonant with the conclusion that Thómas saga was written be-
fore Antonius saga is the fact that it is only on fols. 79-81 that we find
any initial spaces completed with what appears to be original illumi-
nation (red <E>, blue <E), 79r; red <H), blue <A), 79v; green <A>, 80r;
red <Þ>, 80va and 81rb; other spaces left on 80vb, 81ra, 81rb and 81va
and b are not completed). Illumination and rubrication are otherwise
lacking throughout the manuscript. Guides for initials and titles are
here and there still visible near the uncut edges of the leaves and vari-
ous initials have been inked in by later hands, sometimes erroneously.
It is equally clear that Hand B wrote fols. 74v-78, and presumably
the rest of the Vitae patrum text, after he wrote the continuous section,
62ra-73rb. When he begins on fol. 62 his script makes a slightly clum-
sy and inconfident impression, but by the end of Augustinus saga on
fol. 73 his letters are smaller and more regular and his script is tighter,
with a slight leftward slant absent in the early stage of his contribu-
tion. His use of letter forms also shows some change. At first he writes
both <u) and <v), but at the end he conforms to the habit of Hand A and
writes <v> almost everywhere (the change appears to occur on fol.
65r). He rarely writes <n> in the earlier part of his text but commonly
does so towards the end (see further p. 35*). In such points and in the
general characteristics of the script, fols. 74v-78 resemble the scribe’s
practice at the end of Augustinus saga, not his practice at the begin-
ning of his contribution to Jóns saga.
(ii) Arni Magnússon’s observations. Arni Magnússon first came
upon 234 when Thomas Bartholin had it on loan from Bishop Þórður