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A facsimile manuscript in two parts mostly in the hand of William Watkin Edward Wynne. The first part comprises copies (some printed) of charters, public records, deeds, pedigrees, poetry, etc. of Merionethshire and Caernarvonshire interest, some of which are taken from transcripts made by Robert Vaughan, Hengwrt. The material includes records and pedigrees relating to the Wynn family of Peniarth; notes on the Maurice and Owen families of Clenennau, Penmorfa, Caernarvonshire, with related deeds possibly in the hand of William Maurice of Llansilin; deeds relating to the Porkington estate; an extent of the commote of Eifionydd, 1352; an extract from the Coroner's Rolls for Merionethshire, 1345; charters of Castell y Bere and Harlech Castle; pedigrees of Madog ap Dafydd of Hendwr, Llandrillo, Merionethshire; an ode to Einion ap Gruffydd of Corsygedol by Gruffudd Gryg; odes to Dafydd ab Ieuan ab Einion by Guto'r Glyn and Dafydd Nanmor; letters addressed to W. W. E. Wynne, the correspondents including Walter Davies ('Gwallter Mechain'); etc. The second part is also mostly in the hand of W. W. E. Wynne and again comprises material mainly of Merionethshire and Caernarvonshire interest, including pedigrees, correspondence, deeds, etc. relating to the Porkington estate and to the Maurice family and to the Wynne family of Glyn and Ystumcegid, Caernarvonshire; poetry relating to members of the Wynn family of Glyn by Huw Machno, Rhisiart Cynwal and others (one elegy translated into English); press cuttings taken from the Cambrian News, 1879; letters addressed to W. W. E. Wynne, the correspondents including Walter Davies ('Gwallter Mechain') and Joseph Morris; etc.

A composite manuscript, the four parts probably together from the start. Tracts on theosophy, astrology and conjuring. At first in unbound booklets (witness some soiled surviving paper covers, pp. 28, 29, 96, 120). In Welsh and English, the Welsh by four collaborating scribes, the English by three others, their texts complementing those in Welsh. All of [17-18 cent.].
(i) pp. 1-28. A tract, in Welsh, its beginning wanting; cites Peter of Abano, H.C. Agrippa and Gerard of Cremona, and on p. 14 reads: ‘Hud yma yr ysgrifenais tu ag at y ffordd blaunaf su ynghwaith Peter Albanws gwelwch wrth yr Elament fel llufr Morgan Llwud natur dyn.’ All by scribe A. The watermark of this part appears to be Churchill 243 (1707).
(ii) pp. 29-96. Beginning ‘Yn y llyfyr cynta yr hwn uw pedwerydd llyfr Agrippa’. By scribes B (pp. 29-62, 65-78), C (pp. 63-4), A (pp. 78-83b, 90-4), D (pp. 84-9).
(iii) pp. 97-120. ‘Pwy bynnag a ewllyssio wubod dirgelwch’, citing Peter of Abano, followed by ‘Aphorisms’, in Welsh, numbered 1-14 (pp. 97-110) and ‘72 [o] golofnau ar uchel henwau Duw’ (pp. 111-18). All by scribe B.
(iv) pp. 121-94. Texts in English, written by three other contemporary hands. These comprise ‘Aphorisms’, in English, numbered 15-48 (pp. 121-64); geomancy (pp. 165-94) including on pp. 167-79 ‘Gerard Cremonen[s]is of Astromonical [sic] Geomancy’; and astrology (pp. 181-94).

A well laid-out but unstructured collection of Welsh pedigrees, predominantly north-east Welsh, on the pattern of achau’r mamau, with decoration in red and green, in the excellent hand of Thomas ap Llywelyn ab Ithel of Bodfari. Written not before 1561 [see Peniarth MS 139ii, p. 403, once part of our manuscript] and not later than 1568 (there are additions in the hand of Humphrey Llwyd who died that year). Apart from some corrections and additions made by the scribe, it is otherwise little annotated. In addition to illustrative englynion (e.g. pp. 170, 348, 558) and short genealogical tracts it includes: an armorial, blazon in Welsh (pp. 98-112); annals, in Welsh, 1468-1551 (pp. 243-9); Y Tri Thlws ar Ddeg (p. 370); ‘llyma hen gymraec’ (pp. 495-503). The scribe’s foliation i-cclxxxxix survives on pp. 23-607; his index, the beginning wanting, is on pp. 1-21 (it includes references up to f. cccxiiii). The ink on some pages is faded and the upper edges of some leaves towards the end are damaged. Sections in Peniarth MS 139i and 139ii that are in the hand of Thomas ap Llywelyn but without his foliation appear to belong to the end of Peniarth MS 138.

The Welsh version of the Grail legend, translated from the French. One of the best preserved of medieval Welsh manuscripts. The text comprises: ‘Y keis’, derived from La Queste del Saint Graal (ff. 1-109 verso), printed from this manuscript in Ystoryaeu Seint Greal, ed. Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1992), followed by the Welsh version of Perlesvaus (ff. 110-280 verso). The junction is recorded on f. 109 verso: ‘Ac uelly y teruyna y rann gyntaf or greal. nyt amgen nor keis. Bellach dywedadwy yỽ o rann gwalchmei. ac o anturyeu y milwyr ual y kyfaruu ac ỽynt’. The only lacuna in the text is in quire 18 (see collation). The text of both parts is printed in Y Seint Greal: Selections from the Hengwrt MSS, ed. Robert Williams (London, 1876). All written in the hand of Hywel Fychan ap Hywel Goch, no doubt for his patron, Hopcyn ap Tomas, probably earlier than Jesus College Oxford, MS 111 (datable post-1382), since the awdl by Dafydd y Coed in that book refers to Hopcyn’s book of the Greal.

The set of historical texts: Ystoria Dared (ff. 1-17, cols 1-66); Brut y Brenhinedd (ff. 17 verso-89, cols 67-441) and Brut y Tywysogion (ff. 89 verso-143, cols 443-665); followed by Brut y Saeson (ff. 143-145 verso, cols 665-76), breaking off abruptly in the year 979. All are very close to the corresponding texts in the Red Book of Hergest [see Brut y Tywysogyon: Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. and trans. Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1955), pp. xxviii-xxix, and Studia Celtica, 12/13 (1977/78), 176]. All are written in two columns by the Red Book scribe, X91, with 2- and 3-line initials in red. Lacunae due to the loss of leaves 1 and 10 in quire 5, the whole of original quire 9, leaves 5 and 6 of quire 17, and the final quire. On the erratic foliation, see below; J. Gwenogvryn Evans numbered the columns allowing, however, in his numeration for the columns that would have been in lacunae. The text of the original f. 1 made good by a hand of [16-17 cent.] on a supplied leaf (f. 1). Headings in textura by a hand of [15 cent.] (e.g. ff. 59 verso, 87); annotation and textual correction by several hands of [15 cent.] and [16 cent.] (e.g. ff. 41 recto-verso and 93, ff. 79 and 82, ff. 94 verso and 114 verso, f. 56, f. 123 verso, ff. 127 verso and 135 verso). Rebound in [16-17 cent.]; at this rebinding quires were signed I-XVII, skipping a number somewhere between VII and XI (= quire 10).

A volume of collections of poems by Lewys Dwnn probably made up after his death. Lewys Dwnn customarily made retrospective copies of his own poems and usually gave their dates; he is explicit in his subscription on p. 402, dated 1607. The apparent constituent parts are six. Many leaves are damaged at their edges.
(i) pp. 1-72. Poems by Lewys Dwnn, mostly cywyddau, for the most part dated 1600-7, one as early as 1590, all probably written about 1607, together with copies of a few other cywyddau of [15 cent.], all in the hand of Lewys Dwnn.
(ii) pp. 73-432. Poems by Lewys Dwnn dated 1599-1603, a few dated 1577-83, all probably copied c. 1603, with a few cywyddau by others, of [14-16 cent.], and on pp. 231-40 ‘Ymddiddan Tristan ac Esyllt’ [printed in Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 5 (1929-31), 115-29]. Written by Lewys Dwnn (pp. 80-6, 91-9, etc.) with the help of perhaps five amanuenses: A, probably the young James Dwnn (pp. 73-80); B, the main helper (pp. 87-91, 100-6, 115-26, etc.); C (pp. 136-40, 187-94); D (pp. 195-7). Many poems copied by the amanuenses are signed by Lewys Dwnn himself.
(iii) pp. 433-46. Poems by Lewys Dwnn dated 1614-16, all autograph, his hand tremulous.
(iv) pp. 447-506. Poems by Lewys Dwnn dated 1601-4, with two earlier, 1590 and 1592, all probably written c. 1604, autograph except for pp. 491-5 (by Dwnn’s amanuensis, apparently James Dwnn).
(v) pp. 507-616. Poems by Lewys Dwnn dated 1568-84, in his early hand, all probably written c. 1584, headings in red.
(vi) pp. 617-90. Poems by Lewys Dwnn dated 1604-5, all autograph except for pp. 649-58, which are written by a good collaborating secretary hand; one poem dated 1607 (pp. 689-90).

A composite manuscript containing:
(i) pp. 1-2. A large folio sheet, folded, containing pedigrees in the hand of Robert Vaughan, evidently part of the draft of his lost ‘Llyfr Achau y Deheudir’ [see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Notes on the Welsh genealogical manuscripts’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1968, 63-98, esp. 86].
(ii) pp. 3-106, 151-334. An informal collection of Welsh pedigrees mainly written by Gruffudd Hiraethog in a variable hand over the period 1554-64 (see dates on, e.g., pp. 47, 229, 237, 239, 264, 269, 281). There are substantial sections (e.g. pp. 5-19, 23, 25-6, 31-5) and many additions in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn, some dated, e.g. 1570 (p. 250) and 1572 (p. 312). Foliated by Wiliam Llŷn; his ‘Tabl’ is on pp. 5-19. There are contributions by other hands, all contemporary with Wiliam Llŷn if not also with Gruffudd Hiraethog: A, an educated secretary hand, concerned with Edeirnion (pp. 36-7 and 58); B, Simwnt Fychan (p. 39); C, Huw Llŷn (‘Llyma gof am yr amser y bu Eisteddvod ynghaerwys … 1567’, pp. 59-63); D (pp. 174-5, where he offers a deviant opinion on the ancestry of Owain ap Bradwen, citing ‘rai yneheubarth’ and ‘John Wynn Unllawiawc’, and pp. 219-22); E (pp. 191-2); F, apparently from south-west Wales (pp. 193-4 and 196-211); G, ostensibly ‘per me Morgan Elfel’, but in a hand not recognizably his (pp. 275-7); H, a bold secretary hand, concerned with Cegidfa (pp. 283-90); I (pp. 297-9). Predominantly, the pedigrees relate to north Wales, but those on pp. 153-229 are mainly south Welsh. Gruffudd throughout is characteristically helpful in naming his sources [see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Genealogical sources quoted by Gruffudd Hiraethog’, National Library of Wales Journal, 26 (1989-90), 1-9]. Apart from pedigrees, other texts in the manuscript include ‘Dosbarth Arvau … o gynulliad Wmffre Llwyd o dref Ddinbych’, in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn [printed in Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society, 17 (1968), 66-82] (pp. 67-90). On p. 102, Gruffudd notes ‘Henwe hen brydyddion’, evidence of his acquaintance with the contents of the Hendregadredd manuscript (NLW MS 6680).
(iii) pp. 107-50. A valuable collection of genealogical tracts, of south Wales bias, written by an excellent hand temp. Henry VIII (see pp. 143, 149). Tracts include Y Pedwar Brenin ar Hugain, Pum Oes Byd, Bonedd y Saint, Rhandiroedd Powys, besides south Wales pedigrees. Of the hand, Robert Vaughan notes on p. 107, ‘llaw Lewys Morganwc sydd yn calyn medd Rys Cain’. This attribution is rightly rejected in P.C. Bartrum, ‘Notes on the Welsh genealogical manuscripts’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1968, 63-98, esp. 74, and id., 1988, 37-46, esp. 41-2, where it is observed that these pages are cited elsewhere by Gruffudd Hiraethog as ‘Llyfr Lewys ap Edwart’ and as ‘Llyfr Ieuan ap Huw Kae Llwyd’. Gruffudd Hiraethog added text on pp. 141-2, which had been left blank.

A petition in the autograph of Ellis Wynne of Lasynys, Merionethshire to Richard Vaughan, MP, relating to an Act of Parliament for the embanking of the estuaries of Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bychan.
Signed by William Wynn, Maes y Neuadd, Maurice Williams, William Wynne of Wern, 'Willm. Anwill, cler.', David Evans, Will: Williams, Bron Danw, John Morgan, Penrhyn, John Phillip, and Ellis Wynne.

A collection of miscellaneous pedigrees, which includes the following families: Barlow, Delamere, Herbert, Huntley, Hope of Broughton, Jones of Abermarles, Maunsell, Morgan of Tredegar, Philipps of Picton, Ravenscroft, Rys of Newton, Vaughan of Golden Grove, and Wogan.

A copy of the genealogy of the Mostyn family by Randle Holme of Chester (1663) in the hand of Robert Vaughan.

Lists of grants, leases, etc., passed from the crown, of the revenues of North Wales, 1631-1702.

A fragment of a tract on the war between England and France; a portion of 'the tretice off housbondry that Master Grosthed [Grosseteste] mad the which was Bischope of Lyncolne ...'; a metrical story of Saint Gregory and his mother; miscellaneous cookery recipes; 'a good book off keruynge and servis vnto a prince ...'; and medical recipes.

A text of the pageant of Antichrist from the Chester cycle of miracle plays.

A collection of pedigrees mainly of South Wales families transcribed by Thomas Evan (otherwise known as Thomas ab Ieuan) of Tre'r Bryn, 1683, with additions in another hand.