Gripla - 2022, Síða 408

GRIPLA406
examples of wrath and envy extracted from Precept V (De ira odio et
invidia; De amicitia);20 adultery, from Precept VI (De iis qviconcvmbunt
cum masculis, De poena scortatorum et moechorum),21 sacrilege from Precept
VII (De sacrilegis);22 and avarice from Precept IX and X (De vestitu).23 The
Icelandic excerpts are translated in an apparently random order and cor-
respond roughly to pages 347–563 and 751–898 in the 1604 Wittenberg
edition. Curiously, some of the best-known and highly entertaining
passages of the Theatrum historicum – most notably the Faust legend,
which through the Theatrum travelled as far as England where it inspired
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus published by Christopher Marlowe
(1564–1593) in 1590 – were not included in the vernacular translation.24
While no copies of either the German Promptuarium exemplorum or the Latin
Theatrum historicum appear to have survived in Iceland, sections of the Theatrum
historicum were certainly known in Iceland through a vernacular translation of
the so-called Harmonia Evangelica (1583), a Lutheran Gospel harmony by the
German theologians Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586), Polykarp Leyser the Elder
(1552–1610), and Johann Gerhard (1582–1637), which draws extensively on the sec-
tions of Precept I of Hondorff’s Theatrum dedicated to the lives of the apostles and
evangelists.25 The Icelandic translation was published in Skálholt in 1687 with the
title Harmonia Evangelica það er Guðspjallana Samhljóðan (“Harmonia Evangelica
that is the Concord of the Gospels”).26 The text has been recognized as being
20 Exempla 2 and 81.
21 Exempla 27, 74, 89.
22 Exempla 18, 89.
23 Exempla 61 and 68.
24 The so-called “Faustus Magus” legend is part of the de magicis artibus commonplace on sor-
cery and witchcraft. See Andreas Hondorff, Theatrum Historicum (Wittenberg: Laurentius
Seuberlich, 1604), 186b–187a. On Hondorff as a source for Marlow’s play, see for instance
Frank Baron, “Which Faustus Died at Staufen? History and Legend in the Zimmersche
Chronik,” German Studies Review 6 (1983): 85–94.
25 See especially Bernt Torvild Oftestad, “Harmonia Evangelica. Die Evangelienharmonie
von Martin Chemnitz – theologische Ziele mit methodologische Voraussetzungen,” Studia
Theologica 45 (1991): 57–74.
26 Harmonia Evangelica þad er Gudspiallana Samhlioodan, Vm vors Drottens Jesv Christi
Holldgan og Hingaburd, hanns Frammferde, Lærdoom, Kienningar og Kraptaverk, hanns Pijnu,
Dauda, Upprisu og Uppstigning, so sem þeir Heiløgu Gudspiallamenn, Mattheus Marcus Lucas
og Iohannes hafa umm sierhuørt skrifad. Samanntekenn i eitt af þeim Haattupplystu Guds
Mønnum. D. Martino Chemnitio, D. Polycarpo Lysero, og D. Iohanne Gerhardo. Og nu epter
þeirre Rød og Forme, sem þeir Haalærdu Menn hafa sett og samed, A vort Islendskt Tungumaal
wtgeingenn i fyrsta sinn, og prentud (Skálholt: Hendrick Kruse, 1687) [80].