Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 168
126*
INTRODU CTION
signing them to the same milieu and period. A terminus a quo c. 1320
for the L recension may be accepted, and it was certainly in circulation
by c. 1340.
2.1. Primary manuscripts of the L recension
Stock. perg. fol. nr 5 (L1).
For descriptions of this codex, discussion of its provenance and the
dating of its five principal hands see Jón Helgason’s introduction in
Byskupa sqgur, CCIMÆ XIX (1950), and Stefán Karlsson’s reap-
praisal of the evidence in Sagas of Icelandic Bishops, EIM VII (1967),
45-48. Jóns saga occupies fols. 48ra7-58vbl8, from which it was
printed in Bps. I, 215-54. The codex as a whole cannot have been
completed until after the death of Bishop Gyrðr of Skálholt probably
in 1360, possibly in 1361 (CCIMÆ XIX, 9-10), but it is very likely
that the first hand did his work some time before that (see p. 159*).
Nothing is known of its history between its completion, say by or
about 1370, and 1644 when parts of it were copied by Jón Gissurarson
of Núpur in Dýrafjörður (cf. pp. 184*-85* below). It cannot be said
for certain who owned the manuscript at this time, but in 1656 it was
in the hands of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, bishop of Skálholt and a
younger half-brother of Jón Gissurarson. Bishop Brynjólfur sent the
codex in that year as a gift to Jprgen Seefeldt of Ringsted. Seefeldt’s
library was captured by the Swedes in the campaign of 1657-58, and
in the winter of 1658 most of what remained of his collection landed
in Stockholm.1
In the following summary description distinction between r rotunda
«t)) and ordinary (r) and between tall (f> and round (s) is normally
made only in the sections devoted to their use. Abbreviation is indicat-
ed only where relevant. Proper names are given an initial capital
whether such is indicated in the manuscript or not.
1 See DBL XXI, 529-31; Jón Helgason, CCIMÆ XIX, 10; Gödel, Fomnorsk-islandsk
litteratur i Sverige, 103-13; Walde, Storhetstidens litterara krigsbyten II (1920), 413;
Jón Helgason, Handritaspjall, 66-67.