Skráningarfærsla handrits

Parchment.

Kristian Kålund foliated the leaves in red ink in the uppper right hand corners. At the bottom of ff. 1r and 3r an A and a B are found.

The extant leaves have belonged to two different gatherings, each originally consisting of eight leaves. Fol. 1-2 have made up the fourth and fifth leaves while the conjoint 3-4 made up the second and seventh leaves in their gatherings.

Written in two columns with 35 lines per column. The text block measures 205 mm x 150/70 mm.

Red rubrics and red and blue flourished initials.

In places the leaves are blackened and stained but this does not affect the reading of the text.

The manuscript is written in black ink in a beautiful and very practiced Icelandic Gothic bookhand.

In the bottom margin of f. 1r Peder Goth Thorsen wrote: Til Arn. Magn. 13. Juli 1858 fra P. G. Thorsen; Thorsen also added his name to the bottom margin of f. 4r. In the bottom margin of f. 3r a diagram is found drawn.

On a flyleaf, inserted in 5. október 1885, Kålund wrote: 4 (2 og 2 sammenhængende) pergamentsblade i tospaltet fol. | 5/10-1885. Another comment by Jón Helgasson is found on the same flyleaf: Indbundet i maj 1935, tidligere i tarveligt bind fra 1885.

A blue slip containing some text written by Guðbrandur Vigfússon was pasted to the second flyleaf. The text is a reproduction of Árni Magnússon’s notes from AM 76 b fol. and AM 488 4to, respectively: AM 76 b 3 B. fol. 73, 71, 76 | Þetta er allt órètt sem eg nú sè 1726 um | haustið. Bók Laurusar lögmanns / mater | þeirrar er lgmann Vidalín á með hendi Þor-|steins Sigurðssonar (73)., og þeirrar er eg nú — 1726 | á með hendi Magnúsar Einarssonar (76) er | progenies þeirrar bókar er eg eignaðist frá | Guðrúnu Eggertsdóttur á Bæ á Rauða-|sandi. Er þar á þeirri membranâ defect | í einum stað og liggr innaní pappír | með hendi sira Jóns á Lambavatni, það | fyrsta þar af er translatio ex danico | hitt er fyllt eptir einhverri rèttri Ólafssögu | forte þeirri er um hönd höfðu Arne Guðmundsson Jón Erlendsson Torfi Jónsson | Amtmaðr Müller. Id postea inspiciam | nunc inspexi, og er það svo. Bók Snæbjarnar af hverri ek hefi copie (71) | er af sama slagi og þessi með hendi Þorsteins | Sigurðssonar, eru báðar úr Saurbæjarbókinni | og báðar eins fyltar eptir supplemento chart | aceo með hendi sira Jóns, hvar af það fyrsta | er translatio ex danico og hitt annað | úr membrana in quarto Arna Guðmunds |sonar Jons Erlendssonar Torfa Jónssonar | og sýnist að sú bók hafi þá eins mutila | verið og nú er. | AM 488 4to. Hjá mèr Arna Magnússyni | er ein Ólafs helga saga á kálfskinni fylltri en | almennilegar. Þar inni talast um Björn hítdæla |kappa og úr þessari Ólafssögu eru orðrètt uttekin | þau ellefu blöð, sem hèr fyrst standa item nokkr | ar differentiæ, sem hér eru in margine settar allt til | utkomu Bjarnar, því lengra nær ekkiþetta. | NB AM 75 d fol. er frá Bæ í Borgarfirði . AM 75 d fol. is now AM 68 fol..

The manuscript is written in Iceland c. 1370-90 ( Stefán Karlsson 1967 s. 21 ). Kålund's dating: c. 1400 ( Katalog ).

Árni Magnússon acquired the manuscript, probably in 1697 by Guðrún Eggertsdóttir of Bær (or Saurbær) in Rauðasandur, Austur-Barðarstrandarsýslar in North-Western Iceland. The manuscript was thus known as Bæjarbók á Rauðasandi. Cf. f. 39v in AM 435 a 4to: Olafs Saga Helga, prolixa, cum præfatione.| Magnuss Saga Eya Jarls | Folio. komin til min fra Gudrunu Eggertsdottur ad | Bæ ä Raudasande..

The manuscript then suffered a peculiar fate: towards the end of the eighteenth century it vanished from Árni Magnússon’s manuscript collection and presumably the entire the manuscript, except these four leaves, were destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1795.

Jes Andreas Jessen found the four leaves on the street and in 1841 he gave them to Peder Goth Thorsen who was then junior librarian at the University Library of Copenhagen who was then a junior librarian. Seventeen years later, in 1858, Thorsen presented the leaves to the Arnamagnæan Collection (Thorsen wrote the following in the bottom right-hand corner of f. 1r Til Arn. Magn. 13. Juli 1858 fra P. G. Thorsen) and the same year Guðbrandur Vigfússon established that the fragment belonged to the lost Bæjarbók á Rauðasandi.

• 70 mm, 70mm 161, s.d.