Codex Scardensis or Skarðsbók postulasagna (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, SÁM 1 4to) is a large Icelandic manuscript containing Old Norse-Icelandic sagas of the apostles.
A large part of the text (folios 1-81) appears to be based on manuscripts made not much earlier than Codex Scardensis itself.
[2] Codex Scardensis was likely written in around 1360 at the monastery at Helgafell for Ormr Snorrason, a lawman and chief who inherited the estate of Skarð in 1322.
[7] On Phillipps' death in 1872, his manuscript collection passed to his daughter Katherine and her husband John Fenwick.
[9] From 1886 John Fenwick began auctioning off books in the collection, but the Codex Scardensis was never offered for sale.
In 1938 Thirlstaine House, where the collection was held, was requisitioned by the British Government as part of the war effort.
The manuscripts were stored in crates in the cellars of the house and subsequently purchased for £100,000 by the antiquarian firm of William H Robinson Ltd in 1945.
[11] Desmond Slay of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth was asked by Jón Helgason to locate the manuscript.
This consortium arranged for the codex to be bought by Mr T. Hannas, a Norwegian bookseller living in London, so as not attract attention and lead to the manuscript's price being increased by a bidding war.