Manuscripts

Cardiff, Central Library, MS 2.81 Llyfr Aneirin

  • Welsh
  • s. xiii2
  • Welsh manuscripts
  • vellum

Manuscript known best as the Book of Aneirin (Llyfr Aneirin), containing the heroic poem Y Gododdin and a number of gorchanau.

Identifiers
Location
It was agreed in 2010 that the manuscript is to be transferred to the National Library of Wales, while the Cardiff Council will retain ownership.
Shelfmark
2.81
Title
Llyfr Aneirin
Type
Welsh poetry
Provenance and related aspects
Language
Welsh
Date
s. xiii2
second half of the 13th century
Origin, provenance
Later provenance: Wales
Wales
No short description available

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ass. with Dafydd Nanmor
Dafydd Nanmor
(fl. c. 1450–1490)
Welsh poet from Nanmor (Gwynedd)

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Gwilym Tew
Gwilym Tew
(fl. c.1460–1480)
Welsh poet and copyist from Glamorgan.

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Two bards, Dafydd Nanmor (c. 1450–1480) of Gwynedd and Gwilym Tew (c. 1460–1480) of Morgannwg.
Later provenance: Hengwrt Library, no. 46. Edward Lhuyd refers to it in his Archaeologia Britannica (Oxford, 1707): p. 261. The Hengwrt shelfmark '46' is still visible.
Later provenance: Aberdare.
Later provenance: ass. with Jones (Theophilus) [d. 1812]
Jones (Theophilus) ... d. 1812
(1759–1812)
Welsh lawyer and historian.

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Theophilus Jones (1759–1812).
Later provenance: ass. with Price (Thomas) [pseud. Carnhuanawc]
Price (Thomas) ... pseud. Carnhuanawc
(1787–1848)
Welsh historian

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Rev. Thomas Price al. Carnhunawc.
Later provenance: ass. with Phillipps (Thomas)
Phillipps (Thomas)
(1792–1872)
Sir Thomas Phillipps, English antiquary and collector of manuscripts

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Passed into the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, whence it received the record number Philipps MS 16614.
Later provenance: Cardiff, Free Library
Cardiff, Central Library
No short description available

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Cardiff, Central Library
Cardiff, Central Library
No short description available

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Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales
Cardiganshire
No short description available

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1896: Cardiff Free Library; indexed by Gwenogvryn Evans as Cardiff MS 1; later, Cardiff Central Library, MS 2.81; now NLW, Llyfr Aneirin (Cardiff MS 2.81).
Hands, scribes
Codicological information
Material
vellum
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 :

  1. - 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.
  2. - 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.
  3. - 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.

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.
[facs. ed.] Huws, Daniel, Llyfr Aneirin: a facsimile / Llyfr Aneirin: ffacsimile, Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1989.
[facs. ed.] Evans, J. Gwenogvryn, Facsimile & text of the Book of Aneirin, 2 vols, Pwllheli: s.p., 1908.
Internet Archive: <link>

Secondary sources (select)

Huws, Daniel, “Five ancient books of Wales”, in: Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh manuscripts, Cardiff and Aberystwyth: University of Wales Press, 2000. 65–83.
72–75 An augmented version of the article below
Huws, Daniel, Five ancient books of Wales, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures, 6, Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 1995. 23 pp.
11–14
Evans, J. Gwenogvryn, Report on manuscripts in the Welsh language, vol. 2: Jesus College, Oxford; Free Library, Cardiff; Havod; Wrexham; Llanwrin; Merthyr; Aberdâr, Historical Manuscripts Commission, London, 1902.
Internet Archive: <link>
91–92 [id. 1.] MS 1 direct link
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2013, last updated: December 2023