GKS 718 2°: Adam Bremensis, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis

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GKS 718 2°: Adam Bremensis, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis

Paper, 8 ff., c. 30 x 21 cm; Northern Germany or Scandinavia, saec. XV

The manuscript contains Adam of Bremen’s "Description of the Northern Islands" (Descriptio insularum Aquilonis), the fourth and last book of his "History of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen" (Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum). In the present manuscript it has been copied separately as an individual text

In GKS 718 2° the text is divided into 9 sections by means of large, red initials. The beginning of Adam’s epilogue is marked only by a letter slightly larger than the main text

In a note written in a post-medieval hand on f. 1r it is stated that the manuscript was copied "circa 1434". The statement is not corroborated by arguments

The manuscript belonged to the library of Gottorp castle in Schleswig, whose manuscripts were transferred to Copenhagen in 1735. Notices in Pechlin's, Petersen's and Möllmann's inventories of the manuscripts of Gottorp indicate that GKS 718 2° was once part of a unit that also included mss. GKS 380 2° (Viaticum narrationum) and GKS 338 2° (Vegetius)

Bibl.: E. Gigas, Katalog over Det Store Kongelige Bibliotheks Haandskrifter vedrørende Norden, særlig Danmark, I, København 1903, p. 5. - Magistri Adam Bremensis gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, ed. Bernhard Schmeidler, Hannover 1917, p. XIII & passim (siglum A3a). - Ellen Jørgensen, Catalogus codicum Latinorum medii ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Hafniæ 1926, p. 403. - Anne K. G. Kristensen, Studien zur Adam von Bremen Überlieferung, København 1975, p. 19, 23, 94 & passim

Erik Petersen