he was recalled, but were shipped to him in 1721. What he could not secure, he would borrow for copying; a number of copyists worked for him at his professorial residence in Copenhagen. His collection became the largest of its kind. Unfortunately, his house burned down in the Copenhagen fire of 1728; with the help of friends, he was able to save most of the manuscripts, but some things were lost, including almost all the printed books and at least one unique item. His copyist Jón Ólafsson wrote out the contents of one manuscript from memory after both it and the copy he had made were lost in the fire. Árni has been blamed for delaying too long before starting to move his collection. He had not made an exhaustive inventory of his holdings, and several times stated that he believed the losses greater than was generally thought. (Everything in the University Library was destroyed, including many Icelandic documents which we now have only because of copies Árni made for Bartholin, and most other professors lost all their books.) Árni was consulted by and readily assisted scholars all over Europe. In particular, he considerably helped Þormóður Torfason, the Royal Historian of Norway, in preparing his work for publication, having first made his acquaintance when he travelled there for Bartholin, and the second edition of Íslendingabók ever published (in Oxford) is actually substantially Árni's translation and commentary, although Christen Worm is credited as editor. Árni disavowed it as a youthful effort. Árni was unusual for his time in scrupulous crediting of sources and attention to accuracy. In his own aphorism: Svo gengur það til í heiminum, að sumir hjálpa erroribus á gáng og aðrir leitast síðan við að útryðja aftur þeim sömu erroribus. Hafa svo hverir tveggja nokkuð að iðja. "And that is the way of the world, that some men put errors into circulation and others afterwards try to eradicate those same errors. And so both sorts of men have something to do". Árni made a late marriage in 1709 to Mette Jensdatter Fischer, widow of the royal saddlemaker, who was 19 years older and wealthy. He returned to Iceland only a few months later to continue his work on the land register; they corresponded by letter until his return to Copenhagen. He lived only a little more than a year after the Copenhagen fire, dependent on friends for lodgings