Llyfr Gwyn Hergest
Llyfr Gwyn Hergest [ ɬivr gwin 'hergest ], also Llyfr Gwyn o Hergest , The White Book of Hergest , is a compilation in the Welsh language that was compiled around 1450. This collection of Welsh prose works and poems was eagerly used as a source, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, but was probably destroyed in a fire in a London bookbinder's shop around 1800.
History and content
The Llyfr Gwyn Hergest , like the Llyfr Coch Hergest ("The Red Book of Hergest"), is said to have received its name on the one hand from the color of the cover and from Hergest Court ( Plâs Hergest ) near Kington (Herefordshire) in the Welsh Marches . Parts of it are attributed to the poet and scriptor Lewys Glyn Cothi , who edited some of the manuscripts found in Margam Abbey and combined them into a collection. The Renaissance -Gelehrte John Davies (Mallwyd) transferred some poems from the White Bookin a separate manuscript. After a few partial copies and changes of ownership, the original was bound to the London bookbinder MacKinley in Bow Street next to the Theater Royal (now Covent Garden Opera ) and is said to have been destroyed there in 1808 in the fire of the theater that spread to neighboring houses. 1800 and 1810 are also given as different dates.
In addition to the poems collected by Lewys Glyn Cothi , the book contained a large number of Dafydd ap Gwilym's works, historical texts such as a copy of the Hywel Dda law collection , some of which is only preserved here, as well as genealogical and heraldic records such as the Llyfr Arfau ( "Book of arms" ). Since not all texts were available as copies at the time of the destruction by the fire, some of the Llyfr Gwyn Hergest has been lost forever.
The copied parts of the original can be found in the following manuscripts:
- Peniarth MS. 49, John Davies' transcription of many poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym and others
- Peniarth MS. 134, including copies from the heraldic texts relating to the nobility of Glamorgan
- Peniarth MS. 225, copies of legal works
- Peniarth MS. 229, with an incomplete listing of the contents
- Llanstephan MS. 74, gives a complete list of the contents
- British Library Add. MS. 31055
- Wynnstay MS. 2
Web links
- The Cambro-Briton , Volume 2, J. Limbird., 1820, pp. 203 f.
- Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion (London, England): Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, or, Metropolitan Cambrian Institution , Volume 1, Printed for E. Williams, Bookseller, 1822, pp. 175 f.
- Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: East Anglia, Central England, and Wales. Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 9780521581318, p. 551.