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Important mediæval manuscripts and later literary and historical manuscripts, [12 cent, first ½]-[late 19 cent.], reflecting the collecting interests of the Maurice and Owen families of Clenennau and Brogyntyn.
They include an important mid-fifteenth century miscellany of prose and verse in Middle English (Brogyntyn MS II.1); English and Welsh poetry; plays; astrology and prophecies; chronicles of the history of Britain, one of which is a thirteenth century version of Historia Regum Britanniæ of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Brogyntyn MS I.7); a lute book, [c. 1595] (Brogyntyn MS I.27); a copy of the laws of Hywel Dda [1625x1632] (Brogyntyn MS I.12); legal precedents and other papers of legal interest in Latin and English; pedigrees, genealogy and heraldry of North and South Wales families; religious treatises, prayers, devotions and sermons; a seventeenth-century Latin-Welsh dictionary and other manuscripts of linguistic interest; extracts from classical literature; commonplace books; academic notes; copies of significant historical letters and documents; political tracts; moralistic and philosophical works; memoranda, journals and private papers of members of the Anwyl and Owen families; a few Brogyntyn estate and trust papers, 1727-1792; and notes on public offices and official papers deriving from the administration of Oswestry Corporation, 1660, 1673. Some ancilliary materials, [19 cent, second ½]-[1960s], mostly correspondence and notes relating to individual manuscripts, are also included (MSS I.27a, II.1a, II.10a, II.22a, II.42a, II.54(h), II.56a).

Manuscripts, mostly in English or Latin, deposited at the National Library of Wales in 1938.

Manuscripts, mainly in English but also including the majority (ten out of thirteen) of the Welsh Brogyntyn manuscripts, deposited at the National Library of Wales in 1934.

A volume containing a Latin account of early British history in the form of a pedigree-chronicle from Aeneas and Julius Caesar to Yvor son of Cadwaladr and the Saxons, in the hand of Thomas Edenham (see ff. 4 verso, 7 and f. 41 verso ('Ednham' at foot of page)) at 'Berford' in 1483 (ff. 44 recto-verso, 67, 70, 79 verso, 80, 86 verso, 88 verso, 94 and 96 verso). Folios 4-19 verso were evidently written in 1487 (f. 18 verso). Thomas Edenham, O.F.M., was a native of Edenham, Lincolnshire (f. 7). The contents of ff. 31 verso-37 ('De ciuitate Lincolnie et eius preconiis') suggest that he remained within the diocese of Lincoln. The diocese offers several places called Barford (medieval 'Berford'): near Kettering, near Banbury and near Bedford; none has an obvious Franciscan connection.
Written by a single scribe in a secretary script with anglicana traits. Headings, paragraph marks, roundels and their connecting lines, foliation, underlining of proper names and most dates are in red.

Extracts, in Latin, from Liber Landavensis (the Book of Llandaff, NLW MS 17110E), transcribed by a hand of the mid sixteenth century. The transcripts consist mostly of charters, either in full or as brief extracts (ff. 2-6, 10-36 verso).

A formulary or commonplace book compiled by Richard de Bury, otherwise Richard Aungerville, civil servant, diplomat, Privy Seal 1329-1333, Lord Chancellor and bishop of Durham from 1333, containing his transcriptions of some 1,500 documents, mostly official administrative and courtesy correspondence, both foreign and domestic, mainly of English origin or sent to Englishmen from the court of Rome (ff. 1-105 verso, 116 verso-173, 179-239); together with a treatise on eloquence (ff. 105 verso-116).
Some five hundred of the letters were published in The Liber Epistolaris of Richard de Bury, ed. by N. Denholm-Young (London, 1950); a further three hundred, calendared by Denholm-Young, were previously published in Thomas Rymer's Foedera (London, 1816-30) and elsewhere. Full indexes are provided by Denholm-Young.

A volume containing three Middle English texts: The Pricke of Conscience (ff. 1-94 verso), followed by the Trentalle sancti Gregorii (ff. 94 verso-96) and the seven penitential Psalms (ff. 96-106 verso). Lewis and McIntosh (1982), p. 33, place the dialect of our text of the Pricke in Monmouthshire, west Gloucestershire or possibly south Wales. There is comment on Book iv of the Pricke, on Purgatory, Protestant in standpoint, written in an italic hand, [16 cent., second ½] (ff. 28 verso-35 passim), but no other marginalia.
Written in anglicana formata by a single, inelegant scribe. Punctuated by point at verse ends and, in Latin text, by point and punctus elevatus. Ink brown, with greenish appearance through the parchment. The following, despite some appearances to the contrary, are probably by the scribe: (i) corrections, (ii) sidenotes in Latin, (iii) a substantial number of additional and variant verses, presumably deriving from a MS other than the exemplar, and (iv) headings, mostly in English, some long and explanatory, marked for insertion in the text and followed by the letter r (for rubric), derived perhaps from the same source as the additional and variant verses. All but (i) occur only in the text of the Pricke; (iii) and (iv) were added after (ii). The marking for rubrication suggests that our manuscript, with its additions, may have been intended to serve as the exemplar of another.

A notebook containing a brief account of the early naval career of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, written by his daughter, Emily Charlotte Seymour, afterwards the second Lady Harlech.
The account was written by Seymour on board HMS Collingwood during a passage from Rio de Janeiro to England in June 1848, while returning with her father from his service as commander-in-chief in the Pacific, 1844-1848.

A transcript, dated 2 January 1815, of Lord Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire (London, 1809) in the hand of Mrs Frances Morres Gore, whose signature appears on f. ii (ff. iv recto-verso, 1-61).
Laid in inside the back cover is a bifolium (watermark 1839) containing two poems in French, in an unidentified hand (ff. 68a-b).

A transcript of Lord Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire (London, 1809) in the hand of Mary Jane Ormsby Gore whose signature, dated 10 March 1816, appears on f. i verso (ff. 1-58, rectos only); together with a further transcript, of Byron's 'The Lament of Tasso', in the hand of Mrs Frances Morres Gore, whose initials, dated 23 July 1823, appear on f. 63 verso (ff. 59-63 verso).
A Civil War letter, 9 July 1645, from John Byron, 1st Baron Byron of Rochdale, to Col. Sir John Owen of Clenennau has been tipped in on f. iii, probably because its author, like the poet, was a Byron.

A volume, compiled 1806-1829, by [Mrs] F[rances] Morres Gore, the mother of William [Ormsby-]Gore, containing poetry and light verse by various contemporary authors.
The poetry includes 'Psyche or The Legend of Love' by Mary Tighe (ff. 17-127) and several poems by William [Ormsby-]Gore (pp. 12-14, 156-162, 184, 188). An index to most of the items is provided on p. 248. Items found loose within the volume have been tipped in (pp. 179-190 passim, 216).

Poetry and prose compiled at Brogyntyn for an album (cf. Brogyntyn MS I.29), but left unbound. The items, in various hands, are mainly in English but with a few in Latin, Welsh and French, and consist of political, satirical and occasional verse, both published and apparently unpublished (ff. 1-212 verso), together with a few letters (ff. 214-228), miscellaneous prose and commonplace entries (ff. 229-306), and printed material including song-sheets, pamphlets and newspaper cuttings (ff. 307-390). A number of items relate to Brogyntyn or Wynnstay or are addressed to family members.

A volume containing a holograph copy, finished 16 January 1649/50, of an incomplete translation into Welsh by Rowland Vaughan (c. 1590-1667), Caer Gai, Llanuwchllyn, Merionethshire, of Eikon Basilike, a work attributed to King Charles I and first published a few hours after the king's execution on 30 January 1648/9.
Preceding the translation is a dedicatory epistle to Col. Sir John Owen of Clenennau, Caernarvonshire, under whom Vaughan served during the Civil War (f. 1 recto-verso), three verses on the death of Charles I and four regarding the translation (f. 2). The surviving part of the translation begins towards the end of chapter 23 (the original pagination indicates the loss of 140 pages at the beginning) and continues to the end of the work (ff. 3 23 verso); it is followed by a table of contents (ff. 23 verso-24). Vaughan translated the text at Cilgellan, Merionethshire, since his own home, Caer Gai, had been destroyed by the Parliamentarian troops. The text of the dedicatory epistle is printed in Megan Ellis, 'Pethau nas Cyhoeddwyd, 2. Cyflwyniad Rowland Vaughan, Caergai, i'w gyfieithiad o Eikon Basilike', National Library of Wales Journal, 1 (1939-40), 141-144 (pp. 143-144). See also Eikon Basilike, or the King's Book, ed. by Edward Almack (London, 1904). A negative photostat copy of the manuscript was made, [?mid-20 cent.], prior to its repairing and binding at NLW and prior to its being foliated; this copy is now Brogyntyn MS II.56a.

A composite manuscript of loose papers and fragments of manuscript volumes. It contains poetry and prose, mostly in Welsh, much of the poetry being addressed to the Owen family of Brogyntyn and Clenennau and other related families. Apart from a late-sixteenth century awdl by Wiliam Llŷn (ff. 57-58), the other items all belong between the first half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century.
Fragments apparently once part of books, some of which perhaps were never bound, are: a narrow folio of cywyddau and englynion by Mathew Owen, in the hand of Nathanael Jones (ff. 20-26), written not before 1656 (see ff. 24 verso-25), with autograph englynion added by Harri Howel (f. 20 verso) and by Nathanael Jones (f. 20 verso, 23); a folio manuscript containing cywyddau to Lewis Anwyl of Parc and his family, dated 1627-1636 (ff. 38-55), written by two good hands of the first half of the seventeenth century, one responsible for ff. 38-50 verso, the other ff. 51-55; a quarto manuscript with transcripts of poetry of the Gogynfeirdd (ff. 113-122; paginated 1-20), by a seventeenth-century hand similar to that of Morris Evans (cf. ff. 93-94, 123-141); pedigrees of Welsh royal lines, the Maurices of Clenennau, etc., in English (ff. 123-141; original foliation 1-12 survives), in the hand of Morris Evans (ff. 123-127 verso, 129-134 verso) and a second hand (ff. 128 recto-verso, 135-141); a narrow folio of canu brud attributed to Myrddin, Taliesin, etc. (ff. 178-186), written by Nathanael Jones, not before 1651 (ff. 182 verso, 183 verso 'aetatis suae a 21o Feb: 1650 27'); a folio manuscript of canu brud, mainly cywyddau, by Dafydd Llwyd and others (ff. 189-207), in a poor hand of the mid seventeenth century, probably that of Thomas Edwards to judge by pentrials on f. 196 verso, who refers to Tregeiriog (f. 199 verso) and 'Llanfylling fairings' (f. 207 verso); an octavo manuscript containing poems by Robin Clidro, etc., in a seventeenth or eighteenth century hand (ff. 210-219); and a folio manuscript of autograph cywyddau and englynion by Huw Morys, some addressed to William Owen and Sir Robert Owen (ff. 222-226 verso). Poetry written on loose papers includes autograph poems by Huw Morys (ff. 12-18), John Owens (ff. 59-71; f. 69 recto-verso may be his italic hand), Harri Howel (ff. 75-76 verso, 90 recto-verso), Owen Gruffydd (ff. 84-89, 230-231), William Phylip (ff. 97-98 verso), John Morgan, later vicar of Conwy (f. 101 recto-verso, the poem incomplete and anonymous, dated 1688, the hand his), Siôn Rhydderch, 1732 (ff. 104-105, 227-228), and Edward Lloyd, Brewis (f. 221 recto-verso). There are probable autograph poems by Edward Rowlant (ff. 72-74 verso, 79-80) and John Richard (f. 81), and possible autograph poems by 'J. Ll.' (f. 26 verso), Mathew Owen (ff. 77-78, 232 recto-verso), Siôn Roberts (ff. 91-92), Huw Cadwaladr (ff. 106-108) and 'R.C.' (f. 163). Other poetry is in the hands of Morris Evans (ff. 93-94) and 'Theo: Ro:' (ff. 152-154 verso). Also included is a letter, 1652, from the antiquary Meredith Lloyd to Thomas Vaughan, the alchemist and poet (ff. 1-3 verso), followed by a copy of Hanes Taliesin (ff. 5-10 verso). The 'Cywydd Marwnad i Mr William Owen o Borkynton' by Huw Morys, beginning 'Mae gwaedd oer lem Gweddw [yw'r wlad]', discussed in E. D. Jones, 'The Brogyntyn Welsh Manuscripts', National Library of Wales Journal, 7 (1951-2), 165-198 (pp. 186-189, 196-197), has not been found.

Two photostat copies (one positive and one negative) of Brogyntyn MS I.7, made in New York in 1926 while the manuscript was on loan to Acton Griscom, then preparing his edition of The Historia Regum Britanniӕ of Geoffrey of Monmouth (London, 1929) (each copy 92 ff., unfoliated); together with an off-print of Acton Griscom, 'The Date of Composition of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia: New Manuscript Evidence', Speculum, I (1926), 129-156, signed by the author and sent to Lord Harlech (ff. 93-111); and twelve letters, 1925-1927, mainly from Acton Griscom, New York, to Lord Harlech, August 1925-July 1927, with one letter from J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., New York, to Harlech, 10 December 1925, and one from Harlech to Griscom, 5 August 1927, concerning arrangements for Brogyntyn MS I.7 to be deposited temporarily in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, for Griscom's use (ff. 112-32).

Printed items, 1635-1684, including two prospectuses, in the form of conjoint pairs of leaves, announcing disputations, for the degrees of doctor of medicine and doctor of theology respectively, at the University of Franeker, Holland, the one: ΣΥΝΦΕΩ dispvtatio medica inavgvralis, de suppressione mensium ... ex authoritate ... Henrici Rhala, J. U. Doct. & in illustri academia, quӕ est Franekerӕ, historiarum & eloquentiӕ professoris, ac p.t. rectoris magnifici, ... tueri conabitur Johannes Sadler, Anglus ... (Franekerӕ: Uldericus Balck, 1635) (ff. 1-2 verso), and the other: Ideӕ theologiӕ disputatio xxxl de redemtorum vocatione per sacramentorum exhibitionem in genere ... sub prӕsidio ... Johannis Clutonis, S.S. theologiӕ doctoris, defendendam suscipiet Hansonius Huss, Leov. Fris. (Franekerӕ: Vldericus Balck, 1635) (ff. 5-6 verso), each containing a Latin poem to the respective candidates, John Sadler and Hans Huss, by Lambrock Thomas (Cambro-Britanni, d. 1672), later dean of Chichester.
Also included are a small portion cut from the title page of another copy of the first prospectus together with another copy of the Latin poem to Sadler (ff. 3-4 verso); and a leaf containing a poem to a rhinoceros beginning 'This noble She Rhinoceros' headed by an engraving of the animal with the caption 'The prodigious & wonderfull Rhinoceros sold for 2320£ Sterling 1684' (f. 7).

Two copies, [early 18 cent.], of a letter addressed to 'Cousin Owen' [?Sir Robert Owen] and signed 'Row: Owen', offering the recipient comfort and advice on the death of his infant son. MS II.54(f) i, written in a neat italic hand, is probably the prototype of MS II.54(f) ii, a bound presentation copy written in a calligraphical italic hand. A comparison of the two copies shows that a number of words have been carelessly omitted throughout the text of MS II.54(f) ii; and a Latin verse which follows the letter in MS II.54(f) i has also been omitted. There are also some orthographical differences between the texts.

A volume containing scriptural and theological notes, written in an early-seventeenth century italic hand.

A notebook, [late 17 cent. x early 18 cent.], containing prayers and devotions.
Later additions in a different hand are on ff. 18 verso and 24 verso.

Notes headed 'Passive Obedience', being extracts taken from Thomas Bilson, The True Difference Betweene Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion (Oxford, 1585, STC 3071).