Manuscript Detail

Parchment.

The manuscript is foliated in the bottom margins of the recto pages and paginated in the top margins on both recto and verso pages.

The manuscript consists of ten gatherings:

• I: 8 leaves, fols 1-8, originally bifolia, now fols 1 and 8 are separate (1, 2+7, 3+6, 4+5, 8).
• II: 8 leaves, fols 9-16, bifolia.
• III: 8 leaves, fols 17-24, originally bifolia, now fols 17 and 24 are separate (17, 18+23, 19+22, 20+21, 24).
• IV: 4 leaves, fols 25-28, bifolia.
• V: 6 leaves, fols 29-34, bifolia.
• VI: 8 leaves, fols 35-42, bifolia.
• VII: 10 leaves, fols 43-52, originally bifolia, now fols 43 and 52 are separate (43, 44+51, 45+50, 46+49, 47+48, 52).
• VIII: 8 leaves, fols 53-602 singletons, 3 bifolia (53+60, 54+59, 55, 56+57, 58).
• IX: 2 leaves, fols 61-62, singletons.
• X: 4 leaves, fols 63-66, bifolia.

On fol. 62 a little strip along the gutter is visible, and some letters can be deciphered. However, it does not seem as if there is a lacuna in the text (Martinus saga biskups).

The two parts of AM 645 4to are written by two separate scribes; the initials of the first part (fols 1r-42v) are written in black ink by the first hand, while the initials of the other part (fols 43r-66v) are in red ink. The text is written in one column with 23 to 34 lines per page in the first part, and 30 to 35 lines per page in the second part.

In places, particularly on fol. 53r, the text is almost illegible. The top margins of fols 17, 19-22 and 24 are damaged and on several folios the bottom margins are damaged. Fols 13, 29 and 58 are torn, and the parchment has several defects, e.g. holes in fols 22 and 41. There are lacunae after fols 26, 28 and 34.

The manuscript which consists of two codices both of them beginning and ending defectively. The first codex, fols 1-42, ends defectively in Andreas saga postola, and the second one, fols 43-66, begins defectively in the same saga. They, however, contain two different redactions of that saga.

The first, and older, hand wrote fols 1r-42v.

The second hand wrote fols 43r-66v. Holtsmark ( Holtsmark 1939 p. 13 ), however, suggests that this part was written by three different hands. According to her, hand a wrote fols 43r:1-29, hand b fols 43r:30-55v:23 and hand c fols 55v:23-66v.

In the left margin of fol. 37v a Þorsteirnn þorarinsson á þessa Bók nu is written in a seventeenth century hand; the name is repeated in the bottom margin of fol. 40v. On fol. 39v the name teitvr appears, and Larsson ( Larsson 1885 p. iv ) deciphers Teitvr S a þessa bok on fol. 28v.

There are eight accompanying AM-slips: The first, (a), written by Guðbrandur Björnsson (c. 1657-1733), gives an account on the possible whereabouts of the manuscript: Postula sgur, 4to. med æde | gamla og vanda skrift | seiger Gudbrandr Biorns-|son vered hafa i sinu | Barndæmi ä Munkaþverä, og hafi þær einginn lesid | gietad. firi utan einn mann | þar ï Eyafirdi. | Þad eru, liklegast þær eg ä | membrana majori 8vo. Slip (b) is a list of contents, and the other slips explain abbreviations used in the manuscript or correct readings.

The manuscript was written in Iceland c. 1220 (1r-42v) and in the second quarter of the thirteenth century (43r-66v), respectively (cf. e.g. Hreinn Benediktsson 1965 xx (fols 1r-42v) and Seip 1954 43 (fols 43r-66b)). Kålund dated the entire manuscript to the first half of the thirteenth century ( Katalog I 51 ). Holtsmark ( Holtsmark 1938 9 ) finds it reasonable to assume that the manuscript was written at or near Skálholt.

On fol. 37v there is a marginal note from the seventeenth century in which Þorsteinn Þórarinsson is mentioned as the owner of the book. He and Teitur, mentioned on fol. 39v, cannot be identified. According to Guðbrandur Björnsson's (c. 1657-1733) account on AM-slip (a), the codex presumably belonged to the convent of Munkaþverá in the northern part of Iceland during the seventeenth century. Guðbrandur was the son of sýslumaður Björn Magnússon (1623-97) who held the convent from 1662 to 1688, and Guðbrandur remembers that the codex was in the convent when he was a child.

• 70 mm, 70mm14, from 1963.
• 70 mm (suppl.), 70mm10, from 1963.