Parchment, 4ff. (1 bifolium + 2 leaves), c. 21 × 16 cm; Denmark, c. 1200-1210 The fragment contains a continuous sequence of text from the first book of Saxo Grammaticus’ History of the Danes: I.iii.1-iv.8 ("specimen preferebat tantaque ... puellarum concubitumque peto"). The 2 single leaves once formed a bifolium
The 4 leaves are the remnants of what was Saxo’s working copy of Gesta Danorum. The main text, additions and compositional alternatives have been written either by Saxo himself or by a scribe following his dictate. Both as a source to Saxo’s working process and as a textual witness the Angers-fragment maintains a unique status amongst the medieval manuscripts of the Royal Library
The leaves were discovered as part of the binding of a late medieval manuscript in Bibliothèque Municipale in Angers in 1863. The fragment’s extraordinary value as a source to Saxo’s work was demonstrated in 1877. The following year it was acquired by the Royal Library in an exchange that returned 8 leaves of a cartulary from Saint-Martin-des Champs to Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale; formerly in the possession of D. G. Moldenhawer, in the Royal Library since 1824)
Bibl.: A. Lemarchand, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque d'Angers, Angers 1863, p. 89f. - Det i Angers fundne Brudstykke af et Haandskrift af Saxo Grammaticus, udg. i fotolithografisk Facsimile af det kgl. danske Videnskabernes Selskab ved Chr. Bruun, København 1879. - Ellen Jørgensen, Catalogus codicum Latinorum medii ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Hafniæ 1926, p. 403f. - Saxonis Gesta Danorum, I, edd. J. Olrik & H. Ræder, Hauniæ 1931, p. XIII, XXXI & passim. - Corpus codicum Danicorum medii aevi, Vol. 4, Chronica, Hafniae 1962, ed. Erik Kroman, p. XIVf. + 35-38. - Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum. Danmarkshistorien, latinsk tekst udgivet af Karsten Friis-Jensen, dansk oversættelse ved Peter Zeeberg, 1, København 2005, p. 10-11
Erik Petersen
