Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c. 1380] (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
291 ff. (ff. i-vii, 1-282, erratic, doubling 50, 198, 203 and 264, 177 wanting) : parchment ; 225 x 155 mm. (written space 155 x 115 mm.). Folios i and 282 are original parchment fly-leaves, ff. ii-v paper fly-leaves of [19 cent., second ½] and ff. vi-vii a letter from Thomas Stephens, 1860. The earliest foliation may be represented by a ‘66’ at the foot of f. 66 verso; ff. 1-6 were numbered by a hand of [16 cent., first ½]; the foliation was completed by a hand of [16-17 cent.] (and was present when Siôn Dafydd Rhys copied extracts into Peniarth MS 118).
Bound in blind-tooled calf, [16 cent., second ½], over wooden boards, resewn on three bands, using the original holes, lightly cropped; brass fittings for two clasps survive together with the lower clasp itself, on a strap of whittawed leather. Rebacked in [19 cent., second ½].
Context area
Archival history
Added on f. 280 verso in hands of [15 cent.] are an inscription ‘Gaude virgo mater Christi’, medical recipes in English, and an englyn; and on f. 281 verso, ‘Iste liber constat Dauid ap Gruf[ ]’. On f. 280 verso, in a hand of [15-16 cent.], is a couplet from Hywel Dafi’s marwnad for Ieuan Swrdwal. Like others of Hywel Fychan’s manuscripts, the Greal had evidently migrated to near Brecon. The hand of [16 cent., first ½] that began the foliation (on ff. 1-6) signposted the text throughout with marginal headings (e.g. ff. 6 verso, 56 verso, 109, 110, 205 verso). Inscriptions of [16 cent.] include: ‘Iste liber constat Johannes Griffy[ ]’ (f. 281 verso); a hand noted ‘hyd yma’ at the foot of f. 154; Wyllyam John on f. 281 (previously blank) wrote his name together with tags in Welsh and Latin and an englyn apparently commemorating a loan of the Greal by ‘yr offisial’. By around 1600 the location of the manuscript becomes more certain. John Watkin Ieuan wrote his name inside the cover, on f. iv and on f. 1 [Robert Vaughan noted in NLW MS 5262: ‘Greal: gan Sion Watkin Ieuan o dre Ddyfynoc’, see Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh Manuscripts (Cardiff, 2000), p. 300]. His son, Watkin John, signed his name on f. iv and wrote the names of Hugh Powell ‘de Castell Madock’ [par. Llandyfaelog Fach, Brec., d.1624] and Sybill Powell. About this time extracts from the manuscript were made by Siôn Dafydd Rhys in Peniarth MS 118. Robert Vaughan eventually secured the manuscript. He transcribed some of the text in Peniarth MS 254. The manuscript became no.49 in old Hengwrt catalogue B. A Richard Llwyd label is pasted on the upper cover; an‘R. Wmes Vaughan’ book label inside the cover. Notes on the manuscript by W.W.E. Wynne are laid down on ff. iii, iv and v.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Item: 1.1 Manuscript Volume (Peniarth MS 11B). Action: Condition reviewed. Action identifier: 4440952. Date: 20031021. Authorization: Selected for conservation. Authorizing institution: NLW. Action agent: J. Thomas. Status: Manuscript Volume (Peniarth MS 11B) : Cloth hollow spine partly detached, one strap and clasp missing. Institution: WlAbNL.
Item: 1.2 Manuscript Volume (Peniarth MS 11B). Action: Conserved. Action identifier: 4440952. Date: 20041103. Authorizing institution: NLW. Action agent: D. Williams. Status: Manuscript Volume (Peniarth MS 11B) : Made and attached new hollow spine. Institution: WlAbNL.
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Welsh, English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
A detailed list of the manuscript's contents may be found in J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, vol. I (London, 1898-1905), 321-322.
Description based on Daniel Huws, A Repertory of Manuscripts and Scribes c.800-c.1800 (Aberystwyth, 2022), I, 338-339.
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Digital version available https://hdl.handle.net/10107/6231899 (November 2024)
Available on microfilm at the Library.
Related units of description
Publication note
The manuscript is described in Ystoryaeu Seint Greal, ed. Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1992), pp. xii-xv.
Notes area
Note
Formerly Hengwrt MS 49.
Note
Preferred citation: Peniarth MS 11 [RESTRICTED ACCESS].
Note
Collation: 1-10 (10), 11 (10) and 10 singletons (ff. 100-9), 12-14 (10), 15 (8; wants 1) (ff. 140-6), 16-17 (10), 18 (ff. 167-76, the wanting f. 177 must have been a singleton added after 10), 19-20 (10), 21 (10; wants 10) (ff. 198-204), 22-28 (10), 29 (10; wants 8 and 9).
Note
Most initials, 3-line on ff. 1 and 110, 2-line elsewhere, are in an unusual pale blue; red is however used in some quires. Ink drawings by the scribe are associated with catchwords and run-ons.
Note
Title based on contents.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
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Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
March 2024.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Description revised by Maredudd ap Huw.
Digital object metadata
Latitude
Longitude
Media type
Image
Mime-type
image/jpeg