Early Medieval Welsh Book-Production

The dissertation re-examines all the manuscripts and fragments surviving from Wales which can be dated within the period ca.800 to ca.1100. Having considered some of the causes for the paucity of manuscripts, the introductory chapter reviews the relevant past research. It is suggested that, in their effort to obtain satisfactory criteria for identification, scholars have treated the previous accounts of Welsh handwriting too dogmatically. The last collective survey of the manuscripts was made in 1912. In the second chapter, the manuscripts are given detailed codicological and palaeographical descriptions. They are grouped in two loose categories, Credibilia and Dubia, according to the degree of certainty attached to their attribution to Wales or Cornwall. Seventeen items from the two areas belong to the first category, six to the second. The Cornish specimens of handwriting, which can be identified on evidence of their texts, provide a palaeographical control for the Welsh manuscripts. English influence is more noticeable in Cornish handwriting, whereas for the Welsh scripts, the comparisons are closest with specimens from Ireland. Chapter three describes some of the general developments in Insular script during the same period. The script fared differently in the writing-provinces of England and Ireland. In the period before ca. 800, there is a noticeable amount of stylistics exchange and overlap between the two cultural provinces. This is less apparent after that date. In particular, the English scriptoria adopted Continental methods of preparation and writing to an extent not found in Ireland. The Welsh material is compared with the manuscripts from England and Ireland. The close relationship between Irish and Welsh handwriting enables us to plot the likely developments in both countries in greater detail, particularly during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Several scribal features are presented as new criteria for dating in this account.