Nova Historia sancti Ambrosii: New Perspectives on the Authorship of Ambrósíuss saga biskups

This article examines the attribution of Ambrósíuss saga biskups to Gunnlaugr Leifsson based on the reference to the monk’s composition of a nova historia sancti Ambrosii contained in Arngrímr Brandsson’s Guðmundar saga. The article assesses the nature of the historia in question, the reliability of the episode the reference is found in, and the motives behind its composition. By analysing the narrative context of the bishop’s saga and the meaning of the term historia in fourteenth-century Iceland, the expression in Guðmundar saga does not point to a prose work, but rather to a rhymed office of the saint, excluding the attribution of Ambrósíuss saga to Gunnlaugr. An intertextual analysis between the bishop’s saga, Bergr Sokkason’s Nikuláss saga erkibiskups (II) and Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale shows that the historia episode in Guðmundar saga is modelled on a similar scene that is ultimately drawn from the Latin universal history via the saint’s saga. The differences between the source and saga show that Arngrímr made conscious adaptations that served the purpose of his narrative. In the author’s plan, this article argues that the reference to Ambrose and the presence of Gunnlaugr bestowed reliability to an episode that probably never happened and suggested the presence of a text that not only does not coincide with Ambrósíuss saga, but also that probably never was.