Skráningarfærsla handrits

Parchment

The manuscript is a palimpsest.

Jón Finnsson

Pages. i-iv written by an unknown scribe.

Large decorative initials drawn in yellow, red, green and blue colours at the beginning of each chapter.

Drawing of a hanged man in the initial of a chapter on thieves, p. 274.

Rubrics in red ink.

A few names are on p. 364: Þorkatla Finnsdóttir (owner of the book in 1635), Torfi Finnsson, Einars Þórólfssonar (owner) Finns Þórólfssonar (owner), Jón Torfason (owner), Erlindur Gunnlaugsson (owner).

On the inside of the front board there is a cut out from a printed sales list.

On the front fly leaf it says: „Brought by Dr. Richard Bright (after whowm Bright disease is named) when he accompanied Hooker on his Icelandic Travels in 1818-20.“ It is likely that information here has been distorted. Richard Bright travelled to Iceland in 1810 in Sir George Mackenzie's voyage and might have acquired the manuscript then.

The manuscript is preserved at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library which bought it from Bernard Quaritch antiquarian in London in January 1919 for 100 pounds.