Agents persons, peoples and institutions
Browse and discover
A module for identifying agents - encompassing persons, peoples and organisations - and managing information about them has been around for many years, continually evolving as time went by, but what was absent all this time is a public interface for accessing relevant data in a user-friendly way.
This is a first attempt at offering such an interface, which is provided "as-is" and should be considered beta-quality for now (not that there is any official product release cycle as such but using the label is a convenient means to sound the right alarm bells). It currently consists of a basic search, aggregated data overviews for individual agents, and hover-card labels that you will meet elsewhere in the catalogue.
I am aware of duplicates, uneven coverage and other shortcomings that typically arise from the progressive nature of this website or simply, lack of personpower. An earlier version of the interface was available to editors partly because it helps us address some of those issues. None of these objections, however, seemed to weigh heavily against the alternative, which is having nothing at all to offer.
Note that for convenience's sake, many agents are not formally indexed but are nonetheless included by exclusive virtue of being linked. It is a wonderful forte of the system that allows us to retrieve and bring together disparate data from disparate data sources, but some useful metadata will be missing and discoverability is more limited as a result. For instance, we may be linking to a scribe whose name and associated data can be retrieved and presented, but without, say, a floruit it will be difficult to find this person within the appropriate time range. I say "difficult" because it is possible, to an extent, to rely on the dates we have, if any, for associated objects (manuscripts, scribal hands), but such a circuitous approach comes with limitations of its own and is not necessarily methodologically sound.
Meanwhile, I hope that the new interface will improve your experience in using this website. Next up are thematic categories for scribes (in the broadest, non-pejorative sense of the word), authors and scholars.
Last added
- William Pryced. 1790A medical practitioner based in Redruth, Cornwall, who was also an author on mining and mineralogy, an antiquary and an advocate of the Cornish language.
- Jean-François Le Gonidec1775–1838Breton grammarian, lexicographer and translator.
- William Scawen1600–1689Cornish politician and antiquary. He is author of Antiquities Cornu-Brittanic, an unpublished work on the history and language of Cornwall (even if he did not speak Cornish).
- Talat Chaudhri
- Aidan of Lindisfarned. 651Irish missionary and monk, who was founder and first bishop of Lindisfarne and gained a reputation for having spread the faith in Northumbria.
- Hervé Le Boterf1921–2000Writer and journalist who specialised in Breton history.
- Hubert Guillotel1941–2004
- Petrocfl. 6th centuryCornish saint whose cult spread across both Cornwall and Brittany. In Cornwall, he is primarily associated with the foundation at Padstow (Lanwethenek), which relocated to Bodmin; in Brittany, with the community of Saint-Méen.
- Andrew Boordec. 1490–1549English physician and author, who embarked on a journey through Europe and wrote a travel treatise The fyrste boke of the introduction of knowledge (completed in 1542). To Celticists, he may be known for his descriptions of Wales and Cornwall, which include some basic lexical information.
- Samson Lennard [d. 1633]d. 1633English officer of arms, antiquarian and genealogist. In 1620, he and Sir Henry St George served as William Camden’s deputies in Cornwall and Devon, and visits to three further English counties were made in 1623.
- Henry St George1581–1644English officer of arms.
- John Tregearfl. 16th centuryA cleric known for translating into Cornish thirteen English homilies, twelve of them from Edmund Bonner’s A profitable and necessary doctrine (1555). There is little that can be said about his life and career. It has been suggested that he is to be identified with the (John) Tregere/Tregeare mentioned by William Borlase.
- Davies Gilbert1767–1839Cornish engineer, politician and antiquary. He was born as Davies Giddy and on marrying Mary Ann Gilbert in 1808, took on his wife’s surname.
- Charles Insley
- Alan M. Kent1967–2022Cornish poet, playwright and scholar.
- Chichester, West Sussex Record OfficeCounty record office holding the archives on behalf of West Sussex.
- Bilbao, Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia
- Nonantola abbey
- Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient BritonsWelsh society based in London, which was founded in 1715 and had ceased to be active by the end of the same century.
- Welsh Charity School
Originally the British Charity School in London, founded in 1718 by the ‘Most Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient Britons’, in some ways the precursor to the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. It housed a considerable collection of manuscripts, which were presented to the British Museum in the early 1840s. The school moved to Ashford in 1857, became a girls school in 1882 and was renamed to St David's School in 1967.
- Tintern abbey [Co. Wexford]Cistercian monastery.
- Tintern abbey
- Angers, Saint-AubinMonastery of Saint-Aubin in Angers.
- Nanhyfer [Nevern, Pembrokeshire]
Church on the river Nevern (Nyfer) in Pembrokeshire, said to have been an early church (clas) founded by St Brynach.
- Alt Fharannáin
- Lann Rónáin Fhinn
- Lusca [Lusk, Co. Dublin]
- Cenn Éitig [Co. Roscommon]Not to be confused with St Fínán’s foundation of the same name.
- Cenn ÉitigFoundation associated with St Fínán (Cam), which gave its name to the present townland and parish of Kinnitty in Co. Offaly.
- Bangor, University Library
Randomised results
A random selecton of authors and those so described.
