Manuscripts

Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 50 Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd

Welsh
s. xv
Welsh manuscripts
vellum + paper

Welsh prose and verse, notably including prophetic compositions.

Identifiers

Location

Wales Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales

Collection: GB 0210 MSPENIARTH: Peniarth manuscripts

Shelfmark

Peniarth 50

Classification

Hengwrt collection, 34

Title

Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd

Type

Welsh narrative literature Welsh poetry

Provenance and related aspects

Language

Welsh

Date

s. xv

15th century

Hands, scribes

Page 114 bears the signature of one Dauyd.

Codicological information

Material

vellum + paper

Table of contents

Legend

Texts

Links to texts use a standardised title for the catalogue and so may or may not reflect what is in the manuscript itself, hence the square brackets. Their appearance comes in three basic varieties, which are signalled through colour coding and the use of icons, , and :

- If a catalogue entry is both available and accessible, a direct link will be made. Such links are blue-ish green and marked by a bookmark icon.
- When a catalogue entry does not exist yet, a desert brown link with a different icon will take you to a page on which relevant information is aggregated, such as relevant publications and other manuscript witnesses if available.
- When a text has been ‘captured’, that is, a catalogue entry exists but is still awaiting publication, the same behaviour applies and a crossed eye icon is added.

The above method of differentiating between links has not been applied yet to texts or citations from texts which are included in the context of other texts, commonly verses.

Locus

While it is not a reality yet, CODECS seeks consistency in formatting references to locations of texts and other items of interest in manuscripts. Our preferences may be best explained with some examples:

f. 23ra.34: meaning folio 23 recto, first column, line 34
f. 96vb.m: meaning folio 96, verso, second column, middle of the page (s = top, m = middle, i = bottom)
- Note that marg. = marginalia, while m = middle.
p. 67b.23: meaning page 67, second column, line 23

The list below has been collated from the table of contents, if available on this page,Progress in this area is being made piecemeal. Full and partial tables of contents are available for a small number of manuscripts. and incoming annotations for individual texts (again, if available).Whenever catalogue entries about texts are annotated with information about particular manuscript witnesses, these manuscripts can be queried for the texts that are linked to them.

Welsh manuscripts

Sources

Primary sources This section typically includes references to diplomatic editions, facsimiles and photographic reproductions, notably digital image archives, of at least a major portion of the manuscript. For editions of individual texts, see their separate entries.

[dig. img.] National Library of Wales, National Library of Wales: Digital gallery, Online: NLW, ?–present. URL: <https://www.llyfrgell.cymru/darganfod/oriel-ddigidol/llawysgrifau/>.

Previously Digital Mirror / Drych Digidol, the digital library of the National Library of Wales gives access to digitised manuscripts, printed works, archival materials and other media.

direct link

Secondary sources (select)

Jenkins, Manon Bonner, “Aspects of the Welsh prophetic verse tradition in the Middle Ages: incorporating textual studies of poetry from ‘Llyfr Coch Hergest’ (Oxford, Jesus College, MS cxi) and ‘Y Cwta Cyfarwydd’ (Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 50)”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1990.

abstract:

Much of the corpus of medieval Welsh prophetic poetry, comprising as it does diverse and complicated strands of political, mystical, religious, and legendary material, has not previously been systematically studied, or even printed. The introductory chapter of this thesis makes a preliminary exploration of the historical context of the prophecies, the nature of their propagators and audiences, and also the influences prevalent on the authors, be these intellectual and literary influences, or sub-conscious and psychological influences which fall into the realm of anthropology. There follow editions of the Welsh prophetic poetry found in Oxford, Jesus College, MS cxi, and Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 50. These two manuscripts, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries respectively, provide a significant cross-section of the medieval Welsh prophetic poetry extant. Detailed textual analyses of the poems with text, translation, and notes, examine language and metre, investigate references to persons and places, and seek to identify conventional prophetic elements. From a historical point of view, the prophetic texts are compared with contemporary chronicles, as reflections of contemporary historical thinking. Some attention is also paid to the material's wider manuscript context, and its transmission. This sheds light on the prevailing cultural and intellectual climate as well as providing invaluable help in the interpretation of individual prophecies.

(source: BL Ethos)

– Under embargo: <link>

Evans, J. Gwenogvryn, Report on manuscripts in the Welsh language, vol. 1.2: Peniarth, Historical Manuscripts Commission, London, 1899.

Internet Archive: <link>

389–399 direct link