Pennyn y Fenter Amgodio Testunau (TEI) ar gyfer LlGC Llsgr. Peniarth 5 (Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch, rhan 1)

The decoration consists in the main of large decorated initials in red ink.

There is a hand in the right margin of page 75r the pointing to the second line of column 68.

In many places where there are coloured initial letters, the scribe has indicated what the letter should be by means of a smaller letter which appears behind the initial. Examples may be seen at 78v.81.34 and 78v.82.33.

There are some marginalia in later hands in the manuscript which have not been included in the transcription.

Reader's marks are to be found at 77r RM.30 and 77v LM.33.

The manuscript dates from the middle of the fourteenth century (Evans 1898-1910: 305-6, Huws 2000). It was originally produced as the first half of a larger collection, known as the White Book of Rhydderch, of which NLW Peniarth 4 forms the second part. Daniel Huws (2000: 228) argues that the manuscript was probably written for Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd of Parc Rhydderch, Llangeitho after whom it is named. He suggests that the manuscript was copied at Strata Florida or by monks such as the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi who were associated with that abbey.

Huws (2000: 253) conjectures that although the White Book of Rhydderch itself, that is NLW Peniarth 4 and NLW Peniarth 5, was planned and executed as a complete work, the first four quires of NLW Peniarth 5 (folios 1-57) may not originally have been intended for inclusion in this collection. He cites differences in text and layout to infer that this section of the manuscript was written for the use of a cleric rather than for a lay patron, and suggests that they were added to the manuscript 'as an afterthought' (Huws 2000: 254).

Huws (2000: 249) identifies Rhydderch ab Ieuan (d.1398/9) as the father of the poet Ieuan ap Rhydderch, a descendant of the Lord Rhys, the patron of Strata Florida abbey, and a relative of Gruffudd ap Maredudd ab Owein, who commissioned Madog ap Selyf to translate Marwolaeth Mair and Ystoria Carolo Magno: Cronicl Turpin.

A mock elegy of Rhydderch by Dafydd ap Gwilym survives, written in the voice of his friend Llywelyn Fychan. An awdl was written to the same two men by Llywelyn Goch ap Meurig Hen. Dafydd Johnston has argued on the strength of the description of Rhydderch and Llywelyn that they were employed in the king’s service, though Huws (2000: 250) postulates that they could also have been employed at an earlier date as interpreters with the English army. Rhydderch’s hospitality is praised by Iolo Goch, Dafydd y Coed and Gruffudd Llwyd (Huws 2000: 251).

Daniel Huws (2000: 258) argues that the White Book of Rhydderch, both NLW Peniarth 4 and NLW Peniarth 5, remained with the descendants of Rhydderch ap Ieuan until the sixteenth century, when it passed into the hands of the 'north Wales antiquaries'. Huws demonstrates that Quire 22, which came to be bound with NLW Peniarth 12, had already become detached from the rest of the manuscript by the time it started on its wanderings. The manuscript was used by Richard Langford in 1573, by Roger Morris of Coed y Talwrn, and by Thomas Wiliems of Trefriw in 1594, and had been owned by Jaspar Gryffyth (d.1614) (Huws 2000: 260). In 1634 it was in the hands of John Jones of Gellilyfdy when Dr John Davies of Mallwyd produced a description of it along with a list of its contents; this is now in NLW NLW 4973B (Huws 2000: 261). Davies’s description of the contents does not differ substantially from the present-day contents of the manuscript: any missing folios had already gone missing by the early seventeenth century (Huws 2000: 259).

Many of the manuscripts, including the White Book, which were owned by John Jones of Gellilyfdy came into the possession of Robert Vaughan Hengwrt (1592-1667) after Jones's death in 1658. It was catalogued in Vaughan’s library as Hengwrt 5. According to Huws (2000: 261) it is likely that Vaughan had the manuscript re-bound, as he did with many of the books in his possession. Vaughan refers to the manuscript as being in two parts, and may have been responsible for splitting it up in its present form, although this could also have been done before Vaughan acquired it (262). The Hengwrt manuscripts were catalogued in 1658 by William Maurice of Gefnybraich, Llansilin (Jones 1948: xvi).

The manuscript was bequeathed by Sir Robert Williames Vaughan (d. 1859), the last baronet of Hengwrt, to his friend William Watkin Edward Wynne (1801-1880) of Peniarth, along with the rest of the Hengwrt collection (Tibbott 1943: viii). W.W.E. Wynne was responsible for rebinding the manuscript sometime between 1859 and 1869, when he re-united NLW Peniarth 4 and NLW Peniarth 5 and bound them in a single volume in white vellum, although in the wrong order. He also had blank parchment leaves inserted to fill in spaces left from missing quires and folios.

The Hengwrt catalogue was revised by Aneurin Owen (d. 1851), and then by William Watkin Wynne. This catalogue was published in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1869-1871 (Jones 1948: xv). It was further catalogued and re-numbered by J. Gwenogvryn Evans when he examined the collection for the Historical Manuscripts Commission along with the rest of the Peniarth manuscripts, while they were in the possession of W.W.E. Wynne’s son, William Robert Maurice Wynne (d. 1909).

The Peniarth collection was secured for the nascent National Library of Wales by Sir John Williams who, in 1904, paid the Wynne brothers a sum to ensure the reversion of the collection to the Library upon the death of both brothers. The manuscript passed, along with the rest of the collection, to the Library in 1909 (Tibbott 1943: viii). It was bound in its present form, in two volumes, in 1940 by the staff of the National Library of Wales bindery (Huws 2000: 227).

Information on the dating and hand of this manuscript is based on the following authorities

• Evans, J. Gwenogvryn. 1898-1910. Peniarth 4. Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language. 1. London. HMSO. 305-6.
• Huws, Daniel. 2000. Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch. Medieval Welsh Manuscripts. Cardiff and Aberystwyth: University of Wales Press and the National Library of Wales. 227-68.
• Huws, Daniel. A Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes. draft.
• Jones, E. D. 1943. Old Catalogues of the Hengwrt Manuscripts. Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales 1. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. xv-xxiii.
• Jones, Thomas. 1948. Nodiadau Testunol ar Lyfr Gwyn Rhydderch. BBCS 12. 83-6.
• Tibbot, Gildas. 1943. A Brief History of the Hengwrt-Peniarth Collection. Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales 1. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales: i-xiv.