Breudwd Rhyddiaith Gymraeg 1300-1425
English

Pennyn y Fenter Amgodio Testunau (TEI) ar gyfer LlB Llsgr. Ychwanegol 14,912

: British Library Additional 14,912: An Electronic Edition. TEI header

: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol BS1 2AE 0117 987 6500

Principal Investigator: Peter Wynn Thomas

Transcribed and encoded by D. Mark Smith

Transcribed and encoded by Diana Luft

School of Welsh, Cardiff University Cardiff 2013 www.rhyddiaithganoloesol.caerdydd.ac.uk

  • : London
  • : British Library
  • : Additional 14,912

The manuscript contains a copy of the medical text Meddygon Myddfai along with some charms and medical recipes in Latin. This is preceded by a calendar.

Page Contents Hand
1r Note stating the ownership of the manuscript by the Cymmrodorion Society unknown
1v blank not applicable
2r Note in the hand of William Owen Pughe noting that he has borrowed the manuscript Pughe
2v blank
3r Title page in Latin for the text in the hand of Lewis Morris Morris
3v blank
4r-8r Table outlining the contents of the manuscript in the hand of Lewis Morris Morris
8v blank
9r-13v Calendr BL Add. 14912 hand A
14r-16r Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
16r-17v Y Misoedd BL Add. 14912 hand A
17v-24v Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
24v-28v Rhinweddau Croen Neidr BL Add. 14912 hand A
28v-31v Dylanwad y Lleuad BL Add. 14912 hand A
31v-35v Y Deuddeng Arwydd BL Add. 14912 hand A
35v-40v Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
Folios are missing here
41r-48v Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
48v Llythyr Aristotlys at Alecsander: Pryd a Gwedd Dynion BL Add. 14912 hand A
Folios are missing here (2 folios?)
49r-52v Llythyr Aristotlys at Alecsander: Pryd a Gwedd Dynion BL Add. 14912 hand A
52v-54r Y Pedwar Defnydd BL Add. 14912 hand A
54r-58r Ansoddau’r Trwnc BL Add. 14912 hand A
58r-65r Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
65v medical recipes in a 16th century hand, not transcribed later
66r-66v folio missing. According to Lewis Morris's list of contents this folio contained 'Superstitious Recipes and Charms in Latin'
67r-72v Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
72v-74v Campau’r Cennin BL Add. 14912 hand A
Folios missing. According to Lewis Morris’s list of contents 8 folios are missing.
75r-76v Latin medical recipes, not transcribed BL Add. 14912 hand A
76v-81r Meddyginiaethau BL Add. 14912 hand A
81r Latin medical recipes, not transcribed BL Add. 14912 hand A
81r-82r Arwyddion Calan Ionawr BL Add. 14912 hand A
82r-84r Arwyddon Lloer Jonawr BL Add. 14912 hand A
84r-84v Latin medical recipes, not transcribed BL Add. 14912 hand A
84v-93v Llysieulyfr BL Add. 14912 hand A
93v-95v Latin texts described by Lewis Morris as 'Experiments in Latin on Sulphur, Mercury, Nitre, and several magical tricks', not transcribed later
96r Notes on the manuscript in the hand of Lewis Morris, not transcribed Morris

The following texts were used in the transcription of the manuscript for the purposes of comparison:

  • Coe, John. ed. 1999. Deudeg Rhinwedd Croen Neidr. Studia Celtica 33. 297-334.
  • Diverres, Pol. ed. 1913. Le plus ancien texte des Meddygon Myddveu. Paris: Maurice le Dault.
  • Stokes, Whitley. ed. 1900. A List of Welsh Plantnames. Archiv für Celtische Lexikographie 1. 37-49.

There are three sets of foliation in the manuscript:

  • in black ?ink in the top centre margin of each recto page. These page numbers are in the hand of Lewis Morris and correspond to the page numbers referred to in his table of contents.
  • in black ?ink the top right corner of each recto page beginning with the note on the Cymmrodorion Society's ownership of the manuscript. These page numbers have been crossed out by a later hand in pencil, presumably by the person responsible for the third system of foliation.
  • in ?pencil in the top right corner of each recto page beginning note on the Cymmrodorion Society's ownership of the manuscript.

The editors have followed the third system of foliation as it is the most accurate.

Catchwords are occasionally found in the bottom right hand corner of the page. Others may have been cut out later during binding. All catchwords are in the hand of the main scribe unless otherwise noted. Examples are: 21v: a hynny. Gỽyn gyfleith, 29v: wedo ebrỽyd y, 37v: heddic ar bawm, 43v: nyeu athraet, 58v: chỽyd yndunt, 74v: verỽi [�], 82v BM: drỽc vyd, 90v: Pentafoliu[m]

The manuscript is much faded and difficult to read in many places.

There are folios missing between folios 40 and 41.

There may be two folios missing between folios 48 and 49.

Folio 66 is missing. According to Lewis Morris's list of contents this folio contained 'Superstitious Recipes and Charms in Latin'.

According to Morris's list of contents eight folios are missing between folios 74 and 75.

The bottom right corner of folio 76 has been ripped out.

The text is written in two columns of 18 lines to each page.

Most of the manuscript is written in the late-fourteenth-century rounded textura hand of an unknown scribe. This scribe has been designated 'BL Add. 14912 hand A' for the purposes of this edition. An untranscribed section in Latin at the end of the manuscript is written in the sixteenth century anglicana hand of an unknown scribe.
‘BL Add. 14912 hand A’

The scribe uses a unique letter which looks like a Greek delta to represent /ð/. This has been transcribed here as d[d].

The scribe also uses the character <z> to represent an English yogh in <zistles> at 87r.11. The same character appears at 88v.11 <Zinzeberum> and 88v.13 <Zecura>, where it may represent /s/; at 88v.14, where it seems to represent /z/ in <Zizannia>; and at 88v.12, where it appears to represent /f/ in <Zerula>. These examples have all been transcribed with a <z>.

This scribe uses both regular and medial <a>. The medial <a> often serves almost as a capital and is commonly found at the beginning of sentences and clauses, as well as of proper nouns.

The scribe uses both regular and dotted <y>. There seems to be no phonological trigger for the choice. The undotted variant is slightly more common with capital letters than small ones.

The orthography of this scribe does not differ substantially from expected forms.

The text contains a number of common abbreviations. These have been expanded in the transcription to the forms that are given elsewhere in the text itself rather than to standard or dictionary forms.

  • macron for <n>: be[n]naf 20r.3; kyflỽ[n]g 16v.10, 16v,18, 17r.4 etc.; chyuanna[n]t 19v.1; dy[n]glon[n]ydd 21v.6; dyn[n]u 22v.4, etc.
  • macron for <m>: kobandru[m] 62v.17; ky[m]mysc 67v.15, 68r.13; chy[m]mer 17v.1, 67v.16; di[m]mei 48r.8; from[m] 53v.7; gỽilam[m]ec 19r.16, etc.
  • <~> for <er>: c[er]uina 89r.5; h[er]be 89v.12; M[er]curium 90r.4; M[er]cury 90r.4; phyp[er] 67r.3, 68r.14; Septin[er]ea 92r.12; t[er]ebiliciu[m] 37r.13; t[er]re 90r.14, etc.
  • <~> for <yr> plast[yr] 22v.6, 68v.12, 68v.16 etc.
  • <~> for <ur>: bibat[ur] 91r.10
  • <9> for <us>: barbat[us] 93r.3; beat[us] 29r.8; columbin[us] 91v.2; ebostol[us] 11r.26; Jusq[ui]am[us] 89r.1; men[us] 69r.17; Mirt[us] 89v.14, etc.
  • <p> with a tail for <pro>: p[ro] 91r.10; p[ro]uedic 59r.11
  • <p> with a crossed tail for <per>: Junip[er]u[m] 89r.3; P[er]atoria 91r.10; p[er]atory 91r.10; p[er]sly 91r.4; p[er]syl 69r.1; P[er]venca 91r.3, etc.
  • <p> with a crossed tail for <por>: p[or]cinum 91v.7
  • <a> above a letter for <ra>: nig[ra] 90v.2
  • <i> above a letter for <ri>: T[ri]folium 92v.16
  • <o> above a letter for <ro>: Pet[ro]sillum 91r.4
  • <i> above a letter for <ui> Jusq[ui]amus 89r.1; Q[ui]nq[ue] 91v.5, 91v.6
  • <r> with a tail for <rum>: Mentastr[um] 89v.15; moror[um] 92r.17; ortulanor[um] 89v.5; Piretr[um] 91r.9
  • <s> with atail for <is>: Mercurial[is] 89v.17; serpent[is] 92r.14
  • <l~> for <ul>: cuc[u]li 90v.12; Matrusc[u]la 90r.11; Teribu[n]c[u]la 93r.7; Testic[u]l[u]s 93r.4

Some commonly occurring names and words may also be abbreviated:

  • <Ap[ostolorum]>: 10r.2
  • <k[alend]>: 9v.15
  • <K[a]L[ends]>: 9v.1, 10r.1, 10v.1 etc.
  • <k[anys]>: 53v.15
  • <k[ymer]>: 18r.8, 18r.10, 18r.13 etc.
  • <ky[mer]>: 15v.14, 15v.16, 16r.4 etc.
  • <D[ies] [malus]>: 9v.21, 10r.4, 10r.26 etc.
  • <gỽyneugo[ch]>: 53r.15
  • <gỽyngo[ch]>: 53r.3
  • <hỽ[yd]>: 18v.8
  • <M[aen]>: 18v.8
  • <Miml[ia]>: 11r.25
  • <phi[llipus]>: 10r.2
  • <R[ac]>: 18v.8, 18v.11
  • <ss[ych]>: 53v.15

There are also many common Latin abbreviations:

  • <[christ]i>: 90v.5
  • <[con]solida>: 36r.7
  • <d[omi]ne>: 30v.15
  • <[dragma]>: 37v.1, 37v.3, 37v.8 etc.
  • <[et]>: 10v.2
  • <i[d] [est]>: 36r.3, 36r.4, 36r.5 etc.
  • <id[e]m>: 89r.8, 89v.2, 90r.18 etc.
  • <neq[ue]>: 30r.16
  • <li[bris]>: 37r.15, 37r.16
  • <[scrupulus]>: 38r.7
  • <[vel]>: 90v.4, 92r.8, 92v.1 etc.
  • <o[mn]>: 91r.10
  • <Jt[em]>: 91r.13, 91v.1, 91v.4 etc.
  • <u[e]l>: 92v.8

Punctuation consists of the punctus and the punctus elevatus.

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

The following marginalia are in later hands and have not been included in the transcription:

  • 15v, LM
  • 16r TM (Dafydd Nanmor?)
  • 20r RM
  • 20r BM
  • 22r: 'Jon Griffith his book 1735 John Griffith'
  • 29r TM
  • 29v TM, LM
  • 30r TM, RM, BM
  • 53v TM, LM
  • 54r TM, 54r RM
  • 54v LM
  • 55r RM: John Griffiths his book
  • 55v BM
  • 56r RM
  • 56v BM
  • 57r BM
  • 58r BM: Rich. Lloyd his Book
  • 59v LM
  • 60r RM
  • 60v BM
  • 61r TM (Dafydd Nanmor?), RM
  • 61v LM
  • 62r RM
  • 62v LM
  • 63r RM
  • 89v BM: 'John Griffith'
  • 90r RM: 'John Griffiths his Book 1739'
  • 91v TM: 'Manual llyssewydd' (Dafydd Nanmor?)
  • 91v BM
  • 92r BM

Notes in a number of modern hands precede the manuscript and are bound with it.

  • 1r: 'Medici Mothovienses, a valuable [and] Ancient Welsh [...] belonging to the Society of Anceint Britons [...] in the possession of the Cymmrodorion Society'
  • 2r: 'April 6th 1825. Borrowed Meddygon Myddvai, a M.S. Wm. Owen Pughe'
  • 3r: 'Meddygon Myddfai. vel Medici Mothovienses. Mothovia seu Myddvai agrimatidunensis biblia est. Medio circiter itinere inter Oppida Llangadog [et] Llanarmddyfri. Erant autem isti Medici, Rhivallo cum tribus filiis, Cadwgan, Gryffydd [et] Enniannus, qui sub Rheso Rauco claruere circa Annum. 1230. vid. fil. 6. [et] 176. [...] Dav. in voce Myddfai. [et] Archeologia Britannica. p. 262'
  • 4r-8r: Table in the hand of Lewis Morris outlining the contents of the manuscript

The manuscript was produced at the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century in Wales (Huws 2000: 60).

According to a note on folio 22v the manuscript was in the possession of John Griffith in 1735. The manuscript had also been in the possession of Lewis Morris (1701-1765), as his title page, table of contents, and numerous notes in the margins of the text testify. Morris may have been responsible for much of the retracing in the manuscript. He refers to the manuscript in his letters saying, 'Oni ddywedasoch i mai Doctor phisig yw Doctor Owen? A glywodd ef erioed son am Feddygon Myddfai? An account of that Ms. of the Britons will be a good subject of a letter to the Cymrodorion' (Owen 1974: 49).

The manuscript came into the possession of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, perhaps as one of the manuscripts bequeathed to it in Lewis Morris's will. It was kept, along with the rest of the society's books, at the Welsh Charity School in London. William Owen Pughe refers to it in his description of the manuscripts in the possession of the Welsh Charity School published in volume two of the Cambrian Register (1796). Along with the greater part of the School's collection of Welsh books and manuscripts, it was given to the British Library in 1843, with the proviso that the collection be kept together. This collection was catalogued as Additional Manuscripts 14,866-14,961. The manuscript was not described by J. Gwenogvryn Evans in his catalogue, and was not consulted by Pol Diverres when preparing his edition of Meddygon Myddfai.

Information on the dating and hand of this manuscript is based on the following authorities:

  • 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.
  • Owen, Morfudd. 1974. Llawysgrif Feddygol a Anwybyddwyd. BBCS 26. 48-49.
  • Owen, Morfudd. 1976. Meddygon Myddfai: A Preliminary Survey of some Medieval Medical Writing in Welsh. Studia Celtica 10/11. 210-233.
  • unknown. 1850. Meddygon Myddfai. List of Additions to the Department of Manuscripts, 1844. Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1841-1845. London: British Museum.

The Welsh Prose 1350-1425 website is the product of an AHRC funded research project undertaken by staff at the School of Welsh, Cardiff University from 2004 through 2007 called Corff Electronig o Ryddiaith Cymraeg Canol. The aim of this project was to produce machine-readable editions of all the medieval Welsh prose texts which have been preserved in manuscripts dating from c.1350 to c.1425.

The project is a continuation and a development of two previous projects funded by the University of Wales which transcribed the Welsh prose in manuscripts dated to c.1250-c.1350.

The intention is to give scholars access not only to texts that have hitherto remained unedited but also to the different versions of texts that have been the subject of critical editions.

Certain decorative features have been encoded: these may trigger further study of the original manuscripts. Primarily, however, the resource provides detail which it is hoped will further the study of the language and literature of the period.

In producing this edition, we have attempted to fulfil two different and often non-complementary if not opposing goals: to present a minimally edited edition of the text, and to represent as many visual features of the manuscript as possible.

Visual features of the text such as layout, and rubrication may prove to be as essential in textual interpretation as features such as punctuation, letter forms, capitalisation and word division, which are more usually invoked by scholars in the field.

The orthography of the original text has been maintained, even where it is idiosyncratic, as the unique characteristics of the scribe's spelling may shed light upon the language of the period as he, his audience, or patron used it. Where the scribe's orthography seems to merit particular attention, an editorial gloss has been added to indicate what we believe to have been the target form.

In some places, especially where the manuscript is damaged, we have supplied text. This serves the two-fold purpose of presenting a complete text and, perhaps more importantly, of indicating the size of the damaged area.

In order to make editorial intervention as transparent as possible, supplied text is clearly marked off from the manuscript text by a different font. Also in the spirit of editorial transparency, we have wherever possible used published editions for supplied text. Text supplied from published editions may suffer from obvious errors or significant differences in orthography from the manuscript text. We have refrained from imposing our own editorial actions on such features.

The transcription of this manuscript, as well as the information in this TEI header is based on the microfilm reproduction of the manuscript produced by the British Library. As we have not checked the transcription against the original, information on the scribal hands, foliation, accompanying materials, colour scheme and ornamentation should be treated as provisional.

  • 21-Jan-2011 DL: edited TEI header
  • 14-Aug-2007 PWT: edited TEI header
  • 16-May-2007 PWT: edited XML encoded files, produced table of corrections and amended where necessary
  • 9-Mar-2007 DL: converted Word files with shortcuts into XML files and corrected them
  • 24-Nov-2006 – 9-Mar-2007 DL: corrected electronic transcription of folios 1r-69v
  • DMS: corrected electronic transcription of folios 70r-93v
  • DL: checked DMS's transcript of folios 70r-93v against prints
  • 23-Nov-2006 – 9-Mar-2006 DMS: checked DL's transcript of folios 1r-69v against prints
  • 17-Nov-2006 – 9-Mar-2007 DL: transcribed folios 1r-69v with shortcuts
  • DMS: transcribed folios 70r-93v with shortcuts

The material has been transcribed separately.