Hendregadredd Manuscript

{{Short description|14th century Welsh manuscript}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox manuscript | name = Hendregadredd Manuscript<br />{{lang|cy|Llawysgrif Hendregadredd}} | location = Aberystwyth, NLW MS 6680B | image = Image:Hendregadredd Manuscript-small.jpg | width = 180px | caption = Facsimile of folio 1<sup>r</sup>  | Also known as = | Type = | Date = shortly after 1283 | Place of origin = probably Strata Florida Abbey | Language(s) = Middle Welsh | Scribe(s) = Anonymous hand α; 39 others | Author(s) = Meilyr Brydydd, Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, Llywarch ap Llywelyn, Dafydd Benfras, and others | Compiled by = | Illuminated by = | Patron = | Dedicated to =  | Material = Vellum | Size = 210 × 155 mm; 130 leaves | Format = | Condition = Leaves missing; no original binding | Script = Textura | Contents = Medieval Welsh court poetry of the ''Gogynfeirdd''; later hands add poetry of the ''Cywyddwyr'', including a probable autograph of Dafydd ap Gwilym | Illumination(s) = | Additions = | Exemplar(s) = | Previously kept = In a cupboard in {{Interlanguage link|Hendregadredd|cy|Hendregadredd}} | Discovered = 1910 | Other = | below = }}

The '''Hendregadredd Manuscript''' ({{langx|cy|Llawysgrif Hendregadredd}}), is a medieval Welsh manuscript containing an anthology of the poetry of the "Poets of the Princes" (Gogynfeirdd); it was written between 1282 and 1350.

The manuscript was long part of the library at Hengwrt, assembled by the antiquary Robert Vaughan (d.1667). A catalogue of the library made in the early 1800s failed to find the manuscript, it having likely been taken in 1778 by the Anglican priest and scholar Richard Thomas (1753–80), who is notorious for removing important medieval manuscripts from libraries and not returning them.<ref name=guy75>Guy, R. "A Lost Medieval Manuscript from North Wales: Hengwrt 33", ''Studia Celtica'' L (2016), 75. Thomas probably also removed Hengwrt 33, the ''Hanesyn Hen'', from the library at the same time; it has not been seen since.</ref>

The manuscript then disappeared for over a century. It was unexpectedly rediscovered in 1910 in a cupboard in a disused bedroom of the mansion of Hendregadredd near Porthmadog: a note found inside, written by the Archdeacon of Merioneth, Richard Newcombe (1779-1857), stated "I have long been in possession of this Welsh MS. but forget where or how I obtained it".<ref name=breeze30>Breeze, Andrew R.: ''Medieval Welsh Literature'', Four Courts Press, 1997, p.30 – {{ISBN|978-1-8518-2229-4}}</ref> It is now part of the collection of the National Library of Wales with catalogue number NLW MS 6680B.

The manuscript is the earliest witness of the works of the Gogynfeirdd, the Welsh court poets who were active from the early 12th century until the 14th century. It is especially valuable as the only other major source of their work is the Red Book of Hergest. The Hendregadredd Manuscript was probably written at the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion. Work began on this collection of poetry sometime after 1282 – first by one main scribe, perhaps the original architect of the volume - but nearly forty different hands were involved in two further strata of scribal activity, working well into the mid-14th century. About 1330 a number of poems by contemporary poets were added. These include a poem possibly in the hand of Dafydd ap Gwilym himself, the best-known poet of his time, who was closely associated with Strata Florida,<ref name=nlw>{{cite web |url=https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/hendregadredd-manuscript |title=Hendregadredd Manuscript |author= |website=LLyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales |access-date=28 December 2023 }}</ref> as well as poems by Meilyr Brydydd, Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, Bleddyn Fardd, Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, Llywarch ap Llywelyn, and Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd.<ref name="companion"/>

Parts of the Hendregadredd Manuscript were copied in 1617 by the scholar John Davies (Mallwyd),<ref name=breeze30 /> and it was his transcription that was used in the ''Myvyrian Archaiology''.<ref name="companion">{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales |year=1986 |editor-last=Stephens |editor-first=Meic |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |chapter=The Hendregadredd Manuscript |pages=254–255 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00meic/page/204/mode/2up}}</ref> Early copies of sections of the manuscript show that some portions of the original have since been lost.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.llgc.org.uk/?id=253 The Hendregadredd Manuscript] at the [http://www.llgc.org.uk National Library of Wales]. ''Includes full colour images of the complete manuscript.''

Category:14th-century books Category:Welsh-language manuscripts Category:Medieval Welsh literature Category:Welsh poetry Category:Welsh-language literature Category:Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales