Fire og fyrretyve Prøver s. 108-380 Extracts
Meissner, Rómveriasaga 1910
„orð Jugurthe sialfs til huerer þat hafa gort.“
„ok hafði allt hið sa|ma yfirbragð sem aðr ok uar fremstr i orrosto aðr hann felli.“
Konráð Gíslason, Fire og fyrretyve Prøver s. 253-380 Extracts
Meissner, Rómveriasaga 1910 s. 4-105:20
„af romulo ok remo bræðrum“
„Sva segia romuerskar bękr fra vppreist ok efleng romaborgar“
„var hann af þui | kallaðr heilagr af Romueria aulldungum ok vpp hafinn millem sialfra guðanna“
Konráð Gíslason, Fire og fyrretyve Prøver s. 381-385:7
These foliae were originally left blank (apart from the first three lines of text on fol. 29v), and later, probably in the second half of the fourteenth century, they were filled with this self-contained section.
„her hefr annan lut romueria sgv ok segir fyrst huersu lengi | hvert riki stoð“
„ Romulus ok remus uoro tueir konungar a italia landi.“
„Nu er sa fra fallinn er allt folk uirði meira en sialfan friðinn “
Konráð Gíslason, Fire og fyrretyve Prøver s. 385:9-386 Fol. 30v
Meissner, Rómveriasaga 1910 s. 105:24-131
Parchment.
The manuscript was formerly in two parts and paginated 1-46 and 1-30 in black ink, but was foliated (by Kristian Kålund) 1-38 in red ink after rebinding as a single volume.
There were originally eight gatherings of eight leaves each, but only gatherings I and II are now complete.
The manuscript is written in one column throughout. In the bulk of the first part of the manuscript, viz. fols 1-22 and 23v, there are 31 lines per page. However, there are some exceptions:
Fols 24-25, 28 and 30 are damaged at the edges with some loss of text. The bottom margins of fols 11 and 13 have been cut off, but without loss of text. Fols 24-25, 27, 29, 30 and 37 show signs of use as binding wrappers.
Hand 1 writes fols 1r-29v:3 and 30v-38v. The hand is clearly that of a professional scribe; the script is very regular and the orthography for the most part consistent. The script varies somewhat in size, and is rather smaller in the latter part (fols 30v-38v), where there is also some variation in orthography. The same hand is found in the Jónsbók manuscript AM 127 4to (Hand 1), which appears to come from the northern part of the Iceland (Eyjafjörður), making it likely that this manuscript does as well.
Hand 2 writes fols 29v:4-30r. This hand looks rather younger than the main hand, though not necessarily by much. The script is firm and clear and somewhat smaller than that of the main scribe.
Chapter titles are in red, as are most of the chapter initials; exceptions are in brown on fols 29v, 36r and 38, and in green on fols 36r and 38r. Initial letters have often not been entered in the spaces left for them, although in some cases these have been filled in later in black ink.
The margins contain a large number of sketches and scribbles of various kinds, including some possibly by the scribe himself, or at least by a contemporary. A few of these are clearly related to the text, but most are not. There are also many sketches from a later date, mostly of a rather clumsy kind, depicting various human and animal figures. These are probably not older than the seventeenth century.
There are a great many marginal entries, mostly dating from the seventeenth century. These are of various kinds:
Formerly unbound, the two fragments were bound into a single volume in febrúar 1888, but there is nothing remaining of this binding. The manuscript was restored and rebound in the standard AMI binding of the time, canvas with leather spine and corners, in febrúar 1967. The binding dimensions are: 265 mm x 215 mm x 43 mm.
Two slips with comments by Árni Magnússon have been bound into the manuscript between the fly-leaf and first leaf of the manuscript. The first reads: þetta fragment hefi eg | feinged ur ðrum stad. | Mier virðest það ur s|mu bokinne. The second reads: fra Sira Þorvallde Stefans-|syne, og er þetta er Rom-|veria sgunni sem eg var so | leinge ad spyria epter. Following this, Árni has transcribed the rubric of the second part, fol. 30v: her hefr annan lut romueria sgv | ok seger fyrst hversu lengi hvert | riki stoð.
The manuscript was written in Iceland in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, except from fols 29v-30v which originate from the second half of the fourteenth century ( Jakob Benediktsson 1980 s. 15 ). Kålund's dating: The first half of the fourteenth century ( Katalog I s. 763 ).
From several of the names written in the margin it is clear that the manuscript was in Fljótsdalshérað in the seventeenth century.
The manuscript was acquired by Árni Magnússon from Þorvaldur Stefánsson some time after 1700; cf. the statement in his catalogue of manuscripts in AM 435 a 4to, fol. 143v: Romveria Saga, 4to, ubivis | mutila. | Komin til min fra Sira Þorvallde | Stefans syne. Er | Salustii Bellum Jugurtinum | Ejusdem Bellum Catilinarium. | Lucani Bellum civile Cæsaris | et Pompeji. This agrees with the information on the second of the two slips bound with the manuscript. On the first of the two slips Árni indicates that part of the manuscript was acquired separately; this doubtless refers to fol. 24, on the recto side of which an early eighteenth-century hand has written Þetta blad fundid | á slödum Sira Þorsteinz | Slg. Jönssonar ad Gilsárteigi. Þorsteinn Jónsson had preceded Þorvaldur Stefánsson as parson of Eiðar and had also lived at Gilsárteigur.
Catalogued 29. febrúar 2000 by MJD, on the basis of Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile XIII .
Minor repairs, chiefly the removal of earlier repairs, carried out in desember 1962.
Restored and rebound in febrúar 1967. The individual quires were mounted on guards and the single fragmentary leaf 24 placed in a plastic envelope.