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A volume containing a collection of Welsh proverbs, arranged alphabetically, and other proverbial texts in Welsh, with accompanying translations and commentaries in Latin, compiled by and in the hand of Dr John Davies, Mallwyd. Many of the entries are illustrated by quotations from Arabic, Greek and Latin sources.
The manuscript was probably Davies's working copy, which he continually revised and enlarged during the latter years of his life. Emendations and additons were made either by rewriting whole leaves, by pasting slips over existing leaves, tipping in slips of paper, or writing in the spaces between the proverbs originally written. About 2400 proverbs are contained in the volume and, of these, Davies published just under 1600, together with the other proverbial texts, all but a few without translation or commentary, in his Dictionarium Duplex ... (London, 1632). Davies later collated his manuscript with the published text and prefixed with an 'o' those proverbs not printed. Following the practice he had adopted in his dictionary, he prefixed with an asterisk those proverbs not published prior to 1632. The manuscript later came into the hands of the antiquary William Maurice (c. 1620-1680), Cefn-y-braich, Llansilin, who compiled, [c. 1674], a preface or 'prolegomena' to the volume (pp. 6-20), comprising: a title-page incorporating Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn's title-page to the condensed edition of the Welsh-Latin section of Davies's dictionary, which the former published in Originum Gallicarum Liber ... (Amsterdam, 1654); a copy of a letter from James Howell (1594?-1666) to Ben Johnson, Kal. April 1629, which includes a poem 'Upon Dr. Davies Brittish Grammer'; an extract from Davies's preface to his grammar, Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ ... (London, 1621); a list of Davies's works; transcripts of the Latin and Welsh prefaces to the collection of Welsh proverbs printed at the end of his dictionary; extracts relating to these proverbs from Boxhorn's treatise; a copy of the Latin poem by Edmund Prys, archdeacon of Merioneth, which was printed as part of the preface to Davies's grammar; and an extract relating to Davies and the Welsh language from Historia Universali which Boxhorn published in Metamorphosis Anglorum ... ([Leiden], 1653). William Maurice has also added notes and comments on the text throughout the volume, including the gloss 'hoc est Proverbia Cymbro-Wallica Latinitate donata et paraphrastice explicata per Doctiss. Jo. Daviesium Malluydensem SS. Th. D.' on Davies's title 'Adagia Britannica' (p. 21), and 'Hoc Opus multijugæ Prudentiæ veterum Cymmeriorum alias Cymbrorum, fideliter transcribitur secundum Archetypum hunc Daviesianum per Guilhelmum Mauricium Cymnebraçensem nunc Lansilinensem philobritannum 1o. Maij Ano. Dni 1674' (p. 202). The manuscript was also seen by Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, as the emendations 'Vfudd' for 'Ynfyd' and 'humilis' for the corresponding Latin 'Insipiens' in his hand on p. 202 indicate.