Manuscript Detail

Parchment.

The manuscript is foliated in red ink and paginated in pencil and/or dark ink on the outer top corners of the leaves.

The manuscript consists of 11 quires of, originally, 8 leaves:

• I: 1+8, 2+7, 3+6, 4+5
• II: 9+16, 10+15, 11+14, 12+13
• III: 17+24, 18+23, 17+22, 18+21
• IV: 25+32, 26+31, 27+30, 28+29
• V: 33+40, 34+39, 35+38, 36+37
• VI: 41+48, 42+47, 43+46, 44+45
• VII: 49+54, 53, 50+52, 51 (6 preserved leaves).
• VIII: 55+62, 56+61, 57+60, 58+59
• IX: 63+68, 64+67, 65+66 (6 preserved leaves)
• X: 69+72, 70+71 (4 preserved leaves)
• XI: 73+80, 74+79, 75+78, 76+77

Written in long lines with 29-32 lines to a page, though most commonly 30. Ruled lines. Red rubrics, coloured initials in red, green and blue.

Parts of the extremities of fols 3 and 59 have been torn out. There are lacunae after fols 49, 50, 62 and 68. Fols 69-72 were inserted to fill a lacuna. The green colour of the initials has, in some places, corroded the parchment. Notwithstanding this, the manuscript is remarkably well preserved.

The most recent research on the manuscript (Gullick 2010, 77-78, Stokkeland 2010, 128), published in the anthology Vår eldste bok: Skrift, miljø og biletbruk i den norske homilieboka, concludes that the entire book, including the subsequently inserted folios, were written by just one scribe.

However, the scribe’s hand exhibits variation and inconsistency and the script of 16v has a different character to that of 17r. Another marked shift in the character of the scribal hand, along with a change of pen and ink, can be observed on folio 78v: 25-26. The script is a insular carolingan.

Large, decorated initials (spanning 3-9 lines, most commonly 5 lines) with multicoloured staves and bows. Many of the initials extend into the margin, with a stave typically elongated. They are either red, green and blue; red and blue; or green and red. Examples can be found on folios 55v and 56v.

Gullick (Gullick 2010) has argumented that the motifs and decorative elements of the initials are of the same type as typically appear in Romanesque European manuscripts, such as the ‘split-petal’ motif known in particular from manuscripts from northern England from the mid- to late-12th century.

>On an inserted paper leaf, which is now at the back of the codex, Konráð Gíslason added the note concerning fols 69-72, which were inserted to fill a lacuna. The note reads: Sequentia qattror folia membranea, quorum singulae paginae - praeter | ultimam - lineas 31 continent, male hor loco injecta sunt, in lo-|cum unius folii perditi, cujus argumentum expleri potest ex duo-|bus foliis pervetustis, quae in 257 form. max. inventiuntur. | Die 23. Sept. 1843. K.G.

The manuscript was written in Norway in the beginning of the thirteenth century ( Hægstad 1907 41 og Haugen & Ommundsen 2010, 12). Some scholars, including Kålund (KatalogII32) and Gullick (Gullick 2010, 98) are however of the view that the manuscript can be dated to around the year 1200.

The Benedictine monastery Munkeliv in Bergen and the chapter house in are mentioned as two possible scriptoria where the manuscript could have been written. Haugen and Ommundsen (Haugen & Ommundsen 2010, 12) however, citing Gunnes (Gunnes 1971, 16), refute the theory that the manuscript was written at a Benedictine monastery, but nonetheless agree that the manuscript was most likely produced in Bergen.

Árni Magnússon acquired the manuscript in Norway, cf. his note in AM 435 a 4to, fol. 23v: Eg hefi eignast bokina i Noregi, og | þar synest hun ritud ad vera..

• 70 mm N0 43, s.d.
• Black and white prints from 1979.
• Diapositives, pocket no 45, (fols 14v-15r, 47r-v, 48r-v, 49r, 62r).
• Digital photographs, hard disk 1, from 9 August 2005 (fols 47r, 47v, 56v).
• Digital photographs, hard disk 1, from March 15, 2006 (fols 55v-56r, 56v-57r, portraits: front, back, inside of binding).