SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

272
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
ARNE MAGNUSSON. DEN STORE HANDSKRIFTSAMLER. I 30o-aret
for hans fedsel udsendt af HANS BEKKER-l\IELSEN og OLE
WIDDING. Kobenhavn: G. E. C. Gads Forlag, 1963. 69 pp. and
24 pls.
This small book is elegantly written and elegantly produced.
It gives a brief, clear outline of Arni Magnusson's career, making
special use of the biography written in Danish by Jon 6laf,son
from Grunnavik, preserved in autograph in AM 1027 4to. The
authors stress the importance of the formative influence on Ami
of his early contact with scholarly method and the world of
international learning through his work for Thomas Bartholin;
and they insist, very delicately, on the credit due to the Danish
scholars and patrons who recognised Ami's qualities and made his
advancement possible. We get a good impression of how much
Ami felt at home in the urbane and learned society of his academic
friends in Copenhagen.
PETER FOOTE