Showing 78 results

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.

Texts of Dares Phrygius, Brut y Brenhinedd, Brut y Tywyssogion, Life of St Sylvester, The Death of Guido of Vienne, etc. Written by 'David ap Jenkin amhredydd o Vachynnlleth' for Huw Lewis of Hafodwen in 1586-1587.

Coats of arms and pedigrees, [c. 1572], in Welsh and English, apparently in the hand of Sir Thomas Wiliems.
A note on p. 177 states 'This books seemeth to have beene compyled in the yeere of o[u]r Lorde. 1572' (p. 177).

A manuscript of Welsh pedigrees, compiled by the sixteenth-century poet and transcriber, Wiliam Cynwal (dec. 1587) of Ysbyty Ifan. The hand of Wiliam Cynwal runs throughout the MS, there are however a few minor additions to the text by later hands scattered throughout the work. Each genealogy is preceded by a heading locating or naming the family seat; a bolder script is then employed at the beginning of the genealogy proper and sometimes subsequently when a sub-section is introduced. There is rubrication on ff. 5, 117 verso and 292 verso. The aim and scope of the MS is set out by the scribe in an introductory note on f. i, where it is said that the intention is to record the pedigrees of the gentry of Gwynedd, Powys and parts of the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire. He also states his intention of preparing a similar MS to include the pedigrees of the families of the seven counties of Deheubarth. Before the end of the present MS, however, the transcriber has diverted a significant portion of his MS to record details of South Wales families. This MS, like several of Cynwal's other genealogical MSS, concentrates on tracing the maternal ancestors of the families in question. Genealogical and heraldic MSS in his hand include: Bangor 5943, BM Harleian 1961 and Peniarth 128 and 183.
The MS opens with the following preface: 'Y llyfr hwnn a ddechrevais i Wiliam Kynwal pryd[ydd] hel i Iachav ai yscrivennv p[an] oedd oed Krist 1565 ac ynddo yr wyf yn Roi Iachav boneddicion gwynedd a ffowys a phart o sir gaer lleon ac o sir y mwythic a llyfr arall yr wyf yni wnevthvr o Iachav boneddicion saith sir dehevbarth y llyfr hwnn a yscrifenais o amafaelion (sic). lyfrav yn gowiraf ac ygellais drwy boen travael ac anhvnedd ac er hynny medd y ddihareb ni chair dim heb i vai velly o bydd neb ar vol Inav awypo yn sikr [fod] bai ar y llyfr hwnn adolw[yn] I ymendio ac yn gyntaf [ ]Kair y dabl [ ] ch [ym]ovynner [ ]' (f. i).

Apparently the chronicle of the reign of Charles V found in Les Grandes Chroniques de France (Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis) but unable to compare with any of the printed texts (ff. 1-59). The prologue on f. 1 ('Au non du pere ... les autres plus indignes') corresponds word for word with that to the chronicle of the reign of Charles VII (see below, f. 177) except for the substitution of V for VII. The text of f. 1 is written by a later hand to make good the loss of probably two leaves of the original manuscript, see below. Possibly the placing of Jean Chartier's prologue at this point is due to a misunderstanding by this later hand. From f. 2 on, chapters are numbered and headed by brief summaries. The text of f. 2 begins in chapter 3.
Also included is apparently Jean Juvenal's chronicle of the reign of Charles VI with the continuation attributed to Gilles le Bouvier (ff. 63-172). Unable to compare with a printed text. Cf. B. L. Royal MS 20. E. v. Chapters numbered and headed by brief summaries, as in the table. Together with another two fragments: the first of whcih we are unable to compare with a printed text of Jean Chartier's chronicle. Cf. BL Royal MS 20. C. ix. Chapters numbered and headed by brief summaries, as in the table (ff. 177-339); the second of which we are unable to compare with the chronicle of the reign of Louis XI which was added to some of the early printed editions of Les Grandes Chroniques de France (ff. 340-444 verso).

A transcript of the romance of the Holy Grail, with annotations in later hands.

A calendar, a treatise on urine, a Life of St Martin, and a brief history from Adam to "Asclopitotus", in the autograph of Gutyn Owain, written in 1488 (p. 62) and 1489 (p. 10).

Lydgate's Life of our Lady, 'O thoughtful! herte plunged indistresse ...' (ff. 2-102 verso). The text includes 'The white lillie of the chosen vale' (f. 3 verso), 'That al maydens myzte ensample take' (f. 4), 'The beutee causith to be of more delyte' (f. 25 verso), and 'Amydeys this welle from fylthe of synne cold ...' (f. 26). The text is defective at two points due to the loss of leaves. It breaks off in ch. I (after f. 3) and resumes near the end of ch. 2; it breaks off again in ch. 19 and resumes in ch. 20. The tags follow the text in the hand of the scribe. It has not yet been possible to compare the text with the edition of J. A. Lauritis, R. A. Klinefelter and V. F. Gallagher.
Written in one hand, an Anglicana formata with Secretary influence, professional-looking. On f. 2 is a 10-line historiated initial O (birth of the Virgin, the picture somewhat rubbed) with a full page frame and border of foliage, flowers and sprays (gold, maroon, blue, white, green, orange), reproduced in the Christie's catalogue (see below). Blue initials for chapters, with red penwork, mostly 2-line, a few 3 or 4-line. Alternating red and blue paragraphs marks with contrasting penwork. Chapter numbers in red at the head of each page, with blue paragraph mark and red penwork. Sidenotes in red with blue paragraph marks.

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.

The Welsh text of Brut y Brenhinedd written by the scribe of the Book of Taliesin (NLW Peniarth MS 2) during the first half of the fourteenth century. The text is followed by the pedigree of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.

The 'Topographia Hibernica' and 'Expugnatio Hiberniae' of Giraldus Cambrensis, with initial capitals, etc., in red and green.

An early-thirteenth century collection of distinctiones from the Mostyn library. The distinctiones are theological and scriptural and, to a small extent, merely grammatical. They are set out in the characteristically medieval schematic pattern. Quotations in the distinctiones are mostly from Scripture; there are also however some from the Fathers, from the Liturgy and, among the pagan writers, Boethius, Virgil, Ovid and Lucan. The compilation appears in part at least to be an original one. It is the work of one hand, an English one, well written and prettily decorated in red and green.

The Vulgate text of St Luke's Gospel preceded by the usual prologue (F. Stegmuller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, Madrid, 1950-61, no. 620) (ff. 1-121 verso). Lucas, syrus natione, et antyochenus, arte medicus ... (f. 2) quam fastidientibus prodesse. Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt ... et benedicentes deum. The prologue has interlinear glosses by the scribe of the text, some of them giving variant readings. The text has marginal and interlinear glosses by the scribes of the text. These are the Glossa Ordinaria with a good number of additional marginal glosses (comparison with the Glossa Ordinaria in PL 114) all, so far as has been ascertained, deriving from Ambrose and Bede. There are further glosses on the text and on the Gloss in several contemporary smaller glossing hands, probably including both the main scribes, interlined and in the outer margin. Text flanked by gloss, varying number of columns. 35-38 lines (hands A and B), 44 lines (hand C, except when he has to match A or B), the text on alternate lines. Written above the top line. Ruling in plummet includes three sets of three lines at top, middle and bottom of the written space drawn across the full width of the page.
Written in good textura by three hands: A, ff. 1-17, 37-41 , 43 recto-verso; B, f. 17 verso; C ff. 18-32 verso, 42 recto , 44-121 verso. C writes a textura prescissa except when matching A or B. The Gloss is written in a smaller textura by each of the scribes, additional glosses in small glossing hands. Omissions by A have been made good by C. Ink is black-dark brown. Syntax letters and marks appear a few times (e.g. ff. 1 recto-verso, 11 verso).

An incomplete text of Brut y Brenhinedd (one of the Welsh translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae). The first quarter of the text is missing as well as a large portion at the end of the MS. After a few fragments of ff. 1-5, the present text begins: 'Ac gwedi hynny vn map a aned iddaw a sef oedd henw hwnnw lles vap koel ac gwedi marw i dad a chymryt o honaw yntav koron y deyrnas holl weithredoedd da i dad a chwnychodd ef ev gwnevthvr megis y doedid y mae ef oedd koel ... dechre llosgi [ny gorffowysswys eny los]ges y kastell A gwrtheyrn ynddaw' (ff. 6-119 verso) [i.e. it corresponds to Llanstephan MS 1, ff. 43 verso-66 verso, Henry Lewis (ed ), Brut Dingestow, pp. 61-118, section IV. l9-VIII. 2, or Brynley Francis Roberts, 'Astudiaeth Destunol o'r tri chyfieithiad Cymraeg cynharaf o Historia Regum Britanniae Sieffre o Fynwy', PhD, Wales (1969), pp. 78-123, (the Peniarth 44 version)]. The text belongs to the Llanstephan 1 version of Brut y Brenhinedd, cf. the introduction to Brynley F. Roberts, Brut y Brenhinedd, Llanstephan MS 1 Version ([Dublin], 1971).
The manuscript also contains a stray leaf from an early-seventeenth century MS containing verses from a Welsh free-metre love-song / religious poem (f. 120), and an incomplete horoscope, XVI/XVII c. (f. 32 verso). Folios 1-5, 31, and 63-119, are fragmentary to varying degrees. The text is written on every other opening of the MS, the intervening pages having been left blank, apart from the additions in later hands found on folios 32 verso and 44.

Bede's Ecclesiastical History: Gloriosissimo regi Ceouulfo Beda famulus Christi ... pie intercessionis inueniam (ff. 3-107). The manuscript was not seen by Plummer until after publication of his edition in Bedae Opera Historica, Oxford, 1896; his notes, dated 1897, are now tipped in on f. ii. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford 1896, did not know the whereabouts of the manuscript. The text belongs to Plummer's Durham group, op. cit., pp. civ-cix, and he believed it to be a transcript of Harleian MS 4124 'with which it agrees in several minute points' (see the notes referred to). Certainly the text agrees with all the features of that of Harleian 4124 noted by Plummer in his apparatus (pp. cix, 130, 145, 228, 236, 426, 430). The manuscript also contains the anonymous Vita Bedae (ff. 107-113): Inter catholicos sacre scripture expositores ... (f. 108) adiuuando prosequi dignetur. Humane salutis auctore Christo Iesu ... laudat et adorat dominum. The text was printed in John Smith, Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum, Cambridge, 1722, pp. 515-22. For manuscripts of the text, see T. D. Hardy, Catalogue of Materials ..., London, 1862-71, no. 985. The Vita follows the Historia in most manuscripts of the Durham group. Also included is Bede's Historia Abbatum (ff. 113-119 verso): Religiosus Christi famulus Biscopus ... et protectionis impendant. This was printed by Plummer, op. cit., pp. 364-387. Like the Vita Bedae the Historia Abbatum is associated with the Durham group of the Historia Ecclesiastica. Readings of our text again agree with those peculiar to Harleian 4124 as recorded by Plummer.
The manuscript also contains part of Richard of Hexham's account of the history of Hexham Priory (ff. 119 verso-122): Millesimo centesimo terciodecimo dominice incarnationis ... Calixti pape, Eugenii et Adriani. Our text corresponds to chapters iv-xi of James Raine's edition (Surtees Soc., vol. 44, pp. 48-58). There are chapter divisions only for chapters vii, viii, x and xi. Readings mostly agree with the York MS (York Minster MS xvi. I.12) which also ends with chapter xi. Also included is St Bernard, Sermones de diversibus, sermo xiv (ff. 122-123 verso): Beata illa et sempiterna trinitas peter et filius ... et fide non ficta. See S. Bernardi Opera, Rome, 1957- , vol. vi, pp. 262-6, or PL, 183, 667-669. Identified by the fourteenth century lister of contents on f. 2 verso as 'Quedam verba notabilia de sermonibus beati Bernardi, viz, de trinitate ...'. Together with two extracts from St Bernard, Sermones de tempore, sermo iii in die Pasche (ff. 123 verso-124): In corde duplex est lepra, propria uoluntas et consilium proprium ... non mea, inquid, uoluntas, sed tua fiat. O domine, uoluntas de qua dixisti ut non fieret ... et nobis erat utile ut redimeremur. See S. Bernardi Opera, Rome, 1957- , vol. v, pp. 105-6, 108, or PL, 183, 289-290, 291. Identified by the lister of contents as 'alia verba notabilia de lepra voluntatis proprie'. Also included is an extract from a sermon, unidentified (f. 124): Tria sunt que sic roborant et confirmant cor meum ... Hic est funiculus triplex ... qui est benedictus in secula. Amen.