bring it back to me. Effecting nothing thus, I went back to my country
for this purpose; I visited and turned over all the libraries, but still
could not pull out a Saxo, even covered with beetles, bookworms, mould,
and dust. So stubbornly had all the owners locked it away." A worthy
prior, in compassion offered to get a copy and transcribe it with his
own hand, but Christian, in respect for the prior's rank, absurdly
declined. At last Birger, the Archbishop of Lund, by some strategy, got
a copy, which King Christian the Second allowed to be taken to Paris on
condition of its being wrought at "by an instructed and skilled graver
(printer)." Such a person was found in Jodocus Badius Ascenshls, who
adds a third letter written by himself to Bishop Urne, vindicating his
application to Saxo of the title Grammaticus, which he well defines
as "one who knows how to speak or write with diligence, acuteness, or
knowledge." The beautiful book he produced was worthy of the zeal, and
unsparing, unweariable pains, which had been spent on it by the band
of enthusiasts, and it was truly a little triumph of humanism. Further
editions were reprinted during the sixteenth century at Basic and at
Frankfort-on-Main, but they did not improve in any way upon the first;
and the next epoch in the study of Saxo was made by the edition and
notes of Stephanus Johansen Stephanius, published at Copenhagen in
the middle of the seventeenth century (1644). Stephanius, the first
commentator on Saxo, still remains the best upon his language. Immense
knowledge of Latin, both good and bad (especially of the authors Saxo
imitated), infinite and prolix industry, a sharp eye for the text, and
continence in emendation, are not his only virtues. His very bulkiness
and leisureliness are charming; he writes like a man who had eternity to
write in, and who knew enough to fill it, and who expected readers of an
equal leisure. He also prints some valuable notes signed with the famous
name of Bishop Bryniolf of Skalholt, a man of force and talent, and
others by Casper Barth, "corculum Musarum", as Stephanius calls him,