Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Owain. Printed in part in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., i, p. 1013. It is considerably fuller than G.

I. Mostyn MS. 88, written 1488-9, also by Gutyn Owain. It is printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., i, pp. 16-17. These three calendars are not mere copies of each other.

J. Jesus College (Oxford) MS. cxli 6, of the fifteenth century, printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, p. 36. Imperfect, only May-October. It is apparently one of Gutyn Owain's calendars.

K. Jesus College MS. xxii=7, of the late fifteenth century, printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, p. 38.

66

L. Iolo MSS., pp. 152-3, taken from a MS. written circa 1500, in the possession of Mr. Thomas Davies, of Dolgelley." December is imperfect. This is one of the fullest of the Welsh calendars.

M. Sir John Prys, Yny lhyvyr hwnn, London, 1546, reprinted. Bangor, 1902, under the editorship of Mr. J. H. Davies, M.A., for the Guild of Graduates of the University of Wales, from the unique copy in the Plâs Llanstephan Library. The work is to all intents and purposes a Prymer, and was probably the first book ever printed in the Welsh language. The calendar is often inaccurate, but contains a few rare entries.

N. Peniarth MS. 60, of the sixteenth century. This does not contain many entries.

O. Peniarth MS. 172, of the sixteenth century, printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., i, pp. 967-8.

P. Peniarth MS. 192, of the sixteenth century. It begins with December 17, and is followed by January to September 15. The remainder is lost. The entries are not many.

Q. Plâs Llanstephan MS. 117, of the middle of the sixteenth century, printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, pp. 571-2.

R. Plás Llanstephan MS. 181, written circa 1556, and printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, pp. 770-1. It is a complete calendar, but begins with May and ends with April. It belongs to North Wales.

S. A Demetian calendar, of which there are three MS. copies : (a) Curtmawr MS. 44, of the second half of the sixteenth century, and (b and c) Panton MSS. 10 and 66, of the eighteenth century; and four printed copies: (a) Y Greal, 1806, pp. 287-8, (b) Cambrian Register, 1818, iii, pp. 219–21, (c) Y Gwyliedydd, 1825, pp. 343-4, and (d) Archæologia Cambrensis, 1854, pp. 30-2. This is a list, not a calendar proper, and the entries are not arranged in any order, except in the Cwrtmawr MS. as printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, p. 936. November, with its fifteen entries, is by much the fullest

month. July and September have no entries. Some of the entries are peculiar to this calendar; others supply details of the saints that are not found elsewhere. The following, among others, are noteworthy festivals: Rhystyd, Padarn and Teilo (movable), "Fidalis and Bidofydd" (April 26), Pumpsaint, Cynddilig, Gwryd Frawd (the three on All Saints' Day), the Festival of the man who died on Trinity Sunday, preceded by a great vigil on the Saturday night, when it is customary to bathe for the cure of the tertian ague." The words "Gwyl y gwr a fu farw " (probably the correct reading) of the last quoted entry are converted in some of the copies into "S. Gwryfarn" and " Y Gwyryfon" (the Virgins). The list may be described as a Demetian calendar, as most of the saints commemorated belong to Dyfed, but more especially Cardiganshire. The first entry is Gwyl Geitho," which probably gives a clue to its origin.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

T. British Museum Additional MS. 14,882, written in 1591 by William ap Wm." This is a perfect calendar.

U. Peniarth MS. 187, written in 1596, and printed, but only in part, in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., i, p. 1014. This is a full calendar. Some of the entries are curious, e.g. for January, "The first day of this month the tops of the mountains appeared to Noah"; 7th, Christ turned the water into wine "; 10th, "Nebuchadnezzar's war against Jerusalem."

[ocr errors]

V. Hafod MS. 8, of the late sixteenth century, printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., ii, p. 311. It is a meagre calendar.

W. MS. marginal entries in the calendar to a copy of the Preces Privata, published in 1573, in the Library of S. Beuno's Jesuit College, near S. Asaph. The entries are in at least three different hands, of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and are by persons who lived in north, or rather north-east, Wales, for the majority of the festivals, as well as fairs, entered belong to that part.

X. Peniarth MS. 219, circa 1615, in the handwriting of John Jones of Gelli Lyfdy. It is printed in Dr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans, ibid., i, pp. 1043-5, where its festivals are entered with those of Peniarth MSS. 27, 186 and 187.

Y. The calendar prefixed to the Llyfr Plygain, or Prymer, of 1618 (fifth edition). This is a full calendar, but a leaf was missing for April and May in the copy seen. It frequently corroborates L in some of its isolated entries.

Z. The calendar prefixed to the Llyfr Plygain, or Prymer, of 1633. edited by Dr. John Davies.

ZA. The calendar prefixed to Allwydd neu Agoriad Paradwys i'r Cymru, a Roman manual published at Liège in 1670. The Welsh

saints are marked with an asterisk to distinguish them from saints of the Roman calendar.

ZB. Welsh almanacks of the latter part of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century give the festivals of Welsh and other saints more or less fully. The first Welsh almanack was that published for 1680, at Shrewsbury. We have consulted a great many from that for 1692 down. From about 1780 these festival entries became fewer and fewer, and have gradually disappeared almost entirely from the ordinary Welsh almanack.

Zc. Wm. Roberts (Nefydd), in his Crefydd yr Oesoedd Tywyll, Carmarthen, 1852, gives the festivals of such Welsh saints as occur in the Welsh almanacks of the eighteenth century.

ZD. The calendar in Williams ab Ithel, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymry, London, 1844, pp. 301-3. It is based upon the festivals given in Rees, Essay on the Welsh Saints, 1836, and is not always correct. To these may be added the following, which, however, contain but few Celtic or Welsh entries:

A Welsh Martyrology in Trinity College, Dublin, Library (MS. 50), of which Mr. H. Bradshaw speaks with enthusiasm in his Collected Papers, pp. 477-8. "It turns out to be one of the most precious monuments of the Welsh Church yet discovered." It was written by Ithael, and the initial letters were painted by Johannes, brother of Rhygyfarch (died 1097). It is actually the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, with entries of Celtic saints, Irish and British. The MS.

was once in the possession of Bishop Bedell, who lent it to Archbishop Ussher, and it was owing to this happy accident that it was saved from the destruction which befell almost the whole of Bishop Bedell's library after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1641.

We are indebted to Mr. R. Twigge for kindly examining this Martyrology for us. It unfortunately contains no other entries of Celtic saints than these: March 17, S. Patrick; July 28, S. Samson; September 17, "In Britannis Socris et Stephani"; December 17, Depos. Judichaili Confess."

A Martyrology of British Saints, "very peculiar," in the Bodleian Library, of the fourteenth century (MSS. Gough Coll., 1833), imperfect; from March 17 to May 23 is all that exists.

A Llanthony Abbey Calendar, in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

We give below a calendar of the Welsh saints carefully compiled from the foregoing, noting in each case the particular calendars which contain the commemoration. They often vary, but the oldest calendars may be presumed to be the most reliable.

The ordinary festivals of the Western Church have not been included.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
« ForrigeFortsett »