Manuscript Detail

Parchment.

The manuscript is foliated in red ink in the bottom margins by Kristian Kålund. It is also irregularly paginated on some of the recto pages and on fol. 58v.

The manuscript consists of ten gatherings, each with a quire signature (roman numerals).

• I: of the first gathering, only two conjoint leaves are extant. As two leaves are missing, one at the beginning and one at the end, this collation originally only consisted of four leaves.
• II: originally eight leaves; the third and the sixth leaves are missing.
• III: eight leaves
• IV: originally eight leaves; the fourth and the fifth leaves are missing.
• V: whole gathering now lost.
• VI-VIII: eight leaves.
• IX: originally six leaves; the first leaf is missing.
• X: originally six; the last (probably blank) leaf is cut out.

The manuscript is written in long lines throughout with 24 to 29 lines per page. Initials (crudely done) in red or green; chapter headings in red.

The manuscript has several defects and is damaged due to a number of tears and a trimming of the margin.

The entire manuscript is is written in a Gothic bookhand. Storm ( Norges gamle Love IV p. 566 ) characterised the hand as coarse and angular-shaped (styg og kantet) exhibiting an old fashioned spelling and language.

Various marginalia and a few drawings, e.g. two birds in the bottom margin of fol. 10r. The last half of the last page has pen-trials and doodles. All lacunae are marked in the bottom margins of the previous pages.

On an accompanying slip, Árni Magnússon wrote: Frostoþings bők Magnusar Kongs. | membr: 4to stóru. er illa skrifud og vant-|ar vida j. hana hefi eg feingid j dan-|mrk. er codex Legum D.

Written in Norway in the first quarter of the fourteenth century.

According to Árni Magnússon's account on the AM-slip, he got the manuscript in Denmark.

• Digital images, CD no 11, from May 10, 2005 (photographs of the former binding (a sea chart)).