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A collection of manuscripts, [12 cent.]-1909, from the library of Peniarth, Merionethshire, the core of the historic collection being that of the library accumulated at Hengwrt, Merionethshire, by Robert Vaughan during the seventeenth century. The collection includes many of the most important Welsh language manuscripts, including the Black Book of Carmarthen (Peniarth MS 1), the Book of Taliesin (Peniarth MS 2), the White Book of Rhydderch (Peniarth MSS 4-5) and Brut y Tywysogion (the Chronicle of the Princes) (Peniarth MS 20), as well as important manuscripts in other languages such as the Hengwrt Chaucer (Peniarth MS 392), the Law of Hywel Dda (Peniarth MS 28), Beunans Meriasek (Peniarth MS 105) and Bede's De natura rerum (Peniarth MS 540B).

The Welsh version of the Grail legend, translated from the French. One of the best preserved of medieval Welsh manuscripts. The text comprises: ‘Y keis’, derived from La Queste del Saint Graal (ff. 1-109 verso), printed from this manuscript in Ystoryaeu Seint Greal, ed. Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1992), followed by the Welsh version of Perlesvaus (ff. 110-280 verso). The junction is recorded on f. 109 verso: ‘Ac uelly y teruyna y rann gyntaf or greal. nyt amgen nor keis. Bellach dywedadwy yỽ o rann gwalchmei. ac o anturyeu y milwyr ual y kyfaruu ac ỽynt’. The only lacuna in the text is in quire 18 (see collation). The text of both parts is printed in Y Seint Greal: Selections from the Hengwrt MSS, ed. Robert Williams (London, 1876). All written in the hand of Hywel Fychan ap Hywel Goch, no doubt for his patron, Hopcyn ap Tomas, probably earlier than Jesus College Oxford, MS 111 (datable post-1382), since the awdl by Dafydd y Coed in that book refers to Hopcyn’s book of the Greal.

The set of historical texts: Ystoria Dared (ff. 1-17, cols 1-66); Brut y Brenhinedd (ff. 17 verso-89, cols 67-441) and Brut y Tywysogion (ff. 89 verso-143, cols 443-665); followed by Brut y Saeson (ff. 143-145 verso, cols 665-76), breaking off abruptly in the year 979. All are very close to the corresponding texts in the Red Book of Hergest [see Brut y Tywysogyon: Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. and trans. Thomas Jones (Cardiff, 1955), pp. xxviii-xxix, and Studia Celtica, 12/13 (1977/78), 176]. All are written in two columns by the Red Book scribe, X91, with 2- and 3-line initials in red. Lacunae due to the loss of leaves 1 and 10 in quire 5, the whole of original quire 9, leaves 5 and 6 of quire 17, and the final quire. On the erratic foliation, see below; J. Gwenogvryn Evans numbered the columns allowing, however, in his numeration for the columns that would have been in lacunae. The text of the original f. 1 made good by a hand of [16-17 cent.] on a supplied leaf (f. 1). Headings in textura by a hand of [15 cent.] (e.g. ff. 59 verso, 87); annotation and textual correction by several hands of [15 cent.] and [16 cent.] (e.g. ff. 41 recto-verso and 93, ff. 79 and 82, ff. 94 verso and 114 verso, f. 56, f. 123 verso, ff. 127 verso and 135 verso). Rebound in [16-17 cent.]; at this rebinding quires were signed I-XVII, skipping a number somewhere between VII and XI (= quire 10).

Oak boards and their tanned leather covers, the boards possibly medieval in date, removed from the Hengwrt Chaucer (Peniarth MS 392) before the manuscript was rebound in 1956.

A fragment of a tract on the war between England and France; a portion of 'the tretice off housbondry that Master Grosthed [Grosseteste] mad the which was Bischope of Lyncolne ...'; a metrical story of Saint Gregory and his mother; miscellaneous cookery recipes; 'a good book off keruynge and servis vnto a prince ...'; and medical recipes.

Bundles 1 and 2 comprise medical recipes and other texts in English; bundle 3 comprises copies of the wills of Robert Vaughan and Hywel Vaughan, with indentures, bills of complaints and other documents; bundle 4 comprises bills of Madam Vaughan; bundle 5 comprises fragments of poetry, also vocabularies by the Rev. William Wynn; bundle 6 contains a Botanologium, a Treatise on Urine and other texts, [c. 1460]; bundle 7 comprises 16th and 17th century Welsh religious and moral texts; and bundle 8 comprises a collection of medical recipes in English and Welsh.
The fragments range in time from c. 1460 to 1750. Bundles 1, 2 (part ii), 3, 4 and 5 are contained in Peniarth MS 326 i; bundle 2 (part ii) is contained in Peniarth MS 326 ii; and bundles 6, 7 and 8 are contained in Peniarth MS 326 iii.

Transcripts of documents relating mainly to Merioneth: Instructions from the Council in the Marches to suppress felonies; charges to juries; a letter, with answer, to a gentleman in Wales touching suits in the Court of Star Chamber, 1598; a letter of recommendation of John Vaughan of Cair gay, 1601; a petition of the freeholders of Estymaner and Talpont; instructions to the Council in the Marches, 1606; a letter of Enianus, bishop of Bangor, to Lord John de Grey, 1310; orders for securing the peace of the Commonwealth; orders at Quarter Sessions, 1673; sentences against Hugh Nanney for incontinence, 1588, 1594; observations on tenures in Englefleld, Flintshire, and concerning a court held by Mr Mackworth; an order in the suit of Robert Lloyd v. Griffith Nanney, 1603; the opinion of George Lee concerning a Portuguese ship wrecked on the Merioneth coast, 1746; a draft petition for an Act to enclose Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bychan; a contract to erect a shire hall at Dolgelley, 1606; the divisions of Merioneth with their proportional assessments, 1689; a canvass for Mr Vaughan and a copy of R. W. Vaughan's address to Merioneth electors, 1796; a rental of Robert Morgan's estate; and the petition of Sir Robert Heath to Charles I.
Instructions to Sir William Bowes, Robert Bowes, and Lord Eure (Scottish border, 1589-1599), Sir George Carey in Ireland with the Earl of Essex, 1598, Mr Carrow Raleigh concerning musters, and Sir Thomas Shirley, Lord Sheffield, Dr Dale, and Mr Bodley (Low Countries, 1586-1598); instructions concerning the expedition to Spain, 1596; papers relating to the proposed Spanish marriage, 1623; speeches and petitions in Parliament, 1623-1626; a list of grants to the Duke of Buckingham and proceedings relating to his impeachment, 1626; and a letter by Ra: Eure, John Harbert, and Daniell Dunn from Breme, 1602.
Printed proclamations of the assumption of the style of King of Great Brittaine by James I, 1604, and of the calling in of testons, 2 Edward VI.
On the back of the former is a fragment of a Welsh poem beginning - 'a fi'n eiste'n obrydd...'

A composite manuscript containing:
(i) pp. 1-2. A large folio sheet, folded, containing pedigrees in the hand of Robert Vaughan, evidently part of the draft of his lost ‘Llyfr Achau y Deheudir’ [see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Notes on the Welsh genealogical manuscripts’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1968, 63-98, esp. 86].
(ii) pp. 3-106, 151-334. An informal collection of Welsh pedigrees mainly written by Gruffudd Hiraethog in a variable hand over the period 1554-64 (see dates on, e.g., pp. 47, 229, 237, 239, 264, 269, 281). There are substantial sections (e.g. pp. 5-19, 23, 25-6, 31-5) and many additions in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn, some dated, e.g. 1570 (p. 250) and 1572 (p. 312). Foliated by Wiliam Llŷn; his ‘Tabl’ is on pp. 5-19. There are contributions by other hands, all contemporary with Wiliam Llŷn if not also with Gruffudd Hiraethog: A, an educated secretary hand, concerned with Edeirnion (pp. 36-7 and 58); B, Simwnt Fychan (p. 39); C, Huw Llŷn (‘Llyma gof am yr amser y bu Eisteddvod ynghaerwys … 1567’, pp. 59-63); D (pp. 174-5, where he offers a deviant opinion on the ancestry of Owain ap Bradwen, citing ‘rai yneheubarth’ and ‘John Wynn Unllawiawc’, and pp. 219-22); E (pp. 191-2); F, apparently from south-west Wales (pp. 193-4 and 196-211); G, ostensibly ‘per me Morgan Elfel’, but in a hand not recognizably his (pp. 275-7); H, a bold secretary hand, concerned with Cegidfa (pp. 283-90); I (pp. 297-9). Predominantly, the pedigrees relate to north Wales, but those on pp. 153-229 are mainly south Welsh. Gruffudd throughout is characteristically helpful in naming his sources [see P.C. Bartrum, ‘Genealogical sources quoted by Gruffudd Hiraethog’, National Library of Wales Journal, 26 (1989-90), 1-9]. Apart from pedigrees, other texts in the manuscript include ‘Dosbarth Arvau … o gynulliad Wmffre Llwyd o dref Ddinbych’, in the hand of Wiliam Llŷn [printed in Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society, 17 (1968), 66-82] (pp. 67-90). On p. 102, Gruffudd notes ‘Henwe hen brydyddion’, evidence of his acquaintance with the contents of the Hendregadredd manuscript (NLW MS 6680).
(iii) pp. 107-50. A valuable collection of genealogical tracts, of south Wales bias, written by an excellent hand temp. Henry VIII (see pp. 143, 149). Tracts include Y Pedwar Brenin ar Hugain, Pum Oes Byd, Bonedd y Saint, Rhandiroedd Powys, besides south Wales pedigrees. Of the hand, Robert Vaughan notes on p. 107, ‘llaw Lewys Morganwc sydd yn calyn medd Rys Cain’. This attribution is rightly rejected in P.C. Bartrum, ‘Notes on the Welsh genealogical manuscripts’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1968, 63-98, esp. 74, and id., 1988, 37-46, esp. 41-2, where it is observed that these pages are cited elsewhere by Gruffudd Hiraethog as ‘Llyfr Lewys ap Edwart’ and as ‘Llyfr Ieuan ap Huw Kae Llwyd’. Gruffudd Hiraethog added text on pp. 141-2, which had been left blank.