Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 51
THE S RECENSION
13*
first that Thómas saga was written before Antonius saga and is the
only part with any early illumination, and second that Vitae patrum
were written after Augustinus saga. Conversely, the fact that when Au-
gustinus saga was ended on fol. 73r the rest of that page and the whole
of fol. 73v were left empty might rather suggest that this was thought
of as the end of the volume. The way work was distributed among
scribes cannot of course be an unequivocal guide to the way it was in-
tended to make up a whole volume. It could be however that the orig-
inal plan was to produce not a single volume, but twin volumes, one
beginning with Thómas saga and ending with Augustinus saga (repre-
sented by fols. 79-81 and 1-73), the other beginning with Vitae patrum
(fols. 74-78) and containing we know not what besides.
For some reason (cf. pp. 51*-53* below) the whole work was not
completed: no initials were inserted after the first leaves, no chapter-
titles were included, and the leaves stayed untrimmed. Then, at some
date we cannot determine, the whole lot were sewn up together, pre-
sumably with Thómas saga first and Vitae patrum last. In that state it
survived and after the Reformation suffered the depredations of bish-
ops and schoolboys: the first and last texts, Thómas saga and the Vitae
patrum, naturally came off worst. In connection with a 1612 inventory
of Skálholt books Bishop Oddur Einarsson candidly wrote:
En hvað sem á skræðumar og lesbækumar vantar, hefur úr geingeð
af meðferð þeirra í skólanum og sumt hef eg haft utan um skrifaðar
bækur mínar til Saurblaða (Árbók Hins ísl. fornleifafélags 1886,
65).
Árni Magnússon remembered that Þormóður Torfason had told him
that in his schooldays boys and perhaps other people had ripped leaves
out of 234 to use as book-wrappers. He also had a recollection, though
he would not rely on it, that Þormóður had told him that the codex was
then already ‘initio mutilum' (Hándskriftfortegnelser, 6).
(iii) General considerations. The size of the codex, the generous
quality of the materials, the clarity of the design, the rarity of ligatures
and common abbreviations, all suggest that 234 was intended as a
stately lectionary for a community. It was produced in a well-to-do
establishment and was meant for a similar institution, the cathedral at
Skálholt perhaps or a monastery, where Latin quotation and short titles