The original manuscript, or an early copy of it, giving the text as before it was re-edited by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and with the heading, as before said, assigning the authorship to Tysilio, is still in the library of Jesus College, Oxford. It forms part of a volume which is called the Red Book of Hergest, which, besides some other historical pieces, contains a romance or two. It only remains further to say, that the manuscript lay nearly as dormant in the recesses of Jesus College, Oxford, as it had done anciently in Britany, when Wynne, in his History of Wales, proclaimed it, in the year 1697, to be the primary and original Chronicle. Still it was but little quoted or noticed till it was printed in the year 1807, in the second volume of the Myvyrian Archaiology, and afterwards translated into English, and published in quarto, in 1811. It now forms the work usually quoted and referred to instead of that of Geoffrey of Monmouth. I have thus given the real details and explanation of this subject. I am aware that these views have been controverted by some; as Cambrian literature has been much attacked and disparaged since the beginning of the present century, arising from contests among literary men, not now necessary to allude to. Some, as Mr. Ritson and others, have supposed that the Jesus College copy, instead of being the original, is merely a compilation itself from the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth; to which it can only be observed, that such scepticism is not now justifiable, since the publication of Tysilio's original in 1807 and 1811. The objection will bear no critical scrutiny or sifting. Besides, it is obvious that the Chronicle could not have been originally written for the objects it was obviously intended to encompass at the date of Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the middle of the twelfth century. It will be understood that these few observations are merely a statement of the question respecting the Chronicle, as I have necessarily left many points unexplained, from the brevity which I have studied. ON THE "LLYFR TEILO", OR THE LIBER LANDAVENSIS, THE BOOK OF LLANDAFF. BY W. H. BLACK, ESQ., LATE ASSISTANT-KEEPER OF PUBLIC RECORds. So much of the fabulous and romantic has been handed down in the histories, poetry, and traditions of the ancient Britons, even of those who lived within the historic period of this country, that all documentary evidence of events or transactions between the retreat of the Romans from Britain, and the Norman conquest, must be deemed highly valuable, both to distinguish the fabulous from the true, and to furnish the necessary links of information in the chain of history and chronology, through the darkest part of the middle ages. In England, until the period when our public records and private evidences begin, the principal documents which were committed to writing are found chiefly to consist of the foundation deeds of cathedrals and monasteries, with other entries made in the registers, gospel-books, and liturgies, of ancient ecclesiastical establishments. These, although in some few instances contemporary with the transactions that they record, yet in most instances have been transcribed into books from original materials long since lost in the decay of ages. As this was the case in England, so also in Wales, the few ancient documents that have come down to our time are chiefly those which, early in the twelfth century, were collected and transcribed, at Llandaff, into a volume called by the Welsh the "Llyfr Teilo", and quoted by the antiquaries of the seventeenth century under the name of Liber Landavensis, the Book of Llandaff, or the old "Register of the Church of Llandaff." That book is said to have been a folio volume, written on vellum, three inches thick, having a figure of St. Teilo, in brass, on the cover. The original seems to have remained in possession of the see of Llandaff until the civil wars, having been quoted by sir Henry Spelman in his Concilia; VOL. X. 81 by Dr. Francis Godwin, bishop of Llandaff, in his succession of the bishops, contained in his celebrated work, De Præsulibus Angliæ; by archbishop Ussher, Brian Twyne of Oxford, and others, both in their published works and in their manuscript collections. When Dugdale compiled his Monasticon, he made copious extracts from the original manuscript, which was then in the possession of his learned. friend John Selden, of whose library it formed part at his death in 1654. Although his executors designed to deposit it, with his other manuscripts, in the Bodleian Library, this precious book was sent into Wales, at the earnest entreaty of the celebrated Welsh antiquary, Robert Vaughan of Hêngwrt, to be transcribed by him; and its existence has not with certainty been traced since. The great value of the materials for the civil and ecclesiastical history of Wales, and indeed of early Christianity in Britain, which had been derived from this celebrated book, gave rise to numerous inquiries after the original volume in later times; and its paramount importance made the publication of this ancient record an object of extreme interest to the projectors of "The Welsh Manuscript Society"; consequently an edition of the original text, in Latin and Welsh, from the most authentic sources that could be procured, and accompanied with an English translation, constituted the first work published by that public-spirited body. It issued from the elegant press of William Rees of Llandovery, in 1840, forming a large and handsome octavo volume of six hundred and forty pages. It having been determined to use, for the purpose of that publication, a transcript of the seventeenth century, preserved in the library of Jesus college, Oxford, the writer of this paper was requested by his friend the rev. John Jones (Tegid) to furnish a copy of that manuscript for the intended editor, the late learned and lamented professor Rees, of Llampeter college. The manuscript was, however, found to have been so inaccurately written, as to require unusual labour in preparing a correct copy; the writer, therefore, exerted his utmost ability to restore the text by means of conjectural emendation, and the collation of all quotations from the record which he could find in printed books or manuscripts at Oxford. During the progress of that operation professor Rees died, and the editorship was confided to his uncle, the rev. W. J. Rees, rector of Cascob, who executed the task with the greatest industry and faithfulness; and the writer has the satisfaction of finding that his own critical labours were highly valued by the editor, who, having subsequently collated a transcript at Rûg, made by Robert Vaughan, found it (as he says) "to confirm many of Mr. Black's suggested emendations", and adds, that "Mr. Black's suggestions were, in some cases, still more correct than either" of those transcripts. . While the work was passing through the press, the writer had an opportunity of inspecting the manuscript at Rûg, and found, to his astonishment, that Robert Vaughan had taken the pains of engrossing it on vellum, in imitation of the original manuscript; and he must here repeat the opinion which he had given of it to the editor, “that it was the best written fac-simile, for its extent, that he had ever seen, and that, though it resembled Miss Elstob's famous copy from the Textus Roffensis (a similar manuscript), it was a greater task, being a very large volume."1 Several lithographed fac-similes of the Vaughan manuscript are given by the editor, which have all the appearance of being taken from a genuine ancient manuscript, except a certain fineness of detail and finish, in which the writers of ancient manuscripts far excelled the moderns. For a particular account of the literary history of the work, recourse must be had to the editor's elaborate introduction; reserving, therefore, a point or two to be hereafter noticed, let us proceed to consider the contents of the record itself. These may be generally described under the following heads: 1. Lives or legends of saints connected with Llandaff. IV. Papal briefs and bulls in favour of the church of v. Transactions of the see in the time of bishop Ur- 1. Lives or legends of saints. These are five in number. (1). The volume begins without a title or rubric, and its 1 Preface, p. xxviii. first article is an account of ELGAR the hermit, a native of Devonshire, who was captured by pirates, and sold as a slave into Ireland, where he served as executioner in the court of Restri, or Roderic, grandson of Conchor. Gaining liberty, he went to sea, and was shipwrecked on the isle of Enli (which is called by the Welsh Ynys Enlli "the island of the current", and by the English, Bardsey Island), at the extremity of Caernarvonshire. This legend says that it was called the "Rome of Britain", twenty thousand bodies of saints, both confessors and martyrs, lying buried there. The legend describes an interview between him and master Caratocus (Caradog), his manner of life, his solitary death, and his burial by sailors. The only connexion between him and Llandaff appears to have been that, when the remains of archbishop Dubricius were removed from that island (7 May, 1120), the teeth of this saint were translated to the cathedral at the same time; an account of which event concludes the narrative. (2). The life of Saint SAMSON, archbishop of Dôl, in Brittany, whose parents were of royal descent in Ireland, and besought Dubricius, archbishop of West Britain (or Wales), for the obtaining of progeny. This life abounds with the strangest legends mingled with real history, and is exceedingly interesting. These two narratives occupy twenty-five pages of the printed copy, and are followed by matters which fall under other classes, as far as p. 75,-where begin (3) "Lessons from the Life of Saint DUBRICIUS." This personage, commonly called Saint Dyfryg, and who is elsewhere1 said to have been consecrated by Saints Germanus and Lupus, was the first bishop of Llandaff. His mother was the daughter of Pepiau, king of Ergyng (or Archenfield); and the peculiar circumstances of his birth (at a place ever since called Matlle, or Madley, in Herefordshire); the famous college, or school, that he established at Mochros (now Moccas), on the Wye; and his retirement to Bardsey Island, where he died, are the principal subjects of the narration. It concludes with a marvellous account of the translation of his bones to Llandaff, with great pomp, on Friday, 7 May, Sunday, 23 May, and Wednesday, 2 June, 1120, after he had been buried five or six hundred years. The date of his death is stated in the record thus: "In the year of our 1 P. 65, in the chapter "On the first state of the church of Llandaff." |