TEI Header for NLW MS. Peniarth 4 (The White Book of Rhydderch, part 2)

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

Readers' marks are often to be found in the margins. An example may be seen at 67v RM.14.

Fillers in red ink may be seen at 322.29, 324.20, 335.20. 338.9, 340.21,406.40 and 406.41.

Paragraph marks in red ink may be seen at 321.37, 333.15, 346.18, 346.28 and 460.20.

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

• 45r BM: illegible (black ink, ?16th century hand)
• 45v RM.18: cwm diffwys (brown ink, later hand)
• 47r LM.7: eryri (brown ink, later hand: ?g1)
• 47r LM.15: Aber seint (brown ink, later hand)
• 47r BM: Kynan vab Eudaf (black ink, ?16th century hand)
• 47r BM: Adeon vab Eudaf (brown ink, later hand)
• 47v TM: Eudaf vab Caradaway (black ink, ?16th century hand)
• 47v TM: Caer yn Arvon (black ink, ?16th century hand)
• 47v TM: Elen Luydawc (black ink, ?16th century hand)
• 47v BM: Caer Vyrdin (brown ink, later hand)
• 47v BM: Cadeir Faxen (brown ink, later hand)
• 48v BM: 49-50 miss (pencil, modern hand)
• 52v col. 250 IL.20: insertion arrow below and letter I above the line between 'bỽyta' and 'y' where 'dyuot' has been left out
• 54v TM: Lunet (black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)
• 63r LM.9-12: ix brenhin [...]ronnawc [...]idy dynas twffwcallaw (very unclear black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)
• 63r.LM: 19: drawing of a hand and .19. (brown ink, ?modern hand)
• 63r.LM: 36-38: Glavilwyd [...] faelforwys pan perfaws (very unclear black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)
• 63r BM: Drem fab Dremhiron [...] Corfrbist fab Clyd]...] (very unclear black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)
• 68r LM.5: Caerdyf (black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)
• 69v BM: Gwalchmei a Rioganed mab Brenhin Iwerdon ac Ondyow mab dwc Bwrgwin. Gwilym mab Rejwyf ffreinc. Hywel .m[ab]. Emyrllydaw Elfry anaw rurd. Gwyn .m[ab]. Tringord Goreu .m[ab]. Custenin. Gwayr gwrhfawr. Garanon .m[ab]. golythmer. (brown ink, 16th century hand?)
• 70r BM; illegible (brown ink, ?16th century hand)
• 79v BM: Edrinc (brown ink, ?modern hand)
• 80v BM: archenad (brown ink, ?modern hand)
• 85r TM: Olwen (black ink, ?Thomas Wiliems)

As well as adding marginal comments and corrections, later readers have retraced some of the text in places where the manuscript has suffered damage or become difficult to read. The retracing is in black ink which might be of a sixteenth century provenance, and is possibly in the hand of Thomas Wiliems.

In some cases the retracer has added an accent to the text. Examples may be seen at:

• 251.35: circumflex above second <u> in <uu>
• 251.39: circumflex above second <u> in <uu>
• 252.31: circumflex above second <u> in <arueu>
• 387.31: circumflex above <u> in <treula6>
• 387.35: circumflex above both vowels in <uu>
• 394.21: circumflex above second <u> in <u>
• 421.2: circumflex above <u> in <uor6yn>
• 455.4: circumflex above <u> in <drum>
• 474: circumflex above <u> in <heufa>

Retracing is also found in quire 22, represented by pages 55r-62v (columns 321-352), also in black ink, though this may be of a later date than that of the rest of the manuscript.

The manuscript is accompanied by a note in English in the hand of J. Gwenogvryn Evans on the contents of the missing sections. The note has been inserted between folios 248 and 249 and is numbered 60 in the top centre margin (crossed out), and labelled 'fol. e' in the top right corner. It reads: Hole 1. Ystorya Jarlles y Fynhaỽn ends on folio CCXXXvj Note 2. Folios CCXXXv to CCLXvi are missing. Hengỽrt MS 202 contains the missing folios ccli–cclviii and should be bound here. J Gwenogfryn Evans

This note must date from later than Evans's edition of the White Book as he did not transcribe the missing folios for that publication. The missing folios were returned to the manuscript in 1940.

The manuscript dates from the middle of the fourteenth century (Evans xxxx, Huws 2000). It was originally produced as the second half of a larger collection, known as the White Book of Rhydderch, of which Peniarth 5 forms the first part. Daniel Huws argues that the manuscript was written around 1350, most likely for Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd of Parc Rhydderch, Llangeitho, after whom the manuscript is named. He further argues that the work of copying the manuscript was carried out at Strata Florida abbey, or by monks like the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi who were associated with that abbey (Huws 2000: 253).

Huws (2000: 249) identifies this 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 the relative of Gruffudd ap Maredudd ab Owein, who commissioned Madog ap Selyf to translate Marwolaeth Mair and Ystoria Carolo Magno: Chronicl 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 postulates that they could also have been employed at an earlier date as interpreters with the English army (Huws 2000: 250). Rhydderch’s hospitality is praised by Iolo Goch in his Ymddiddan yr Enaid a’r Corff, and Dafydd y Coed and Gruffudd Llwyd also praised him in poetry (Huws 2000: 251).

Daniel Huws (2000: 258) argues that the White Book of Rhydderch, both Peniarth 4 and Peniarth 5, remained with the descendants of Rhydderch ap Ieuan until the 16th century, when it passed into the hands of the ‘north Wales antiquaries’. Huws (2000: 260) also demonstrates that Quire 22, which came to be bound with 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, by Thomas Wiliems of Trefriw in 1594, and was owned by Jaspar Gryffyth (d. 1614). 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 in NLW 4973B (Huws 2000: 261). Davies’s description of the contents does not differ substantially from the present-day contents of the manuscript, thus any missing folios had already gone missing by the early seventeenth century (Huws 2000: 259).

Many of the manuscripts owned by John Jones of Gellilyfdy (d. 1658) came into the possession of Robert Vaughan, Hengwrt (1592-1667) after Jones's death in 1658, and the White Book was no exception: it was catalogued in Vaughan’s library as Hengwrt 4. 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 (Huws 2000: 262). The Hengwrt manuscripts were catalogued in 1658 by William Maurice of Gefnybraich, Llansilin (Jones 1943: 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 in 1859, along with the rest of the Hengwrt collection (Tibbott viii). W.W.E. Wynne was responsible for rebinding the manuscript sometime between 1859 and 1869. He re-united Peniarth 4 and 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 1943: xv). It was 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 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 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. Medieval Welsh Manuscripts. Cardiff and Aberystwyth: University of Wales Press and the National Library of Wales.
• 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.