The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the largest collections of archives, portraits, maps and photographic images in Wales. The Library is also home to the national collection of Welsh manuscripts, the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, and the most comprehensive collection of paintings and topographical prints in Wales. As the primary research library and archive in Wales and one of the largest research libraries in the United Kingdom, the National Library is a member of Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL).
The Black Book of Carmarthen is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. The book dates from the mid-13th century; its name comes from its association with the Priory of St. John the Evangelist and Teulyddog at Carmarthen, and is referred to as black due to the colour of its binding. It is currently part of the collection of the National Library of Wales, where it is catalogued as NLW Peniarth MS 1.
The Hendregadredd Manuscript, is a medieval Welsh manuscript containing an anthology of the poetry of the "Poets of the Princes" (Gogynfeirdd); it was written between 1282 and 1350.
The Stowe Missal, which is, strictly speaking, a sacramentary rather than a missal, is a small Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin with some Old Irish in the late eighth or early ninth century, probably after 792. In the mid-11th century it was annotated and some pages rewritten at Lorrha Monastery in County Tipperary, Ireland. Between 1026 and 1033 the manuscript was encased within a protective cumdach, which was refurbished and embellished a number of times in the late medieval period, in particular before 1381, the year of death of Pilib O'Ceinneidigh, Lord of Ormond, who then had possession of the shrine.
"The five royal tribes of Wales" and "The fifteen tribes of Gwynedd" refer to a class of genealogical lists which were compiled by Welsh bards in the mid-15th century. These non-identical lists were constructed on the premise that many of the leading Welsh families of their time could trace their descent to the "five royal tribes of Wales" or the "fifteen noble tribes of Gwynedd".
Brut y Brenhinedd is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin Historia Regum Britanniae. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptations of Geoffrey's Historia were extremely popular throughout Western Europe during the Middle Ages, but the Brut proved especially influential in medieval Wales, where it was largely regarded as an accurate account of the early history of the Celtic Britons.
The Stowe manuscripts are a collection of about two thousand Irish, Anglo-Saxon and later medieval manuscripts, nearly all now in the British Library. The manuscripts date from 1154 to the end of the 14th century.
The Leofric Missal is an illuminated manuscript, not strictly a conventional missal, from the 10th and 11th century, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University where it is catalogued as MS Bodl. 579.
Elis Gruffydd (1490–1552), sometimes known as "The soldier of Calais", was a Welsh chronicler, transcriber, and translator. He is known foremost for his massive chronicle Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, which covers the history of the world from the beginning of Adam and Eve up to the year 1552 and contains the earliest text of the Tale of Taliesin. He is also well known for his eyewitness account of England's 1543 war with France in his journal transcribed in Elis Gruffydd and the 1544 'Enterprise' of Paris and Boulogue. His presence on the battlefield has given insight into the development of protests against the campaign. Thomas Jones says "despite his long years of service in France and London, [Gruffydd] was deeply interested in the oral traditions and written literature of his native land. He quotes Welsh englynion and proverbs, records a few folk-tales, and transcribes Welsh texts from such MSS as he had at his disposal". Gruffydd is an excellent source in uncovering lost and obscure traditions and he serves as a harmoniser for Welsh traditions appearing in different ages by the same poet, such as Merlin and Taliesin.
NLW MS 20143A is a Welsh-language manuscript of the laws of Hywel Dda dating from the middle of the 14th century. It is one of the few surviving Welsh manuscripts of the period to have a medieval binding, and has been digitised by the National Library of Wales, which acquired the manuscript in 1969.
The Llanbeblig Book of Hours is an illuminated manuscript in the National Library of Wales that dates from the close of the fourteenth century. Entries in the Calendar link the Llanbeblig Hours to Wales, and more specifically the dedication of the church of Saint Peblig, which is marked June 6th, connects it with Caernarfon.
NLW MS 733B Piers Plowman is a version of the Middle English allegorical poem that combines text from versions 'A' and 'C'. It has been suggested that this manuscript, which dates from the first quarter of the fifteenth century, could help to track the evolution of the Piers Plowman poem.
The De Grey Hours is a book of hours that was produced in Flanders, where the artist tailored the manuscript for the English market by including a miniature of St Thomas Becket and naming appropriate festivals in the Calendar. There are sixty-seven illustrations in the De Grey Hours, including illuminated miniatures and historiated initials. The manuscript dates from around 1400.
Cadwgan Ffôl was a 13th-century Welsh poet. Little is known about him, and little of his work is thought to survive. The transcription of a poem commemorating a victory by the Welsh over the English fought at Degannwy has been attributed to him, but other historians have attributed it to Ednyfed Fychan.
Canu Llywarch Hen are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They comprise the most famous of the early Welsh cycles of englynion about heroes of post-Roman North Britain.
Canu Heledd are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They are rare among medieval Welsh poems for being set in the mouth of a female character. One prominent figure in the poems is Heledd's dead brother Cynddylan.
John Davies, also known by his bardic name of Siôn Dafydd Las, was a Welsh bard active in the late 17th century. He is thought to have been from the Llanuwchllyn area of North Wales, and he may have lived in the Tyn-y-ffridd area for a while.
"O Spiritual Pilgrim" is a part song by Gustav Holst based on the poem "The Gates of Damascus" by James Elroy Flecker. Holst dedicated the piece to Gregynog Hall, the home of the art patrons and philanthropists Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. Holst wrote the piece for soprano and mixed chorus. Michael Short, writing in the liner notes of the 1994 Hyperion Records recording of Holst's part songs wrote that Holst treats the journey in Flecker's poem "as a metaphor of life itself" and it ends "with a quiet evocation of spiritual peace and reassurance".
Sherbrooke Missal, folio 1r.
Sherbrooke Missal, folio 13r.
Sherbrooke Missal, folio 19v.
Sherbrooke Missal, folio 336r.
