MAGNUSSON, Arni (1663-1730), a scholar to whom we are largely indebted for the preservation of the old Icelandic literature, was born in the west of Iceland in 1663. In his youth he resided for a time at Hvamm, then the residence of his mother’s father, Ketil the priest, who was a well-known copyist of manuscripts. In 1683 he came to Copenhagen, and was employed by Bartholinus at first as a, copyist, and afterwards to investigate the monuments and ancient customs of Norway. In 1697 he was appointed secretary of the archives of the kingdom. Before this he had begun to collect Icelandic manuscripts, his earliest acquisition (Hulda) being in 1687. From that time he steadily persevered, but his great acquisitions were chiefly made in Iceland, whither he went in connexion with the royal survey in 1702-12. The old and important manuscripts were by that time falling into neglect, and it is more than probable that without Arni’s intervention the greater part would have been lost to us. On his return from Iceland he was appointed professor of history and Danish antiquities in the university of Copenhagen. He is said never to have recovered the shock caused by the mischief done to his library by the great fire of Copenhagen in 1728. He himself had never the courage to ascertain exactly what he had lost; but it appeared afterwards that scarcely any MS. of real importance had perished. On his death on 6th January 1730, he bequeathed his property to the university of Copenhagen for the purpose chiefly of publishing Icelandic manuscripts (Arna-Magnaean Bequest). The first volume published under the bequest was Njala, which appeared in 1772, and was succeeded by a number of valuable publications of the same class. Arni left behind him no literary work of any consequence, and his ...