abstract:Manuscript Peniarth 164 (H) is the black sheep of the law manuscripts. It was gall stained by John Jones, Gellilyfdy, and its folios were cut into individual leaves so that there is no way of seeing either the quiring or the original structure. Some time before 1619 H was bound with the Black Book of Chirk and the manuscripts stayed together until after 1869. Most of the law manuscripts, which are usually tidy and organised books, contain a version of one of the main codes, Cyfnerth, Blegywryd, Iorwerth or a Latin text. The structure of the text of H is different to the general structure of the lawbooks as it does not contain a copy of one of the main codes and it focuses on the additional material which usually occurs as a tail appended to the main codes. There are almost 500 triads in the manuscript and it contains collections of cynghawsedd unique to this manuscript. This is one of the manuscripts which are not available anywhere else.
This volume presents an edition of the most complete version of the law text in manuscript Peniarth 164 (that is, the copy of it in manuscript Peniarth 278) with a full introduction and comprehensive notes showing the correspondence between the text and other published texts. It is shown that the the contents and form of the manuscript suggests that it was composed by an administrator in one of the north-eastern lordships in the second half of the fourteenth century.
(source: Cyfraith Hywel website)
