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Manuscripts, [late 12 cent.]-[early 20 cent.], formerly part of the library of the Mostyn family of Mostyn Hall, Flintshire, comprising transcripts and extracts from Giraldus Cambrensis, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Dares Phrygius, Nennius, Gildas, David Jenkins (Judge Jenkins), Sir John Wynn of Gwydir, Lydgate's 'Life of Our Lady', Leland's Itinerary, 'Chroniques de France', historical manuscripts such as Brut y Tywysiogion and Brut y Brenhinoedd, Welsh romances and the Mabinogion; collections of mainly Welsh poetry, among them the seventeenth-century volumes Llyfr Coch Nannau and Llyfr Gwyn Corsygedol, containing poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym, Guto'r Glyn, Tudur Aled, Siôn Cent and others; genealogies, pedigrees and histories; official papers relating to Caernarvonshire; catalogues of the Mostyn and Gloddaeth libraries, 1692-1842; etc.

A collection of Welsh medical texts, including tracts on blood-letting and uroscopy, medicinal recipes, and a lists of herbs in English, Welsh and Latin, all written in a seventeenth-century hand.

A book of South Wales pedigrees, [c. 1592], written in two distinct hands.
The manuscript also contains the tract known as 'Bonedd Saint Cymru' (f. 48 verso).

The Welsh texts of Dares Phrygius (ff. 1-23 verso), Brut y Brenhinedd (ff. 24-141 verso), and Brut y Tywysogion (ff. 142-206 verso), written in a hand of the second half of the fourteenth century.

A composite manuscript in several hands comprising poetry; proverbs; proverbial triads; etc.; part of the text seems to be in the hand of Richard Mostyn and to have been written in 1574. The whole might be Mostyn's common-place book, in which others occasionally wrote during his life and afterwards.

A manuscript entitled 'Llyfr Sion ap Wiliam ap Sion o Englynion' (p. 1), being a collection of englynion compiled between 1605 (p. 78) and 1618 (p. 872) by John Jones, Gellilyfdy, Flintshire.

A collection of Welsh pedigrees, written early in the seventeenth century.

The Romances of Peredur (pp. 1-58) and Bown of Hampton (pp. 59-174), together with the Mabinogi (pp. 175-265), transcribed at the end of the sixteenth century. The text is a direct copy of Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (Peniarth MSS 4-5).

A collection of awdlau and cywyddau written during the second quarter of the seventeenth century by William Phylip. The contents are almost entirely poetical, but the volume also includes transcripts of a treatise on poetical composition by William Middleton (pp. 274-302) and on Welsh metres by John Phillipp [Siôn Phylip] (pp. 303-313). The title page, table of contents and an index of poets are in the hand of Lewis Morris (pp. 1, 3-11, 13-14, 40).

Transcripts of Geoffrey's Historia, Brenhined y Saeson, Nennius, Gildas, Chronicles and Laws, possibly in the hand of John David Laes (John Davies).

Transcripts made in 1647 by John Richardson, Llewenie Grene, Denbighshire, of 'A Declaration of Mr: David Jenkins now prisoner in the To[wer] one of his Maiesties judges in wales, for Tryalls, Murth[ers] & all other Capitall crimes that they ought only to be by Jurie[s] not otherwise vnless it be by acte of Parliamente', [17] March 1647; 'Judge Jenkins' Treatise or Discourse made & [ ] To the honourable Societies of Gray's Inne & of the rest of the Innes of Cort ...', [2]8 April 1647; 'An Apologie for the Army, Touchinge the eight quaeres upon the later declaration ... By David Jenkins Prisoner in the Tower of London', 1647; and 'A discourse touchinge the inconveniences of a long continued Parliament'.

'A sermon preached at the interment of Owen Holland of Berow in the County of Anglesey Esqr the second day of December, 1656. By Robert Morgan Bachelour in Divinitye & Rr of Llanddiffnan', 1656.

Prologues and epilogues in Latin and English to Latin plays by Terence and Plautus and English plays by Otway ([The Cheats of] Scapin), Addison (Cato) and Shakespeare (Henry IV) (ff. 1-12 verso, 26 verso-27 verso, 32-33 verso, 47-47 verso). These prologues and epilogues appear to have been composed for performances of these plays by the pupils of Westminster school (where the scribe of this manuscript, Thomas Mostyn was a pupil, see A. H. Stenning and G. F. Russell Barker, The Record of Old Westminsters, London, 1928, p. 671), as a number of them are to be found in the volume Lusus Westmonasterienses, Westminster, 1734. One prologue (to the Eunuchus of Terence), bears the date 1709 (f. 5). The manuscript also contains Latin odes, apparently by Anthony Alsop (see ODNB, his poetical works, ed. Sir Francis Bernard, Antonii Alsopi Odarum libri duo (Londini, 1752) not at present available in NLW) (ff. 17-18, 43-46). Also included are English poems by Edward Littleton (see ODNB) - '[On] A Spider' and 'A Letter to Mr H. Archer at Eaton School from Cambridge 1717 by E. Littleton' (ff. 33 verso-34, 38 verso-41). These poems are printed in R. Dodsley (ed.), A Collection of Poems in six volumes ... (London, 1770) pp. 290-4, 295-9.
The remainder of the poems in this manuscript between f. 12 verso and f. 47 verso (the leaves are blank from f. 48 to f. 169) are almost exclusively in Latin, largely comprising short exercises on various themes, with some longer poems on subjects such as 'Atrium Peckwateriensel' (ff. 13 verso-15 verso) and 'In Inclytam Scholam Regiam Westmonasteriensem Authore Roberto South. AD. 1652.' (ff. 13-13 verso). There are also some shorter Latin pieces on contemporary subjects, such as a 'Copy of Verses upon Curl's being tost in a Blanket' (f. 42) and 'Mr Urry's Epitaph made by Himself' (ff. 46-46 verso), as well as two English poems: 'An Epitaph written upon Atterbury in Imitation of an Old one upon a Litigious Abbot of Rochester' (ff. 41 verso-42) and '... upon Bagshaw a Student's marrying Bicknall's Daughter, Who was Porter of Ch. Ch. back Gate, ... by J. Bramston' (f. 42 verso). An 'Index Thematum', arranged alphabetically, with incomplete list of prologues and epilogues, is on the back paste down (ff. 169 verso-178).

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Gloddaeth Library, alphabetically arranged with numerous bibliographical notes, written in 1842 (watermark H. MILLS 1841) by Edward Parry of Chester (ff. 1-65). The catalogue is written on the rectos. Bibliographical notes have been added on the versos.
The manuscript also includes a Catalogue of the Gloddaeth Manuscripts at Mostyn 1842 (ff. 67-88), arranged as: Nos 1-36, English Manuscripts (ff. 68-75); Nos 37-56, Welsh Manuscripts (ff. 76-81); and Nos 57-87, Latin and French Manuscripts (ff. 82-88).

A volume of household and medical recipes written at various times from the mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. There are two mid-seventeenth century hands (A and B) with additions in many late seventeenth to mid-eighteenth century hands. Hand A runs from ff. 1-9, and hand B from ff. 9-12, 20-23 verso, 26-40, 73-74 verso, 77, 83 recto-verso, 87 verso-113 with additions on the paste-down on the inside of the front cover and ff. 1 verso, 6 verso, 8 recto-verso.
Papers found loose in the manuscript have been brought together at the end (ff. 118-125). These include a receipt (dated Mar. 26, 1753) to Mrs A. Hay for payment for a neglige cap, signed D. W. Healey (f. 123), and an undated letter from T. Knight addressed to Mrs Nancy Lloyd at Nanney (ff. 124-125).

Two tracts - (a) a description of England, in fifteen chapters, compiled in 1445, beginning 'tractatus iste compendiose extractus de diversorum historiographorum diversis ... describit Angliam ... '; (b) a genealogical chronicle in the same hand projected from Adam to Brutus and from Brutus to Henry VI, but in execution brought only to Edward I, with a continuation in a sixteenth century hand to Henry VIII (1518). The pattern of this genealogical chronicle is that of the Promptuarium Bibliae attributed to Petrus Pictaviensis. The text begins 'Adam in agro damasceno ...' (cf. Thomas Jones, Y Bibyl Ynghymraeg (Cardiff, 1940), p. xiii) and has lines added for the Saxons, kings of Britain, princes of Wales, the different divisions of Saxon England, kings of England, princes of Demetia, princes of Venedotia, &c.

The text of Statud Gruffudd ap Cynan ('Llyma ystatus Gruff ap Kynan'), as promulgated at the Caerwys Eisteddfod of 1523.

A photostat copy, [early 20 cent.], of part of a manuscript of 1674-1686, containing cywyddau and awdlau addressing Sir Thomas Mostyn and other members of his family.
The facsimile reproduces 3 prefatory leaves and pp. 25-92, 295-340 of the original only, the remainder of the manuscript being blank.

A manuscript containing holograph cywyddau by Wiliam Cynwal written between 1572 (f. 6) and his death in 1588. The poems are accompanied by illustrations of their subjects' coats of arms.