[1] The presumed author, Einarr Hafliðason, was a student and friend of Laurentius.
[2] Although incomplete, Laurentius saga is considered to be one of the best written of the early Icelandic biographies, as well as being an important source of information about the teaching and education methods of the day.
The saga is preserved primarily in two vellum manuscripts containing different versions of the saga: A (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 406 a I 4to), written in Hólar around 1530, possibly by síra Tómas Eiríksson; and B (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 180 b fol.
The sagas contain slightly different information, suggesting that both have shortened an earlier version somewhat, but of the two B seems to be the shorter.
Both have missing pages and must to some extent be supplemented from Þ (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 404 4to), copied by Jón Pálsson at the behest of Þorlákur Skúlason, the bishop of Hólar, around 1640, when the manuscripts were more complete.