A late Medieval Welsh calendar manuscript Текст научной статьи по специальности «Биологические науки»

A LATE MEDIEVAL WELSH CALENDAR MANUSCRIPT1

Резюме: Статья посвящена описанию и изучению валлийской рукописи конца XV в. из собрания Национальной библиотеки Уэльса (National Library of Wales 3026, Mostyn 88). В первой части рассматриваются коди-кологические характеристики рукописи. Ее происхождение связывается с семейством Эдвардсов из Черка. Эта известная династия в Северном Уэльсе имела хорошо налаженные контакты с Тюдорами, для которых эта рукопись была скопирована поэтом и писцом Гитином Оуэном. Во второй части описываются тексты, входящие в состав последней части рукописи, а именно, «Житие св. Мартина» и генеалогический трактат, возводящий род древних валлийских королей к Симу, сыну Ноя. Основная часть статьи посвящена подробному разбору первой тетради, написанной по-валлийски (кроме ряда коротких астрологических текстов, приписанных по-английски позднейшей рукой). Здесь находятся различные схемы и вольвелла, астрологические таблицы и таблицы с расчетами дат церковных праздников, сложный церковный календарь с перечислением праздников множества местных святых, схема человеческого тела с точками кровопускания, круглая таблица с различными цветами мочи, а также схема, описывающая соотношение частей человеческого тела со знаками зодиака. Эта часть рукописи завершается трактатом по уроскопии и рядом медицинских нумерологических афоризмов. Далее в статье обсуждается значение этого сборника в контексте его европейских аналогов. Ставится вопрос о том, каково его место в ряду прочих текстов по гуморальной теории и трактатов по вычислению праздничных чисел, традиция которых восходит к началу Средних веков. Рукописи, содержащие материалы календарного характера, в XV в. приобрели большую популярность в Англии, и данная валлийская рукопись наряду с двумя другими списками, также принадлежащими перу Гитина Оуэна, является частью общебританской традиции и моды. Возвышение Тюдоров укрепило связи между валлийцами и англичанами, а история рода Эдвардсов из Черка и их деятельности, как политической, так и интеллектуальной, служит тому хорошим примером.

Ключевые слова: Fifteenth-century manuscript, genealogy, Life of St Martin of Tours, computistics, Zodiac Man, blood-letting, urine circle, humoural theory, uroscopies, Calendars, Saints, Medical aphorisms, Edwards family of Chirk, North Wales, the Tudor dynasty, Gutun Owain, Welsh poets..

Gutun Owain (Williams 1979: 263-277) was a genealogist, herald and traditional poet, associated with one of the leading of Welsh intellectual centres of the 15th century namely the Cistercian Abbey of

1 A Welsh version of this article was published in Cyfoeth y Testun, ed. Iestyn Daniel, Marged Haycock and Jenny Rowland (Cardiff, 2003), 349-84. I am grateful to Mr Gorwel Roberts for help with the translation.

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Valle Crucis and its environs . On the basis of what is known of the men to whom he sang his eulogies his floruit can be placed roughly in the period between 1455 and 1500 (Roberts 1952-4: 99-109). He thus lived during a period which was both intellectually and politically exciting. The Wars of the Roses had strengthened the connection between Wales and England, reflected in the Canu Brud. Harry Tudor’s victory in 1485 brought fat prizes to his Welsh followers who had supported him. There was a close association between Henry VII and the Officers of the Crown in the area around Valle Crucis Abbey (Bowen 1995:149-81, passim) who were in close contact with the learning and ideals of the English courts. These courts were full of clever propagandists and medical astrologers. The 14th and 15th centuries were, according to one authority, the high point of predictive astrology (Westfield 2001: 13035). The horoscope was all-important. England in the 15th century was also beginning to feel the intellectual excitement which developed into the Renaissance of the 16th century. Manuscripts, many of them colourful, were recopied; the printing press began to operate and private individuals amassed rich libraries3. In Wales it was the great era of praise poetry and the abbots of Valle Crucis were amongst the most important patrons of the poets (See especially Bowen 1995). Local saints cults flourished and the churches dedicated to them were rebuilt4. It was against this background that Gutun Owain copied MS Mostyn 88.

Manuscript Mostyn 88 is special for several reasons: not the least in that it contains colourful illustrations, an unusual feature in Welsh language manuscripts; the manuscript would warrant consideration for this purpose alone. This short article will discuss the scribe of the manuscript, the nature of its contents and the reasons for the manuscript being copied.

The Manuscript

NLW Mostyn 88 came to the National Library as part of the Mostyn collection. A note on the cover states that the manuscript had been number 77 in the Gloddaeth Library5. The manuscript was noted in Sir Thomas Mostyn’s catalogue of 16926. In 1658 William Maurice had listed the manuscript as number 58 in the catalogue of manuscripts in the

2

A useful map of the seats of Gutun Owain's patrons is to be found in Bachellery 1950, frontispiece.

3 A valuable discussion of the period is to be found in Lucas 1982: 220-47. See also Harris1989: 345-402; Meale 1989: 200-238.

4 Williams 1961, especially pp. 441-57 which still gives the best review of the field.

5 RWM I, 16-18; Catalogue of Mostyn Manuscripts, National Library of Wales, 1975.

6 D. Huws. Sir Thomas Mostyn and the Mostyn Manuscripts // Huws 2000: 303-329, especially pp. 307 and 328.

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possession of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt . To repeat Mr Daniel Huws’ words, this is one of the Hengwrt manuscripts which escaped to the ownership of the Mostyn family during the second half of the seventeenth century8. The manuscript is made of vellum, with a fine modern binding of white vellum, and is all in a remarkably good condition. In its present-day state the manuscript is composed of parchment bound with three sheets of paper to form four quires. This is the composition of the quires of the manuscript:

1/18 which has 36 pages 2/10 which has 20 pages 3/10 which has 20 pages 4/10 which has 20 pages.

The manuscript can be given a fairly definite date on the basis of the dates given on its pages. The table to calculate the important dates of the Christian Church for almost two centuries is found on page 25. The first quire contains the words «age of Christ this year 1487». At another place in the first quire it is written that the text was completed in 1489. The second chief item in the manuscript, the Life of St Martin, was, according to the explicit on page 53, completed in 1488.

By Welsh standards the parchment of Mostyn 88 is of fine quality. The edges of the pages are irregular and there are no signs of cropping. The vellum has only one defect in it, at the bottom of page 35-36. The page size is fairly regular, about 16cm wide and 23cm high. The Welsh prose essays in the manuscript are written within a frame divided into the three columns, the narrow central column being blank.

The spacing of the writing is very even. There is no pricking and the lines of the writing are based on horizontal lines. All is written in fine point and is remarkably clear to read. The general quality suggests that the book was intended for a library, a monastery or a wealthy individual.

Mostyn 88 has no early pagination but pages 1 to 79 are numbered in a modern hand. There are no signatures or catch words. The first quire, namely pages 1-36, is self-contained as regards its content, which is astrological or medical. These pages, 1-36, form a quire which is separate from the remainder of the manuscript. Since the dates 1487 and 1489 found in this part of the manuscript differ from the date given in the second part, it is possible, although unlikely, that the first quire existed at one time as a separate booklet9. Combining booklets, particularly booklets with a medical content to make a single volume, was frequent in England during the fifteenth century (Voigts 1989: 345-402, 353 and n.

7 Huws 2000, «Robert Vaughan», 287-302, especially p. 314.

8 It is interesting to note that two of the calendar manuscripts discussed below came from the Peniarth library.

9 The uniformity of the layout of the pages suggests that this is unlikely.

37), and there is at least one notable example amongst medical manuscripts in Welsh, namely MS Oxford Bodleian Rawlinson 34710. Contents of the remaining quires provide a copy of the Life of St Martin of Tours, pp. 37-63, and pedigrees which trace the ancestry of the Welsh kings back to Adam, pp 64-85.

A fairly close date can be offered for the manuscript on the basis of the dates included in the texts. The table for determining the dates of the movable feasts of the Christian year for a period of almost two centuries found on p. 25 of the first quire include the words oed krist eleni yw 1487 (the year of Christ this year is 1487). The second major item in the manuscript, namely a Life of St Martin, written in Welsh, was according to the explicit found on p. 53, copied in 149911. These varying dates may suggest that everything derives from an earlier manuscript or manuscripts and some of the dates may refer to the exemplars from which the texts were copied.

The History of the Manuscript

The main part of the manuscript (pp 9-83) was copied by Gutun Owain. We know something of his patrons and associates from the poems which he wrote12. He was closely linked with the abbey of Valle Crucis (Glyn y Groes). A number of Welsh manuscripts of the Middle Ages are to be associated with that monastery13. Several North Wales families were known for their patronage of that monastery. One of them was the Trevor family who claimed to be descended from Adam son of Aur14. The translation of the Life of Martin found in the central section

10 MS Oxford Bodleian Rawlinson 347 (c. 1400), which only includes medical material is made up of four pamphlets: ff. 1-16v; ff. 17r-38v, ff. 39r-71v; ff. 72r-94v.

11 John Trevor a droes y vuchedd honn or llading yn gymraec a gvttvn owain ai hysgrivennoddpan oed[d] oed Krist Mil cccc Lxxxviij o vlynyddoeddyn amser Hari Seithved nid amgen y drydedd vlwyddyn o goronedigaeth yr vn Hari, ‘John Trevor translated this vita from Latin into Welsh and Gutun Owain wrote it when Christ's age was 1488 years in the time of Henry VII namely the third year from the crowning of the said Henry’(Jones 1937-9: 189). I understand the explicit to refer to the date of the copy.

12 Gutun Owain or Gruffudd ap Huw ab Owain was a descendant of Iorwerth ap Cynddelw, a brother of Iarddur ap Cynddelw of Arllechwedd Uchaf. He was a native of Duddleston who held land in Llanfarthin (Williams 1979: 262). For his work and associations, see Bachellery 1950; Siddons, 1991: 123-25 and especially Bowen 1992: 142. For the close association between Henry VII and Henry VIII and the crown officials around Valle Crucis see Bowen 1995: 149181, passim and also further, Matonis 2004, 154-69.

13 See for example Huws 2000: 23; Huws 1986: 128-30; Roberts 1980.

14 Sion ap Rhisiart, abbot of Valle Crucis (c.1455-61 - (?) 80) belonged to the line of Tudur Trefor and a relative, Sir William Trefor, an illegitimate son of Robert, brother of Sion Trefor Hen was his chaplain, (Bachellery 1950: 120).

of the manuscript is attributed to one Sion Trefor; whose identity has been at the centre of much discussion. Recent opinion is that he was the man known as Sion Trevor Hen of Bryn Cunallt in the parish of Llanfarthin where the church is dedicated to Martin15. This Sion was a neighbour and an older contemporary of Gutun Owain16. In his elegy to Sion, Gutun spoke of him as a great teacher and said that a more learned person could not be found17.

The family of Edwards of Chirk was another family descended from the same ancestor who were related by marriage to the Trefors18. Edward, known as Iorwerth Hen, yr Iawn, had married Catherine the heiress of Llywelyn ap Madog ap Llywelyn ab Ieuaf ab Adda ab Awr of Trefor, the widow of David Trevor ab Iorwerth ab Ieuan ab Ieuaf ab Adda ab Awr. Gutun Owain sang an elegy and panegyrics to the son of Edward and Catherine, namely John ap Edward (alias Sion Edwards) of Waun Isaf, later the site of Plas Newydd, Llangollen19. The name of John Edwards was coupled with those of Sion Trefor and the abbot Dafydd ab Ieuan ab Iorwerth of Valle Crucis more than once by Guto’r Glyn20.

Sion or John Edwards was Receiver of Chirk from 13 Henry VI to 22 Henry VII (Lloyd 1884: 63, Ll; Smith 1978: 174-84) and a supporter of Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke21. John died in 1498, leaving a widow, three sons and three daughters (Lloyd 1884: 63-4). The death of John Edwards is recorded as having taken place on 23 May 1498 at the bottom

Dafydd ab Ieuan ap Iorwerth (1480 -1503), who was abbot after him was also a descendant of Tudur Trefor: see especially, Bowen 1995: 157, 174.

15 Lloyd 1884: 78. Mr Daniel Huws noticed that the books of Siôn Trefor, Bryn Cunallt, came into the possession of Robert Vaughan, see Huws 2000: 301. His genealogy is reproduced by Bachellery 1950: 202, as fils d’Edwart ap Dafydd ap Ednyfed gam ap lerwerth Voel, ap lerwerth Vychan ap yr Hen lerwerth ab Owain ap Bleddyn ap Tudur ap Rys Sais .. [apTudur Trevor] .

16 For different views on the identity of Siôn Trefor, see Jones 1937-9:189; Jones 1929-31: 33-40; Williams 1929-31: 40-44; Jones 1942:198-205 a cf. Siddons 1991: 31.

17 For the poem: Bachellery 1950: 203 (line 6), 205 (line 10).

18 See note 14. I am grateful to Mr Daniel Huws for pointing out the significance of the Edward’s connection.

19 Bachellery 1950, LV a LVI. Panegyrics were also sung to him by Deio ab Ieuan Ddu, Guto’r Glyn and Hywel Cilan. Bachellery 1950: 288, gave his genealogy as Sion ap lerwerth ab Ieuan ab Adda ab lerwerth Ddu ab Ednyfed gam ap lerwerth Voel, ap lerwerth Vychan ap yr Hen lerwerth ab Owain ap Bleddyn ap Tudur ap Rys Sais ... ap Tudur Trevor and he referred to him as Proche parent de Siôn Trefor Hen. For the genealogy, see further Bartrum 1983: 1686.

20 Gwaith Guto’r Glyn, 250, lines 23 and 26; 294, lines 51 and 53; cf. Bowen 1995.

21 Gwaith Lewys Môn, ed. E.I. Rowlands, (Caerdydd, 1975), 268, lines. 69-7.

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of the page of the Calendar of Mostyn 88 for May . The wife of John Edwards was Gwenhwyfar, daughter of Elis Eyton of Ruabon (Bachellery 1950: 268). Gwenhwyfar was the sister of Sion Eutun, another of Gutun Owain’s patrons; Eutun had received land in the area of Ruabon and Wrexham as a reward for his support of the Tudors. Gwenhwyfar died on August 23, 1520, an event which is also recorded in Mostyn 88 at the foot of the pages for August23. John Edwards’ eldest son was William Edwards, who was a gentleman at arms to Henry VIII’s Keeper of Chirk Park and Constable of Chirk (Bowen 1992: 143). He married Catherine, daughter of John Hooke of Ledbrook. Both died in 1533. The death of Catherine in March 30th 1532 is noted in Mostyn 8824. It is almost certain then, on the basis of these records, that the manuscript was in the possession of the Edwards family, some of whom by the end of the fifteenth century were important officers of the crown. The likelihood is that the manuscript, or at least the first eighteen folios, were produced for John Edwards, and that the family notes were added in the time of William Edwards, perhaps by William Edwards himself, as there is no note of his death in the calendar. Marginal notes in the remainder of the manuscript do not help provenance the manuscript, although doubtless the choice of texts it contains reflects the interests of the patron, if this were John Edwards or his son.

The Contents

(i) Life of Martin (Jones 1937-9: 179).

The second text found in the collection is a Welsh version of the Life of St Martin. This version is a mixed version based on the Vita, Epistulae and Dialogii S. Martini of Sulpicius Severus. In view of the association of the translator, John Edwards and Gutun Owain with the parish of

22 obitus johannis edwards armigeri xxiii die maii anno domini mille cccc Ixxxx vij lettere dominicales g. This is probably the record which lies behind J. Gwenogvryn Evans’ statement, died 1498, in RWM i 812 when listing the contents of MS Peniarth 130 - a date doubted by Smith 1978: 178, n.1 on the basis of the fact that John Edward’s name occurs as a witness to a deed belonging to the year 1499/1500. See also Bowen 1992: 142.

23 Gwenhwyfar’s death is recorded on p. 20, obitus gwenhoyvar verch elis. xxix die augusti anno domini mille ccccc xx lettere dominicales g. cf. The History of Powys Fadog IV, p. 63 which gives her name as Gwenllian. Bachellery 1950: 268. The genealogy of the Eutun family is to be found in MS Peniarth 287, p. 101.

24 Pag 18. obitus katrina verch johannis hookes uxor william edwards armigeri xxx die martis anno domini mille ccccc[ xxxij] lettere dominicales f. The square brackets denote a hiatus in the manuscript.

Llanfarthin, a church dedicated to St Martin, the inclusion of the Life in this coffee-table manuscript is not surprising25.

(ii) The Genealogical Table

This is a complex but incomplete table which ends with the name Asclopitotus26. The first part lists the biblical lineages found at the beginning of Y Bibyl Ynghymraec, that is, the Welsh translation of the Promptuarium Bibliae of Petrus Pictaviensis27. The Promptuarium Bibliae had initially a pattern of parallel genealogies but this genealogical frame had been almost entirely lost in the Bibyl Ynghymraec which was written in narrative form. In the main content of the Promptuarium and of the Bibyl Ynghymraec, when giving the genealogy of Christ, is found the sequence of the history of Noah and his descendants following the succession of Shem, Noah’s son but added to this is the sequence of descendents of Japheth, Noah’s other son. According to the ancestry given for Edward V, the kings of England were descended from Japheth. Edward IV’s ancestry provides a form of propaganda for the Yorkists as seen in the manuscript Oxford Bodleian Lyell 3328, which according to the catalogue was composed in 1469; its content had originally come from the work of Petrus Pictaviensis29. No doubt English fashions persuaded the Welsh to interest themselves in historical material and this is the reason for the interest paid to historical and antiquarian topics in Welsh manuscripts at the end of the fifteenth century, as noted by Mr Daniel Huws (Huws 2000).

In Welsh historiological tradition the sequence from Japheth to Brutus came to be the introduction to a national history as found in Ystoria Dared and Brut Brenhinedd (Jones 1940: xlvi-xlvii a cf. Jones 1968: 15-27). A complicated series of genealogies of historical Welsh personages led back to these three traditional accounts. Differing from the text of Bibyl Ynghymraec itself, the Mostyn 88 lineages consist of simultaneous lineages similar to those found in the Promptuarium Bibliae that is ‘a pattern of lines of inheritance with listed notes’30.

25 Compare the text of the Welsh «Life of St David» which was copied for Gruffudd ap Trahaearn, a descendant of the Lord Rhys in 1346, by the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi, a church dedicated to St. David (Foster 1950: 197-226, NB pp. 218-9).

26 A corresponding text is to be found in Gutun’s hand in MS Oxford, Jesus College 141, f. 4.

27 See the Introd. to YBibyl Ynghymraec, ed. T. Jones (Caerdydd, 1940), p. xlix.

28 Rolls of this kind are common. Some half dozen of them are to be found in the National Library of Wales (Mr Daniel Huws called my attention to these).

29 Mare 1971: 82. For the English background, see Gransden 1975: 363-81; Allen 1979: 172-5; Meale 1989: 205, 215.

The words found on p. xxx of the Bibyl Ynghymraec belong to Thomas Jones, who also called attention to the pattern of the genealogical roll found in NLW MS Brogyntyn 1.

Thomas Jones referred to the text of Mostyn 88 as possible evidence that these lineages were once to be had in a Welsh version of the Bibyl which had preserved the linear sequence of its original (Jones 1940: li). The same sequential pattern has been kept in the second half of the genealogy in Mostyn 88, which follows the history of the descendants of Brutus. The text ends with an unfinished list of British kings based on the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth31. The text contains the arms of eleven of the legendary ancestors of the Welsh kings coloured in green ink (See. Siddons 1991: i, 32 and 41). The third, genealogical text found in Mostyn 88 is thus complex, reflecting the tendency of the fifteenth century to compose imposing genealogies and also the interest of the period in the heraldry in which Gutun was a specialist32. Why, other than for the contemporary interest in ancestry, were these particular genealogies included in the manuscript? The answer may be found in the poetry of the bards to John Edwards of Chirk. A poem which strongly emphasises the ancestry of the patron is Gutun’s praise cywydd to John Edwards, who is compared with Bleiddudd, one of the kings found in the Mostyn 88 genealogy and with Brutus33. As a descendant of three of the Welsh royal lines Sion traced his ancestry back to Brutus. It was thus appropriate, if the whole of Mostyn was written for John Edwards, to include his ancestry from Brutus; Gutun’s words to him also reflect these matters:

Arwain avr, wyr Ieuan wyd, Bearing Arms of Gold [or Awr],you are the grandson of Ieuan,

O ryw Addaf a wreiddwyd; Who was sprung from Adam’s kind;

Dy gorff val Bleiddudd a gaf Your image I find to be like that of Bleiddudd,

Yn ossawc y Wavn issaf The Goshawk of Waun Isaf

Ti sydd val Brutus, Sion You are like Brutus, John

Tir Ierwerth yw’r tav’r owron 35 The land of Edward belongs to you now.

Addressing William, the son of John Tudur Aled, another poet from the same area sang:

31 Cf. the list of Brenhinoedd y Cymry, «The Kings of the Welsh» printed in Bartrum1966, e.g., 48-9, 121.

32 A copy of the same text with a little variation is to be found in another of Gutun Owain's manuscripts, namely, Jesus College Oxford MS, 141 ff.1-3

33 Bachellery 1950: 289 and the note on lines 9-11 which refers to NLW MS Peniarth 129, pp. 90-9.

34 The reference to Adam could have a double meaning, referring both to John Edwards ancestor Adam as well as the Adam the father of mankind whose name occurs at the head of the genealogy as could avr in the previous line referring to the metsl or the ancestor Awr.

35 Bachellery 1950: LV, lines 8-12.

Torri ath inc o’r tri tho, Writing in ink of the three generations,

Achau, arfau, a cherfio, Genealogies, arms, and carving,

Mae’r cronig mawr, cywreinwaith The great chronicle, a fine work

Mewn un llaw, mwy no’th holl iaith... In a single hand, greater than all your language36.

The Contents of Mostyn 88

The first Quire (pp. 1-36)

(iii) The front page carries short items dealing with popular astrological topics. The manuscript begins with some 8 pages in English followed by 27 pages which are written in Welsh. The contents are as follows:

1. Concerning the four points of the compass.

2. (a) there have been three perylous mundaes in ther year.

A later hand has added;

Theis are meere foleries or superstitious vanities37

(b) Three unlucky daes to be born on

(c) The three best daes of any monyth to begin any good worke or to take a Jorney upon.

3. Blank.

4. A bookplate of the Mostyn family with the signature Th[homas] Mostyn 1744. no. 77.

5. Rota with notes in English connecting the points of the compass with the winds and the humours.

6. Names of the Zodiac with notes on their properties. Aries ys good/Taurus ys not so.

7. Table of the Zodiac.

8. Blank.

The hand of the manuscript changes here; the section in Welsh which follows is more highly coloured , and much more sophisticated and scientific, by contemporary standards.

9. Volvella.

10. Church tables.

11. Diagram of the human body showing the points of bleeding and their purpose; that is a Homo Venarum.

12. List of the planets for each hour, day and night.

13-24. Calendar.

25. Table showing how to find the dates of the moveable feasts of the church throughout the year.

26. A Zodiac man, that is, a diagram of the Homo Signorum.

36 Gwynn Jones 1926: LXIII, 43-7.

37 The hand of Jasper Gruffudd is found here as in other places in the manuscript: e.e. 23, 63, 65, 72, 82, see Overden 1994: 107-139.

27. As 25.

28. Table of colour and properties of urine. Tabul Urinarum or Uroscopy circle.

29-35. Essays on uroscopy and the humours.

36. Lists of medical numbers.

The Welsh book-hand, which is found in the Welsh section of Mostyn 88, is that of Gutun Owain himself. There are several hands in the English section which are characteristic of a writer’s hand of the end of the fifteenth century. The style used suggests a period slightly later than the style of the Welsh section. It is possible that Wiliam Edward’s hand is found in some of them. Except for two items, the rota on page 5 and the table on page 7, the contents of this part of the manuscript are popular astrology, that is, general prediction. The rota is a diagram which follows a general pattern found in astrological and medical works. On the rota are the four points of the compass and references to the humours associated with them. The diagram may be compared with a diagram found in a manuscript of the Work of John Arderne published by P.M. Jones. Diagrams of this kind together are based on the belief in a connection between the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the human body and the humours of which the body was considered to be composed. This diagram shows the relationship between the points of the compass, the winds and the humours and its aim is to orientate the reader generally in regard to macrocosmic influences on man38. On page 7 is a table listing similar to that of the pagina regularis (Cf. Williams 1926-7: 245-261, especially, p. 248).

The contents of the Welsh section, pp 9-36 of the first quire, are:

9. Volvella of the Moon (fig. 1).

The Welsh section begins with a volvella39. This was a movable device used to locate the sun and moon in the signs of the Zodiac. The Mostyn 88 volvella has three disks of different size, superimposed on each other. The outer circle gives the name of the signs of the Zodiac, their nature and their degrees. Numbers on the second disk give the days of the moon’s cycle; the phase of the moon is shown pictorially by changes in colour on the inner disk seen through a circular opening in the

38

Jones 1996: 20 uses these words when discussing a similar rota kept in a manuscript written by John of Arderne. Cf. the illustrations found in Wickersheimer 1966: plate X, facing p. 150.

39 For volvellae, see especially Gunther II: 234-44, who lists a number of volvellae, giving pictures of some of them; Lindberg 1979: 49-82; Bober 1948: 24-6; on p. 25 there is a lit of volvellae; Jones 1996: 55-7; Page 2002: 54-5. The most commonly produced illustration in English publications is one taken from MS BL. Egerton, XXX The Barber Surgeons of York, despite the fact that the volvella is incomplete. For an illustration of that volvella see Jones 1996: 56.

outer disk. Whoever used the volvella would then place the sun disk which moves and carries a pointer, to point to the particular day of the year indicated on the outer disk. The user would then place the inner disk on the day of the moon marked in red on the sun disk. The user would then be able to read the sign and grade of the Zodiac for that day.

Fig. 1. Volvella

About a dozen volvellae survive in manuscripts written in Middle English (Robbins 1970: 396-7). The volvella of Ms. Oxford Ashmole 210 f.1. carries the following instruction as to how to use the volvella40.

Pone volvellam solis super gradum in quo sol fuerit illo die et volvellam lune super aetatem lune et ipsa volvella ostendet tibi signum et graduum lune et foramen quomodo luna secundum eius etatem nobis apparebit et figura iuxta centrum quomodo luna in se apparebit quia continue una medietas lune illuminabitur a sole nisi in eclipsi lune tantum

Place the volvella of the sun in the degree in which the sun appears on that day and and thw volvella of the moon above the age of the moon, and that volvella will show the sign and degree of the moon to you and the opening through which the moon appears to us according to its age, and the figure next to the middle how the moon appears in it, since one half of the moon is lit continually by the sun except when there is an eclipse of the moon.

A calendar giving the degree of the current Zodiac sign and the day of the moon was needed to use a volvella.

10. Ecclesiastical Table.

The table prepared for 1489 provided the information needed to calculate the dates of the moveable feasts of the Christian year for 122 years between 1367 and 1489 and for the 140 years from 1489 to 1729 (correctly 1629) by the use of golden letters and Sunday (dominical) letters.

11. Venesection man (fig. 2).

The venesection man is a simple black and white outline illustration of a human body showing the veins, that is the points for venesection and their individual purpose, including the ‘7 red veins’ that is, the arteries (Bober 1948: 24-6; J Murdoch 1984: 316). Blood-letting was widely used in the Middle Ages, both for the healthy and as part of the treatment of the sick. In this illustration lines extend from the points used for bleeding to circles which give the names of the veins and the illnesses which are improved by bleeding from particular veins. The diagram reflects the knowledge which is presented in most bloodletting texts. One aspect should be noticed: the diagram shows five veins for bleeding near the elbow. It is said that this follows the Arabian medical tradition: only three veins are shown in earlier pictures which come from the tradition of Greece and Rome (Voigts, McVaugh 1984: 4; Voigts 1989: 390, n. 28). There is wide variation in the styles of the pictures of the body used in the surviving manuscript example of this diagram. The Mostyn 88 illustration is similar to that found in the manuscript Oxford Ashmole 789 with the underlying basic difference that the words are written in Welsh.

40 For a picture of the volvella of Ashmole 210 f.1, see Gunther II: fig.93, between pp. 238-239.

12. Planetary Table.

This table shows the strength of the influence of the different planets for each hour of the day from Sunday to Saturday in two parts. One part shows their influence during the hours of daylight, the other during the hours of night.

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13-25. A continuous Ecclesiastical Calendar for the four metotonic

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Calendars of this type are most often to be found in breviaries. The Mostyn calendar resembles that of Nicholas of Lynn (Eisner 1980). The Calendar is composed of three series of columns, in the first series the left hand column gives information regarding the day of the month, hours of the planets, the hours of light and darkness and the prime of the moon

and the dominical letter, namely the letters from A to g which denote the days of the week from Sunday to Saturday (North 1988: 87, n.1). The right hand column gives lunar tables. Above the central series the letters KL signifying Kalendae before the name of the month given in both Welsh and Latin serves as a heading. In the first column under this heading the unfortunate or Egyptian days are noted with a black cross42. In the second column the days of the month are given according to the Roman custom denoting Kalendae, Nones and Ides. In the third column the dates of the Zodiacal month are given. The beginning of the dominion of the relevant sign is given in the fourth column as well as the dates of changes from one house of the Zodiac to the next in the sequence. For example the beginning of the dominion of Aquarius is marked opposite January 11th. The same column lists the feasts of the Catholic Church including those of the important saints of the Christian world (in red) and mevilia <vigilia4 deriving from the Sarum Calendar44, the feasts of a few Saxon and Irish saints together with feasts of many Welsh saints, most of whom are associated with North Wales, particularly North-East Wales. Some of these are added in a later hand45. The beginning and end of the period of the Dog days is also noted46. The right hand columns contain lunar tables for the four metotonic circles, namely the nineteen-year cycles which control the dating of Easter. The dating of the cycles is given at the bottom of the columns on pages 22 and 23, namely from 1481 to 1500, from 1500-1518, from 1536 to 1554. To the left hand side of the verso page and the right hand side of the recto, in the same hand as that found on p. 7 are letters which correspond to those found in the table on p. 7. At the base of each page in a hand similar to that which noted the deaths of members of the Edwards family

42 For dies aegri or dies aegyptiaci in calendars see Wordsworth 1904: xxvii-xxx. For Egyptian Days and their significance, see Dawson 1926: 206-64; Steele 1919: 108-21; Forster 1929: 258-77.

AO

The vigilia, namely the nights before the principal feasts, see below note 45. For a list of examples see Fisher 1994-5: 102-3.

44 Among the foreign saints whose feasts are recorded in the calendar, there are only three saints whose names are not recorded in the Sarum Calendar (according to Maskell 1882: 186-227), namely Saint Denis (May 25) , Saint Lednart (June 19) and St Melbro (June 25).

45 Mehefin 25, Guyl Melbro; Awst 16, Gwyl koyf; Awst 28 Guyl Austin; Medi

9 guyl y delu vyu (namely the feast of the living image), see Baring-Gould, Fisher 1907, which also records the poems to the image; Medi 16 gwyl gwen Edith, Medi 17 Gwyl Lambert; Medi 30 Gwyl S Jerom; Hydref 16 guyl velangel; Tachwedd 1 Ael haearn, Tachwedd 2 Guenfreui; Tachwedd 29 guyl Sadurn. Mr Graham Thomas is of the opinion that the handwriting of the added guyl names resembles that of Roger Morris who copied the version of the Life of St Martin found in Mostyn 88 into BL Manuscript Add. 14967, 244.

46 July 14 notes: the beginning of the Dogdays; September 5 notes ihere the Dogdays end. namely the period when the Star, Canis Major, was highest in the firmament.

are listed the ‘Egyptian days’ (dies Aegyptiaci) of the month which correspond to two of the dates given in the Calendar.

25. Table for determining the dates of the moveable feasts of the Christian year for the period 1477 to 1624. At the centre of the table are the words: the age of Christ this year 1487.

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26. Homo Signorum - Zodiac Man.

This is the most effective picture in the manuscript. The body of the Zodiac man stretches from the top of the page to the bottom. He has fairly long hair and a beard which is speckled green in colour. His arms are outstretched at an angle of 45° from his body; his arms are unnaturally long. As in many diagrams he has an appearance similar to that of Christ in medieval pictures of the Crucifixion4 . Lying on his body are all the signs of the Zodiac. A speckled green ram (Aries) lies on the head of the Zodiac man forming a cap for him with a red bull (Taurus) whose hind quarters and head are alone visible at his neck. Two bare-armed green-haired children (Gemini) are stretched out along his arms; a sixlegged crab (Cancer) lies on his chest, and a red lion (Leo) stands beneath him. Beneath that a maiden (Virgo) nursing a child or a greenhaired maiden is being embraced by a young man in green; they stand on the cross beam of a scales (Libra). Beneath the scales is a crawling creature (Scorpio), its tail folded with red and green spots on it. Beneath that is a man in the shape of a centaur, the bottom of his body red, holding a bow and arrow (Sagittarius) and beneath him a goat (Capricorn) with its middle wrapped in circles similar to a snail’s shell, the lower half extending into a long tail which might belong to a sea creature; next a yellow-haired man dressed in red holds two pitchers with green water flowing from them (Aquarius). At the feet of the Zodiac man are two crossed fish (Pisces). Alongside the picture are injunctions against bloodletting or undertaking surgical treatment at times which are inauspicious according to the position of the sun in the Zodiac.

47 The similarity was so striking that it caused some ecclesiastics to misinterpret the images as images of Christ. Sophie Page called attention to an incident in 1557 when Nicholas Harpsfield, Archbishop of Cambridge was horrified to discover that church services at Egerton Chapel were held before the image of a naked man surrounded by the twelve signs of the Zodiac, see Page 2002: 56.

Much earlier, in the first century AD, in a poem called Astronomicon by Manilius, parts of the human body had been associated with the signs of the Zodiac beginning with Aries at the head and ending with Pisces at the feet. The usual pattern associates Aries (the Ram) with the head, Taurus (the Bull) with the neck, Gemini (the Twins) with the shoulders, Cancer (the Crab) with the chest or heart, Leo (the Lion) with the flanks, Virgo (the Virgin) with the abdomen, Libra (the Balance) with the hips, Scorpio (the Scorpion) with the sexual organs, Sagittarius (the Archer) with the thighs, Capricorn (the Goat) with the knees, Aquarius (the Waterbearer) with the shins and Pisces (the Fish) with the feet (See e.g. Murdoch 1984: 315-17). This pattern appears with only minor alterations in many texts including some written in Welsh, throughout the Middle Ages (For references, see Owen 2001). Hundreds of examples of pictures of the Zodiac man containing slight variations have also survived throughout Europe48. There is an example of a copying error in the injunctions found in Mostyn 88, in that the injunction for the period of Pisces has been misplaced. If, as has been suggested, the scribe Gutun Owain knew little Latin, the injunction might have been misplaced in copying a translaton from Latin. Although most of the icons of the signs are conventional in their form, some have special characteristics. The sign of Capricorn is denoted as a sea goat wrapped in a shell with a tail49. This representation is traditional and is thought to be associated with the fact that the month of December is a wet season (Allen 1963: 137; Page 2002: 41). The symbol for Virgo possibly reflects the traditional Christian icon of the virgin holding a child50. The icon which represents Scorpio resembles the shape of the genitals which lie beneath it. These icons are all similar to those found on the Zodiac man in MS Oxford Ashmole 759, f.1.

27. The Astronomical table (fig. 8).

Two tables which show the strength of influence of the Zodiac signs for every day of the month throughout the year (Voigts 1989: 357).

48

For discussions of the Zodiac Man, see Bober 1948: 1-34; Gunther III: 1325; Talbot 1961: 212-33; Jones 1996: 53-5; Voigts 1989: 357-358; Imbault-Huart 1983: plates 14-18.

49 North 1988: 94, n.14, which speaks of Capricorn in a snail’s shell.

50 In Egypt Virgo was equated with the goddess Isis by Eratosthenes and Avienus who was sometimes portrayed, ‘clasping in her arms the young Horus, the infant Southern sun god, the last of the divine kings. This very ancient figuring reappeared in the Middle Ages as the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus, Shakespeare alluding to it in Titus Andronicus as the «Good Boy in Virgo’s lap»; and Albertus Magnus, of our 13th century, asserted that the Saviour’s horoscope lay there’ (Allen 1963: 462-463).

28. The Uroscopy Circle.

Fig. 9. Uroscopy Circle

The heading denotes this as a table of the various colours of man’s urine. One of the main methods of determining the nature of an illness was by examination of the urine. Galen in the second century AD had connected diagnosis and prognosis based on the theory of changes in the four humours found in the human body, that is, blood, fleuma, black bile

and yellow bile which showed themselves to the doctor through changes in the urine. A system of notes termed an uroscopy based on this doctrine indicated the meaning of difference in colour of urine samples, this providing to be a handbook for both doctor and invalid \ Urine appearances were given in visible form by a circle of urine flasks, usually twenty in number, which showed different possible colours of the urine. The uroscopy circle of Mostyn 88 described the colour of urine in the different flasks and lists the various illnesses these indicate in an outer circle. Circles in the centre categorise the colours into groups. There are numerous examples of an uroscopy circle in Welsh manuscripts; an identical circle to that of Mostyn 88, but with the words in English, is found on a page of the manuscript Bangor 2570 which is dated to the seventeenth century.

29-36. Uroscopy essay (fig. 10).

Following the uroscopy circle are notes which discuss the theory of humours on which the circle is based. Many examples of the same essay are preserved in Welsh manuscripts52. The same treatise, written in Latin, is to be found in the Vade mecum described by Talbot3.

36. A series of arithmetical aphorisms.

The eight parts of man (based on Aristotle)54; ‘The three essential solid organs; the three essential thin organs55; the three slow-healing wounds 6; the three essentials of a doctor ; the least important treatment; the most important treatment’58. All these are widely found in Welsh

51 See Jones 1996: 45; Voigts 1989: 376-8 and for texts see Leisinger 1925; Wentzlau1924; Gunther III: 25-32; Jones 1996: 45-6 and for a picture of the doctor looking at the flasks, see Murdoch 1984: plate 183.

52 See e.g. manuscripts BL Add. 14936, f.58; 15020, f. 3v, 14913, f. 85v; f. 3v Cardiff 2.4 (Havod 11), f.5.

53 Talbot 1961: 212-33. See also Thorndike, Kibre 1963: 1026-7: Partes corporis humani creati sunt ut Aristoteles dicit.

54 See e.g. manuscripts:.London, BL14912, f.63v; Cardiff 3.242 (Havod 16) 96; Aberystwyth, NLW: Cwrt Mawr 116, f. 82v; Cwrt Mawr 124, f. 17v; Llanstephan 117, 277; NLW 5474, 253; NLW 22362, f. 28v; NLW, Peniarth 47 ii, 14; NLW Peniarth 172, 223-4; NLW Peniarth 216, 76; NLW Peniarth 204, 235-6; NLW Peniarth 267, 265-6.

55 See e. g. manuscripts: London, BL 14912, f. 64v, Cardiff Havod 16, 96; Aberystwyth: Cwrt Mawr 124, f. 17; Llanstephan 10, 19; LlGC 872, 463; LlGC 5269, f. 45; LlGC 22362, f. 28v; Peniarth 204, 236-7.

56 See. e.g. manuscripts: London: BL14912, f. 63v, BL14979, f. 42; Cardiff: Havod 16, 96; Aberystwyth: Cwrt Mawr 116, f. 82v, Cwrt Mawr 124, f. 17v; Llanstephan 117, 277; Peniarth 47, ii, 14, Peniarth 172, 223, Peniarth 216, 76, Peniarth 267, 265.

57 Cf. e.g. manuscripts Cardiff 2.135 (58), 10 a Mostyn 56, 61 for Tri

Chyfeilorn meddyg.

58 For the pair, see. e. g. Cardiff 3.242 (Havod 16) 96, Cardiff (58), 28, London, BL 14912 f. 65r.

medical collections of the Middle Ages. The triads particularly formed part of the rhetoric of those texts and corresponded to the native rhetoric of other Welsh learned classes of the period (Owen 1990: 60).

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Significance of the Collection

A mixture of texts dealing with time, the universe and medical topics thus forms the first part of Mostyn 88. Such a mixture of subjects was very frequent in manuscripts found all over Europe by the fifteenth century.

What is the importance of these collections? The basis for the collection appears to have been the ideas of the early Middle Ages concerning measuring time and the effect of the theory of the humours and phases of the moon on man’s life. Establishing an accurate calendar and pattern of the Christian year was of great importance to churchmen and to others in the Middle Ages59. The essential problem which underlay the task of establishing a calendar was that of reconciling the difference between the lunar and solar cycles in the year.

This is reflected in the wide number of manuscripts containing calendars which follow the cycle of the moon and the sun and provide tables for calculation of the date of Easter. These relate to the science of preparing calendar and tables as given in the Computus60. From the early Middle Ages, prognostic medical material which depended on a knowledge of the phases of the moon was associated with these tables. As an example of this tendency, Faith Wallis in her article on calendrical manuscripts which contain medical material listed the manuscript Vatican City. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana 485 which was copied in the ninth century (Wallis 1995: 105-43). This collection begins with tables to determine the place of the moon on Janury 1st, the place of the moon in the Zodiac, and in a leap year; a table showing the age of the moon for each month; the day of the week which was the first of each month for a cycle of nineteen years, and an Easter table. These were really the Computus, that is the science of determining time. In addition there are tracts discussing Egyptian days, that is the days of the year which are unfortunate for illness and medical treatment, and dietetic calendars for the twelve months of the year61. Together these form a small lunarium, that is a collection of instructions which are determined by the pattern of the phase of the moon. Almost all these quasi medical texts related to the importance of time. As the Middle Ages progressed, with the coming of predictive astrology to the West through Greek and

59 Apart for one instance of a liturgical calendar, Welsh calendars are usually found in medical and legal compilations. Calendars are preserved in manuscripts London, BL14912, Oxford, Jesus College 22, LlGC Peniarth 27i and 186; in the legal texts found in Peniarth 40 and Wynnstay 36. and see Huws 2002: 24.

60 An instance of early interest by the Welsh in the subject is Williams 1926-7: 245-61.

61 There are other instances in Welsh medical texts, e.g. Diverres 1913: 62-8 and cf. Beccaria1956,passim; Wickersheimer 1966: 24-5, 40-41, 59, 172. For the genre in general see Groenke 1986 and further Falileyev, Owen 2005. For bibliographical references, see pp. 68-71.

Arab texts during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries accurate measurement of time became more important. To quote Wallis:

«Computists shifted their interest from predicting the date of Easter to predicting eclipses and conjunctions <...> and the planets joined the sun and the moon as criteria for ordering a regimen or predicting the outcome of a disease» (Wallis 1995: 119).

A rash of medico-computing manuscripts appeared; they showed the more pragmatic effect of astrology. Some of these have survived in the form of quite small codices, such as the manuscript Oxford Bodleian Savile 39, written in England in 1436, consisting of only eleven folios. In this codex are found a calendar, a list of leap days from 1387 to 1507, a volvella, a Homo signorum, a Tabula Urinarium and tables for the signs of the Zodiac. Other similar collections survived in the form of folding calendars, like the one of which there are photographs in the Wellcome Library and which was described by Talbot (Talbot 1961). Most of these were intended to be a Vade Mecum for doctors, that is a pamphlet bound with ribbon which doctors could carry on their rounds hanging from their belts as handy reference books to be used as they worked (Jones 1996: 53). The Talbot manuscript begins with a calendar; followed by a pretty coloured list of eclipses of the moon for 1398 to 1462. Following the eclipses is a table of the signs of the Zodiac for each day, with a coloured picture of a Homo signorum. Further tables follow which give not only the day which a Zodiac sign influences but also the hours of the day. Besides these are listed the four humours, blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile, so that it could be seen at once how the moon, by passing through the different houses of the planet, would influence the four humours of the body. The next part of the manuscript dealt with bloodletting and gives a drawing of a homo venarum with surrounding circles which describe the veins and connect them with different illnesses; this is similar to the corresponding diagram in Mostyn 88. There follows an essay on how to let blood, then the collection ends with an uroscopy circle and uroscopy essay, virtually identical with the version in Welsh in Mostyn 88. The most remarkable feature of the contents of Mostyn 88 is that they show, firstly, that there was a market for such essays in Welsh and secondly, that Gutun knew of items such as the medical triads which had long been established in the Welsh manuscript tradition, and linked this material to the diagrams.

When I presented a poster based on Mostyn 88 to the International Conference of the History of Medicine in 1994, I looked on Mostyn 88 as a copy of a Vade Mecum (Proceedings 1994). There is, however, enough evidence from England in the fifteenth century to show that collections similar to that of the Welsh manuscript had been produced on behalf of wealthy and cultured lay persons62. It could be that a copy of

62 North 1988: 87: «Calendars are of many different sorts, but central to all of them, at least in the fourteenth century, were their ecclesiastical components

one of these formed the basis of Gutun’s manuscript. The most famous of the calendars produced for an English layman is perhaps that by Brother Nicholas of Lynn intended for John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster63. A similar calendar was that produced in 1380 for the Black Prince (Eisner 1980: 8). The usual content of such calendars is the table for calculating the dates of the movable feasts of the year; lists of eclipses, properties and place of the planets and the Zodiac, the veins and their anatomy, the illnesses and the urine tables. Such calendars usually included coloured illustrations of the Homo Signorum, Homo Venarum and a Volvella.

Most of these calendars were written in Latin. However one of the features of English writings during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the increase in the number of manuscripts copied in the native tongue (Harris 1989: 353 and n. 37). Linda Voigts showed that English and French became used more and more in learned works of the universities as well as in semi-popular works in the fifteenth century (Voigts 1989: 383). An example is the manuscript Cambridge, Gonville and Caius 83/166. which was produced for John Argentine, Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the most learned medical men of his time. The manuscript is made up of four booklets. Two and a half contain academic medical works in Latin but the remainder, written in English, contain more popular medical works such as calendars, uroscopy and instructions for blood-letting (Owen1995i: 210-33; Owen 19952: 35). An example of a similar mixture of language in a Welsh medical text is the manuscript Cardiff, Hafod 16, which includes texts in Latin, Welsh and French64; BL 14912 contains a mixture of Welsh and Latin. There is a mixture of language also in Mostyn 88, this time of Welsh and English. The pieces of later English at the beginning of Mostyn 88 in general belong to a more popular tradition than the Welsh texts.

Another feature in the history of English manuscripts of the period is evidence that series of manuscripts which had similar contents were the product of the same centre or copier. Voigts discussed the Sloane collection of manuscripts as an example of this tendency (Voigts 1990: 26-57). She speaks of these centres as ‘publishing houses’ for texts before the coming of the printing press. This brings us to Gutun Owain himself. Mostyn 88 should not be discussed without taking into consideration some other of his manuscripts. Three other of Gutun’s manuscripts contain calendars; NLW Peniarth 27i and 186 and Oxford Jesus College 141(RWM I 345, 1013, RWM II, 3506). The Jesus College manuscript includes historical material and was probably copied in 1471.

<...> the letters Kl signifying the beginning of each month are likely to be illuminated, and the names of the festivals picked out in blue, red, or black, to indicate the liturgical importance of the various days....Kalendars were often things of great beauty».

63 Eisner 1980. There are a number of different versions of this calendar.

64 RWM II 318-29: B. Jones, Havod 16, Etudes Celtiques VII (1955/6), 46-75, 270-339; VIII (1958/9), 66-97, 346-93.

At the beginning of the collection there is an incomplete calendar for the months May to October, similar in style to that of Mostyn 88; its martyrology lists the same North Wales saints. The following topic is a genealogy like that of Mostyn 88. More relevant to the present discussion are the manuscripts Peniarth 27i and 186A. Peniarth 27i is damaged and incomplete. Sixteen pages, each 20.5 by 15cm, of the manuscript remain, the first and last being illegible. The manuscript begins with a calendar which occupies pages 1 to 12. More or less the same North-East Wales saints are listed65. Added to this is a series of sentences describing the influence of the Zodiac signs, very like those used by Dafydd Nanmor as a basis for a chain of englynion66. The calendar is followed by a picture of Homo Signorum which is somewhat different from the one in Mostyn 88; here the order of influence is accurate and details of the picture differ, indicating that a different source was used. This zodiacal picture is followed by an ecclesiastical table (p.14) of the type on page 10 of the Mostyn 88, a list of the planets (p. 15) similar to that on page 12 of Mostyn 88 and an astronomical table (p.16) which matches that of Mostyn 88 (p.27).

Peniarth 186A is a small manuscript, 16.5 by 12.5cm in a very good condition.

Exceptionally for Welsh manuscripts, when catalogued by J. Gweno-gvryn Evans its original binding was still preserved intact, consisting of a piece of sheepskin with a flap (RWM I 1013). The manuscript again begins with a calendar (pages 1-12) which is simpler than the other calendars copied by Gutun but it contains more or less much the same saints days; this time a monthly regimen is added67. The calendar is followed by a table to calculate dates of the moveable Christian feasts of similar type to that on page 25 of Mostyn 88. except that this manuscript uses Roman numbering rather than Arabic. Two brief prose sections follow on page 14, a list of ember-days and a triad on the mevilia (compulsory nights of vigil for churchmen). The manuscript ends with a volvella of the same pattern as that in Mostyn 88. There are no obvious signs to indicate for whom either of the two Peniarth calendrical manuscripts was written. Judging from their close similarity to Mostyn 88, it seems likely that these two were intended for some of Gutun’s patrons in North-East Wales.

Thanks to Professor D. J. Bowen and to Dr. Llinos Beverley Smith a fair amount is now known regarding the cultural interests of John Edwards and of his son William, the owner of Mostyn 88 (Smith 1978; Bowen 1995; Bowen 1992). Professor Bowen stressed that, separately

65 RWM I 1013; where the saints festivals which differ from those found in Mostyn 88 are noted.

66 I discussed this text in Owen 2001. Similar notes on the signs of the Zodiac are to be found in the Bedel’s Calendar dated c. 1505, published in «The Ancient Kalendar of the University of Oxford». Vol. xlv (Oxford, 1904), 46-57.

67 For regimina of this kind, see Wallis 1995: 105-43.

from the evidence of the praise poetry regarding his learning and musical interests, the adoption of this family, particularly William Edward, of the ideals of the scholar gentleman of the Tudor court and this character resounds through the poetry sung to them (E.g. Bowen 1992, especially lines 151-4). John Edwards copied the manuscripts NLW 423 and BL Add 46846 (Huws 2000: 23; Smith 1978), the first having as its main content a Latin grammar written in English so that the grammar might be acquired through that language68, the second a book of varied content in a mixture of Latin, English and Welsh. The contents of this manuscript show that its author was familiar with matters of politics and government. John Edwards was no doubt, like many of his contemporaries, trilingual. Among the Welsh items, some of which are of interest as showing the nature of John Edwards’ Welshness, is a series of cydfodau, agreements or legal documents which demonstrate the organic progress of native Welsh law in the fifteenth century and show that Gutun Owain had knowledge of legal parlance69. Manuscript BL Add 46846 carries the names of both John Edwards and his son William, suggesting that it was William who inherited his father’s library. This manuscript is exceptionally relevant to this discussion as it contains a calendar and tables. It has been suggested that John Edwards also owned the manuscript Dublin Trinity College 367, which includes texts on medicine, palmistry and grammar (See specially Thomson 1979: 109).

This section cannot close without reference to the calendar in the grammar book (NLW 423) in John Edwards’ own hand70. The grammar is followed (ff 83e-88v) by a calendar which carrries the date 1481 at its head. The calendar follows the same pattern as that of Mostyn 88, that is, it has three columns and contains similar information but this time, following the fashion of Sarum, the calendar is entirely in Latin. Most of the Catholic feasts or the saints’ feasts are the general feasts of the Catholic Church. The names of the months are given in Welsh at the upper corner of each page. A later hand has added a considerable number of feasts of Welsh saints and some additional saints from the Sarum calendar. One of these additions suggests that the writer was conversant with the manuscript Peniarth 186, in that for November 5th he records the feasts of Gwenvavis; Peniarth 186 uses the form gwenvava corrected to gwenfrewy. The calendar is followed by a series of tables. Folio 89 carries two tables for calculating the moveable feasts of the Church from 1463 to 1567 by use of the golden letters and Sunday letters, tables similar to those carried by Mostyn 88 on pages 10 and 25. On folio 89v

68 A detailed description of the manuscript based on notes given to the author, D. Thomson by Mr Daniel Huws are to be found in Thomson 1979: 105-114. The contents are discussed in Smith 1978: 179-83.

69 «Cydfodau o’r Bymthegfed ganrif», BBCS xxi (1964-66), 309 -24.

70 Smith 1978: 179. The Welsh additions are particularly rich for the month of November. A substantial number of them, such as Llechid and Fflewyn, have churches dedicated to them in Mon and Arfon.

is a table equivalent to that on page 12 of Mostyn 88 which enables the reader to determine the ruling planet for any hour of each day of the week, carrying the heading Hore diei incipiende ab ortu solis. Folios 89v-90r carry a table showing how to calculate the place of the moon. Tabula ad sciendum signorum et gradum lune omni die and before this a Canon tabule lune corresponding to that on page 27 of Mostyn 88. This calendar, in addition to the one in Mostyn 88, suggests that John Edwards had an interest in calendar and cults of the saints. It seems possible that he edited the calendar in his grammar book by referring to that in Peniarth 186.

The calendrical manuscript of Gutun Owain and also John Edwards’ calendar demonstrate that calendars were in fashion in north-east Wales in the late fifteenth century. Contemporary poetry shows that astrological topics were popular amongst the poets. For the manuscripts discussed a frequently occurring English pattern was used. By what route did this fashion reach North Wales? Was it through Valle Crucis Abbey? The complex lists of saints connected with churches of the north-east suggests that the source of the calendar was a religious centre in the area. It must be remembered however that interest in local saints was flourishing; in the fifteenth century parish churches dedicated to local saints were being rebuilt. Any layman would be conscious of the importance of the saints of his own parish and of nearby parishes and their feast days (See Williams 1961: 441-57).

If so, why were these manuscript collections produced for wealthy lay patrons? More than once in this paper one of the Tudors has been mentioned and as has been shown John Edwards and another of Gutun’s patrons, Sion Eutun, were closely associated with Valle Crucis. The events of 148571 and the previous years had led to close relationships with the royal court in London. The famous calendar of Nicolas of Lynn, which was written for an earlier generation, is connected with the name of one of the best known Lancastrians, John of Gaunt, and there are a number of other less well-known calendars72. Gutun Owain however adopted the calendars and other material associated with them into Welsh. John Edwards himself was conscious of the Welsh and Welsh language calendrical tradition. He was fluent in three languages; Welsh, English and Latin. One aim of the work of the Renaissance humanists in sixteenth-century Wales was to enrich the Welsh language by introducing into it new material from other cultures. Possibly the seeds of these intentions are to be seen in these calendrical manuscripts which show a new combination of native (names of the saints) and foreign cultures. The nouvelle vogue of London fashion perhaps stimulated the King’s officers in Chirk and Rhiwabon to covet the treasures of the

71

71 I. e. the Battle of Bosworth and the beginning of the reign of the Tudor dynasty on the English throne.

7 A list of the most colourful is to be found in Bober 1948: 25.

English intelligentsia and to desire that calendars in their own language should be included in their libraries: fortunately Gutun Owain, a gifted and skilful scribe, was available at hand to produce them.

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Wordsworth 1904 - The Ancient Kalendar of the University of Oxford, Vol XLV, ed. C. Wordsworth. Oxford.

Summary. M. E. Owen. A Late Medieval Welsh Calendar manuscript.

This paper describes, and considers the significance and content of, the late fifteenth-century manuscript preserved at the National Library of Wales under # 3026 (Mostyn 88), which is one of the most colourful medieval Welsh manuscripts. The paper consists of four sections. The first section proposes a codicological analysis of the manuscript and discusses its provenance associating its origins with the family of the Edwards of Chirk, a well-known family in North Wales, associated with the Tudor dynasty. The manuscript was copied for this family by Gutun Owain, a poet-scribe. Section two lists and describe the contents of the last part of the manuscript, namely, a Life of St Martin and a genealogical text tracing the lineage of the early kings of Wales back to Sem, son of Noah. The main section, section three, provides a detailed analysis of the contents of the first quire which, after a series of short English astrological tracts in a later hand, is written in Welsh. This part contains various diagrams and a volvelle, ecclesiastical and astrological tables, a complicated ecclesiastical calendar listing the feasts of many local saints, a diagram of the human body illustrating blood-letting points, a urine circle and a zodiac man. The quire ends with an uroscopy tract and a series of medical numeric aphorisms. The last section discusses the significance of the collection in the European context where it is in the lineage of texts on computists and humoural theory which go back to the early Middle ages. Calendrical manuscripts became very popular in England during the fifteenth century, and this Welsh example, together with two other such manuscripts copied by Gutun Owain, are a part of a wider British fashion. The rise of the Tudor dynasty strengthened the ties between the Welsh and the English, with the history of the Edwards family of Chirk and their (political and intellectual) activities providing a good example of this trend.