66 THE KING'S MIRROR 



ital. Among other things he found several copies and 

 fragments of manuscripts of the Speculum Regale. No 

 effort was made to publish any of these before the mid- 

 dle of the century was past; but about 1760 three young 

 scholars began to plan editions of this famous work. 

 The first to undertake this task was Professor Gerhard 

 Schoning,* a Norwegian by birth, who was at the time 

 rector of the Latin school in Trondhjem but later held 

 a professorship in the Danish academy at Soro. Scho- 

 ning began the preparation of a Latin translation of the 

 work, which he planned to publish along with the origi- 

 nal version; but his work was never completed. About 

 the same time an Icelandic student at the University of 

 Copenhagen, Hans Finsen,f later bishop in his native 

 island, projected an edition, but was unable to carry 

 out his plans for want of a publisher, and turned his ma- 

 terials over to others. The third and only successful 

 attempt at publication was made on the suggestion of 

 a recently organized association of Icelandic scholars 

 known as " the Invisible " society. This association re- 

 quested Halfdan Einersen,J rector of the Latin school 

 at Holar, one of the members and founders of the " in- 

 visible " body, to prepare an edition. An Icelandic mer- 

 chant, Soren Pens, generously offered to bear all the 

 expense of publication.! 



Rector Einersen prepared the text from the best avail- 

 able Icelandic manuscripts. He also made a Danish 



* Schoning's dates are 1722-1780. He was professor of Latin literature and 

 history at Soro, but his real achievements lie in the field of Norwegian history, 

 f 1739-1796. t 1732-1785. 



See the introduction to the Soro edition, xxv-xxviii, from which the above 

 facts have been culled. 



