Showing 241 results

A manuscript in the hand of a single scribe dating from the second half of the 13th century and comprising Historia Hen Gruffud fab Cynan (p. 1); a treatise on earth, water, air and fire (p. 17); a treatise on the planets (p. 20); and a series of Welsh proverbs in verse (p. 27).
Memoranda in the hand of W. W. E. Wynne have been pasted onto the inside of the front cover. Ff. iii-iv contain a letter from J. Williams ab Ithel, 25 January 1862

Letters, manuscript notes and press cuttings relating to the Welsh grammar by Gruffydd Robert, 1874-1879.

Dosparth Byrr ar y rhan gyntaf i ramadeg cymraeg ... 1567 by Gruffydd Robert (first of two copies).

Dosparth ar yr ail rann i ramadeg a elwir cyfiachydiaeth (undated) by Gruffydd Robert.

Dosparth Byrr ar y rhan gyntaf i ramadeg cymraeg ... 1567 by Gruffydd Robert (second of two copies).

A notebook containing genealogical notes and pedigrees of North Wales families in the hand of W. W. E. Wynne. 'Book No 3' has been deleted from the front cover.

A compilation in the hand of Thomas Wiliems (?1550-?1622) comprising material mainly of a vaticinatory nature, including 'Daroganau' of Taliesin, Merlin and others; and a prophecy concerning the reigning monarchs from Henry VI to Elizabeth I.

An armorial of Welsh arms, 329 coats, painted, nine to the page, some shields left blank, with text in good italic, written in 1585 (f. 9). There are additional notes by several hands of [17 cent., first ½], including Peter Ellis, each note signed (ff. 15 recto-verso, 18, 19) and Robert Vaughan (f. 29); on f. 12 verso is a note citing 'R.D. of Gwissanye' [Robert Davies II]. From f. 24 are arms, some of them painted, added by other hands of [17 cent.]. On ff. 39-42 verso is an index by the original hand covering his entries up to f. 21 (including those for the wanting ff. 1-5).

Pedigrees, mainly south Welsh or of Welsh historic figures, in the hand of Thomas Gruffydd, with a few short prose texts, also in his hand, including 'Enwau y milwyr' (p. 38), 'Marchogion y vort gron' [see National Library of Wales Journal, 14 (1965-6), 242-5] (p. 39) and 'Arfau y kwnkwerwyr a vyant ymorganwc' [the earliest known text, printed from here in M.P. Siddons, The Development of Welsh Heraldry, 4 vols. (Aberystwyth, 1991-2006), I, pp. 376-9] (p. 46).

The pedigree of John Trevor III of Trefalun, in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn (pp. 25-109), and on p. 110 his coat of arms, written in 1569 (p. 26). On pp. 5-21 is his 'Tabl', covering pp. 25-109 only. On pp.1-4 are arms in trick and, on p. 3, draft couplets of a cywydd in his hand; further pedigrees in his hand are on pp. 112-28; on p. 114 is an autograph englyn by him with an anonymous englyn by a contemporary hand.

A composite manuscript. Mainly an informal collection of pedigrees, narrative and tabular, of both north and south Wales, in the hands of Gruffudd Hiraethog (pp. 1-7, 9-16, 18-22, 71-87, 153-260, etc.) and Wiliam Llŷn (e.g. pp. 26-48, 61-70, 91-152). Gruffudd was writing between 1562 (pp. 2, 20, 418) and 1564 (pp. 22, 201). On the manuscripts cited by him, see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Genealogical sources quoted by Gruffudd Hiraethog’, National Library of Wales Journal, 26 (1989-90), 1-9. Wiliam Llŷn left a few dates, e.g. 1564 (p. 95) and 1567 (p. 32). Gruffudd records many coats of arms in houses, churches, etc. (pp. 9-16, 153-260, 299-301). On pp. 531-6 he copied ‘Geirie gan Taliessin ai gyngor ai gyssul’ from ‘llyfr Ieuan ap Jhon ap Mred or Glyn’, together with triads [pp. 129-30 of Peniarth MS 137 apparently belong here]. On pp. 427-82, in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn, is an armorial in Welsh, the arms in trick, referred to on p. 479 as ‘Llyfr arfau o waith Wiliam Llyn’ [see M.P. Siddons, The Development of Welsh Heraldry, 4 vols (Aberystwyth, 1991-2006), I, pp. 44–6]. Other contemporary hands contributed: A, Huws’ X131 (pp. 49-56); B (pp. 59-60); C, Huws’ X180 (pp. 294-5); D, Huw Llŷn, south Wales pedigrees (pp. 333-62); E (pp. 363-77); F, Welsh arms (pp. 397-408); G (pp. 423-6); H, a copy of extents, in Welsh, of lands of the earl of Arundel, 26 Edward III (pp. 483-503); I, Huws’ X129, pedigrees of Maelor Gymraeg (pp. 507-30). On pp. 391-2 is a copy by Gruffudd Hiraethog of a letter from Thomas Read of Green Castle, Carm.

An informal collection of pedigrees in both narrative and tabular form in the variable hand of Gruffudd Hiraethog. Compiled between 1550 (pp. 216, 303) and 1558 (pp. 151, 379, 447, 453) with later additions. Apart from pp. 405-19, the pedigrees are almost all north Welsh. On p. 2, in the hand of Robert Vaughan, ‘Y llyvr mawr y mae Gr Hiraethog yn galw hwnn’ [of which Peniarth MS 133 also formed a part, see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Notes on the Welsh genealogical manuscripts’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1976, 106]. For Gruffudd’s named sources, see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Genealogical sources quoted by Gruffudd Hiraethog’, National Library of Wales Journal, 26 (1989-90), 1-9.
On pp. 99-106 and 305-8 are short Welsh armorials in blazon in Welsh, the former, of south Wales bias, drawn in part from ‘llyfr Lewys y Glyn’ [Lewys Glyn Cothi] (pp. 100, 107). On pp. 3-38 is an index in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn, whose foliation 1-248, with irregularities, is on pp. 41-463. Traces of several disrupted earlier foliations survive. Collaborating hands are Simwnt Fychan (pp. 45-6, 49-53, 79, 91, 393-5, and on p. 382 an autograph englyn, and on p. 426 his signature and a calligraphic alphabet), Huws’ X179 (pp. 157-66, 169-70, 171, 327) and Richard Longford (p. 345). There appear to be five collaborating hands, some of them resembling that of Gruffudd Hiraethog: A (fols 107-15); B (p. 167); C (pp. 381-2, once a folded sheet, containing annals and englynion); D (pp. 383-91 and 429-30, the latter leaf is displaced, containing text which came, as Robert Vaughan notes on p. 383, ‘allan or llyfr gwyn o Hergest’ [printed in National Library of Wales Journal, 17 (1971-2), 238-48]); E (pp. 457-62). E, under the heading ‘Swyddinbych Kwmwd Issaled’, transcribes the pedigree of ‘Mayster Robert ap Res ap Meredyth’ [died 1534, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, s.n. Ellis Price], citing ‘iache … o waith Tudyr [A]led a Robertt Iachwr [Robert ab Ieuan ap Hywel]’; the damaged colophon on p. 462 (probably copied with the text) names the scribe ‘[ ... ]s ap Robert ysgolhaic’ and mentions his wish that the book be preserved at ‘blas Mayster Doctor [ ... ]’.

'La passion de nostre seigneur Jhesucrist translatee de latin en francois'; and a religious poem. Illuminated.
Also included is an envelope of notes by J. A. Herbert.

A compendium, [late 15th cent. x early 16th cent.], of works on astrology, medicine, sayings, Brut y Saeson, a short chronicle, Lives of Saints David and Gwenffrewi, Bonedd y Saint and other texts. The manuscript was previously ascribed to Gutun Owain (see Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh Manuscripts (Aberystwyth, 2000), p. 190).

A late 15th century, or early 16th century copy, of Brut y Brenhinedd, the Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (ff. 1-107 verso). The manuscript was written on thick parchment by one scribe, probably in north Wales, following an exemplar associated with, if not partly derived from, the early 14th century Peniarth MS 21.
For recent discussions of the text, see Brynley F. Roberts (ed.), Brut y Brenhinedd: Llanstephan MS 1 Version (Dublin, 1971), and Brynley F. Roberts, 'Geoffrey of Monmouth, Histora Regum Britanniae and Brut y Brenhinedd' in Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts (eds), The Arthur of the Welsh. The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff, 1991), 97-116.

A prose miscellany comprising the Gospel of the Pseudo-Mathew, Transitus Mariae, the Life of St Catherine, the Finding of the Cross and other texts in the hand of Gutun Owain.

A manuscript containing the text of Statud Rhuddlan (the Statute of Rhuddlan) by a single scribe and dating from the second half of the 15th century.

A calendar by Gutun Owain, [15 cent., second ½].

The manuscript is made up of five fragments. The main texts include the Credo, with a commentary; the prophecy of Merlin, with a commentary; a version of Macsen Wledig; triads; and Bonedd y Saint.
F. iv is from a musical manuscript.

A late fourteenth-, or early fifteenth-century manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, lacking VIII(G)554-1481 (i.e., the Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale); X(I)1180-end lost).
Doyle and Parkes’s ‘Scribe B’, the scribe of the Hengwrt Chaucer, has long been identified as having also been responsible for writing other manuscripts, including the Ellesmere Chaucer (Huntington Library MS 26 C 9). He was identified in 2006 by Linne Mooney as Adam Pinkhurst, a London-based scrivener associated with Chaucer.