Pennyn y Fenter Amgodio Testunau (TEI) ar gyfer LlGC Llsgr. Llanstephan 27 (Llyfr Coch Talgarth)

The decoration consists in the main of large decorated initials in red ink, as well as lively line-drawings in the bottom margins of some pages. Examples of line-drawings may be seen in the bottom margins at:

• 29v: hand
• 41r: hand

In most cases the drawings are associated with catchwords. Examples may be seen at:

• 30v: hand
• 40v: dog
• 50v: dog
• 60v: dog
• 70v: hand
• 80v: hand
• 90v: bird's head?
• 100v: hand
• 130v: dog
• 137v: two hands
• 166v: dog
• 176v: dog

In some places the scribe or decorator has drawn pictures – generally of fish or human faces – into the decorated letters found at the tops of lines. An example is the <P> (fish) at 116v.1.

In some places the rubricator has neglected to add a <M> for Magister to the text of the Elucidarium and a space shows where this should be. An example may be seen at 3v.2.

There are some marginalia in later hands in the manuscript which have not been included in the transcription:

• 1r: TM, RM. 11-12, 14-17, 20-1, BM
• 1v: LM.2-4, 18-21
• 2r: RM.1-2, 6-10, 19-22
• 2v: LM.1, 12-13, 19-20
• 3r: RM.3-4, 7-9, 21, 23-7
• 3v: LM.4-5, 27
• 4r: RM.16
• 4v: LM.5, 16-17, 20
• 5r: RM.4, 13-16
• 5v: LM.9-11
• 6r: RM.1, 22, 26-7
• 6v: LM.4, 11-14, 24-5
• 7r: RM.1-2, 7-9
• 7v: LM.2, 4-6, 9-12, 16, 21
• 9r: RM.12-20
• 9v: LM.14-21
• 10r: RM.7-8
• 12r: RM.9
• 12v: LM.19
• 13v: LM.27
• 17r: RM.6
• 20v: BM
• 26r: RM.1
• 26v: LM.21
• 28v: LM.21
• 29v: LM.25
• 33v: LM.5
• 35r: RM.12
• 40r: RM.6-7
• 41v: TM
• 42r: RM.17
• 43v: LM.15
• 44v: LM.8
• 46r: RM.11
• 46r: inline.13-14
• 51r: RM.16
• 72v: BM
• 73r: RM.16
• 81r: RM.2
• 84v: LM.21
• 93r: RM.9
• 102r: RM
• 102r: LM
• 102v: RM
• 102v: LM
• 106v: LM.19
• 124r: IL.22
• 125r: RM
• 130r: BM
• 147r: TM
• 153v
• 154r
• 158r inline.15 (modern hand)

Nota marks are to be found in the margins of many pages in the hand of the main scribe. An example may be seen at 20r.1.

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

• i r: notes including the Shirburn shelf mark (113.E.58) as well as the designation 'Llyfr Coch o Dalgarth' in the hand of Moses Williams
• i v: blank
• ii r: note in the hand of J. Gwenogvryn Evans describing the manuscript as a direct transcript of Peniarth 5
• iii r-iv v: notes on contents in the hand of Moses Williams
• vi r: Welsh pedigrees in a 14th or 15th-century hand
• vi v: Welsh prose text in a 15th-century hand
• vii r: two Latin prayers in a 15th-century hand
• vii v-viii r: poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym and Ieuan Tew Brydydd in a 15th-century hand
• ix v: Welsh prose text in an anglicana hand
• 183a: a letter addressed to the Reverend Moses Williams

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

D. Simon Evans (1959: xxxvi) suggested that Llanstephan 27 and Oxford Jesus College 111 (The Red Book of Hergest) were both written by Hywel Fychan at the behest of Hopcyn ap Tomas. Hywel Fychan is known to have produced manuscripts for Hopcyn ap Tomas, as his colophon in Philadelphia 8680 attests: 'y llyuyr hwnn a yscriuennwys howel vychan uab howel goch o uuellt yn llwyr onys gwnaeth agkof adaw geir neu lythyren. o arch a gorchymun y vaester nyt amgen Hopkyn uab thomas uab einawn'. Evans argued that the contents of this manuscript, which comprise religious texts on the whole, complement those of the Red Book of Hergest (Oxford Jesus College 111), which is notable for its lack of this type of material. Evans also refers to the awdl addressed to Hopcyn ap Tomas by Dafydd y Coed which states that there was a copy of 'the Lucidarius' in Hopcyn ap Tomas's court: 'Mwnei law mae yn y lys/ Eurdar y Lucidarius/ A'r Greal ar Ynyales/ A grym pob kyfreith ae gras' (quoted by James 1993: 17). An awdl by Ieuan Llwyd makes a similar claim: 'Dysgawd lyvreu loewvreint dawnus/ Lucidarius lwys y daered (quoted in James 17).

As there are references to Rhys ap Tomas ab Einawn in the manuscript, Brynley Roberts (1967) proposed that rather than having been commissioned by Hopcyn ap Tomas in particular, the manuscript was commissioned by Hopcyn's family to whom there are references in five Latin prayers on pages 152v and 153r of the manuscript:

• 152v.5-7: salua me rys uab thoma uab einyaỽn. {et} defende ab o{mn}ib{us} adu{er}sitatibis meis.
• 152v.13-14: Et cum assistant huic famulo tuo rys uab thomas duodecim ap{osto}li d{omin}ni n{ost}ri ih{es}u {christi}.
• 152v.17-19: vt defendant eum rys hoc breue portantem. abomi{n}bus insidiis dyaboli.
• 153r-3-4: filius dei uiui me famillum tuu{m} rys uab thomas. benedicat. {et} o{mn}i malo defendat.
• 153r.20-23: Tu domine p{er} has sanctissimas penas tuas. a penis inferni. {et} aboni{n]ib{us} temptacionib{us} dyaboli me rys uab thomas {et} om{n}es parentes meos {et} amicos {et} benefactores meos.

Roberts (1967: 224) suggests that Rhys ap Tomas ab Einiawn was a brother of Hopcyn ap Tomas ab Einiawn of Ynysdawy, who commissioned Hywel Fychan and his collaborators to write the Red Book of Hergest. The same Rhys ap Tomas ab Einawn could have been responsible for commissioning the translation of Ffordd y Brawd Odrig.

At some point three quires became detached from this manuscript and were re-bound with other others. Two quires from Ystoria Lucidar were bound with Peniarth 12, the other texts of which were probably written around it in order to produce a complete text of the Elucidarium (O'Rourke 2003). A third quire was bound at the end of Cardiff 3.242, which contains medical material, probably because of a perceived similarity in the hands of the two scribes rather than for any textual reason.

This manuscript formed part of a collection brought together by the copyist Samuel Williams (c.1660-c.1722) and his son Moses Williams (1685-1742), along with the other Llanstephan manuscripts (numbers 1-154). Upon Moses Williams's death in 1742, his Welsh manuscripts were sold to the mathematician William Jones. Jones in turn bequeathed these manuscripts to his pupil, the second earl of Macclesfield, upon his death in 1749 (Bywgraffiadur 491).

Llanstephan 27 remained in the possession of the earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn castle until 1899 when it was bought by Sir John Williams. Along with the rest of his vast collections it was donated by Sir John to the National Library of Wales in 1909.

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

• Evans, D. Simon. 1959. Buched Dewi. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
• Evans, J. Gwenogvryn. 1898-1910. Llanstephan 27. Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language 2. London: HMSO. 455-62.
• 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.
• James, Christine. 1993. 'Llwyr Wybodau, Llên a Llyfrau': Hopcyn ap Tomas a'r Traddodiad Llenyddol Cymraeg. Hywel Teifi Edwards. ed. Cwm Tawe. Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer. 4-44.
• Jenkins, Richard Thomas. ed. 1953. Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940. London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.
• Morgan, Prys. 1978. Glamorgan and the Red Book. Morgannwg 22. 42-60.
• O'Rourke, Jason. 2003. English and Latin texts in Welsh contexts: Reflections of a Multilingual Society in National Library of Wales MS. Peniarth 12. Yearbook of English Studies 33. 53-63.
• Roberts, Brynley. 1967. Un o lawysgrifau Hopcyn ab Tomas o Ynys Dawe. BBCS 22. 223-227.