Peniarth MS 49, formerly known as Hengwrt MS 302, is a manuscript of Welsh-language poems mostly by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, but in a few cases by other medieval poets. It was compiled over a period of many years in the late 16th century and early 17th century by the humanist scholar John Davies of Mallwyd. Now held by the National Library of Wales, it is considered the most important large manuscript collection of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems, valuable for its comprehensiveness, the accuracy of its readings, and the evidence it gives of other, earlier manuscripts.
Contents
Physical description
Peniarth 49 is a paper manuscript of 182 folios measuring 145 millimetres (5.7 in) by 93 millimetres (3.7 in). It has been rebound by the National Library of Wales.
Contents
The manuscript collects 138 poems, 124 of which have been accepted into the 147-poem canon of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems by his latest editors. It therefore includes most of Dafydd's known works, including such well-known poems as "The Dream", "The Girls of Llanbadarn", "His Shadow", "The Magpie's Advice", "The Mirror", "The Poet and the Grey Friar", "The Ruin", "The Seagull", "Summer", "The Wind", and "The Woodland Mass".
History
Though the manuscript is written in three different hands, it is believed by the palaeographer Daniel Huws that all three belong to the same man, the humanist antiquary John Davies, rector of Mallwyd, and that their dissimilar appearance is due to the fact that he wrote the manuscript at three different periods of his life. Poems 1 to 43 were copied during the period 1595–1601, while he was still a young man working for William Morgan, Bishop of Llandaff. Poems 44 to 78 were written at some point between the years 1600 and 1617. Poems 79 to 138, written in the third hand, were the last to be entered into the manuscript.
After Davies's death the manuscript came into the possession of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt. Vaughan's descendant, Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, left his collection of manuscripts to his friend W. W. E. Wynne of Peniarth, and from Wynne's son they passed to Sir John Williams, who gave them, including Peniarth 49, to the newly-established National Library of Wales.