Blair Collection > Celtic studies

Celtic MSS., etc. 183
with interlined Welsh glosses, from p. 2^ to 9*; b, the exordium of Ovid's Art
of Love, p. 37^ to •io'^, also containing interhned Welsh glosses. These glosses
he believes to have been written in the eighth or ninth centurj\ c. The alphabet
of Nemnivus, giving the forms of the letters and their Welsh names ; cl, some
accounts of weights and measures in Welsh, intermixed with Latin, at p. 22^
to 23\
2. A later vellum MSS. (Bodl 572), containing theological tracts, and in the
middle, from p. -tP to ■17'', a list of Latin words with AVelsh ones, which are
written either over the Latin, or in the same hne, with the sign .i. (id est),
according to the custom of glossographers.
3. The MS. of the Church of Lichfield (formerly of that of Llandaff), con-
taining the Gospels, in various parts of which (e.g. p. 9'' 10^, 71% 109''), donations
made to the Church of Llandatf at very ancient periods, not later than the
glosses of the first Oxford MS., are noted'in Latin, but with Welsh names, and
even sentences, which Wanley has already published (p. 289).
4. The Luxemburg Folio, a single leaf with Welsh glosses of the ninth cen-
tury, which Mone found in the town library of Luxemburg, pasted to the
cover of another MS.
The glosses of these four MSS. have been published by Zeuss in the appendix
to the Grammatica Celtica.
5. Liber Lamhivensis, or book of LlandaflP, compiled from more ancient docu-
ments about the year 11 32. It contains many descriptions of boundaries of land,
and also privileges of the bishopric, written in Welsh. It has also scattered
through it Welsh proper names, especially of men and localities. This book was
published in 1840 under the title, "The Liber Landavensis, Llyfr Teilo, or the
Ancient Register of the Cathedral Church of Landaff", from MSS. in the
Librai'ies of Hengwrt and of Jesus College, Oxford, with an English translation
and explanatory notes by the Rev. W. J. Rees, published by the Welsh IMSS.
Society, Llandovery, 1840.
G. Codex legum Venedotianus, or the Venedotian JIS. of laws. This MS.,
which belongs to the Heng\vrt collection, is considered to have been comi^iled in
the tweU'th century. The latest edition of these laws, the first collection of which
is attributed to Hywel Dda (Howel the Good), who died a.d. 950, was pub-
lished by the Record Commission, tmder the title " Ancient Law s and Institutes
of Wales" ; comprising laws supposed to be enacted by Howel the Good, modified
by subsequent regidations under the native prmces prior to the conquest by
Edward the First : and anomalous laws, consisting prmcipaUy of institutions
which bv the statute of Ruddlau were admitted to contmue in force. With an
English 'translation of the Welsh text, 1841.
7. The Red Book of Hergest (Llijfr coch o Hergest), now in the Library of
Jesus College, Oxford. It is the chief of aU the MSS., preserving the middle
forms between the old and the living languages. Tm-ner determined this MS. to
be of the fourteenth century. The principal narratives relating to the history
of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, which it contains, were published
in three volumes, muler the title of " The Mabinogion, from the Llyfr coch
Hergest, and other Welsh ]\ISS., with an Enghsh translation and notes, by
Lady Charlotte Guest". London, 1849.
Cornish MSS.
1. The vellum MS. marked Vesp. A. 14, in the Cotton collection in the British
Museum. It is the most ancient mouuraent which is known tJ exist of the
Cornish language, and dates most probabl\' from the twelfth century. It has
been transcribed \>y Zeuss himself, and printed entire in the Grammatica
Celtica, vol. II. 1100, It is also printed, more correctly, and arranged alpha-
betically, by Mr. Edwin Norris, in the second volume of his Cornish Drama.
2. A Cornish poem on the passion of Christ, of which four copies are extant.
Of these, one is m the Britjsh Museum, and two are in the Bodleian Library.
Both Cornish text, and an English version made in 1682, were published in
London in 1826, under the title ''Mount Calvary, or the history of the passion,
death, and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ", written in Cornish
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