- s. xvi
A description of the Middle Cornish manuscript found amongst the Puleston Papers by John Mackechnie in 1949, now Add. MS. 46397 in the British Library. The manuscript is a sixteenth-century translation into Cornish of thirteen homilies published by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London in 1555 forming the latter part of his A profitable and necessary doctrine, with certayne homelyes adioyned therevnto. (Only one of these originals was his own, the majority by John Harpesfeld, Archdeacon of London and two by Oliver Pendilton.)
An analysis is made of the historical context in which the translation was made, the likely provenance and dating of the manuscript and the extent of collaboration by co-translators with the principal translator John Tregear. The replacement of the expected thirteenth homily by a translation of an unknown English original on the same subject is also discussed.
The quality of the translation and the effects of this upon the syntax and vocabulary of the Cornish homilies is described, including a discussion of the extent to which the macaronic character of the text is deliberate.
The manuscript is examined as evidence for linguistic change in Middle Cornish, addressing two major areas: the morphology of personal pronouns, verb forms and conjugated prepositions; the major phonological features of the Cornish in the manuscript, principally the loss of vowel quality in unstressed syllables and the incidence of the sound-change s/j as an effect of palatalisation
A part of the ‘Cotton-Corpus legendary’ which covers feast-days for the months of October, November and December. The other parts of the legendary are to be found in London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero E i.
- s. xi2
Various transcripts, including one of Vita Ælfredi regis from what was London, British Library, MS Cotton Otho A xii (before the 1731 fire), created for Matthew Parker at a time when Parker had not yet added his interpolations to the exemplar.
- c. 1550 x 1574
A lost manuscript of Asser’s Life of King Alfred. Originally an independent manuscript and later part of what once constituted London, British Library, MS Cotton Otho A xii, it was destroyed by the Ashburnham House fire of 1731. Although the original is irretrievably lost, significant information about its character and contents can be gleaned from transcripts and descriptions written before the fire.
- c.1000
Extracts from London, British Library, MS Egerton 1782.
- 1749
- Aodh Ó Dálaigh
Transcript of the Latin text in the Welsh lawbook of London, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian E xi.
- s. xv2
Latin text of Welsh law, which was known to lawyers active in Gwynedd during the 13th century. This text or a related one may have provided the basis for the Latin text in London, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian E xi, which refers to matters relating to both Gwynedd and south-west Wales. It has been suggested that the Llyfr y Tŷ Gwyn text became known in Gwynedd through the agency of Cadwgan, bishop of Bangor (1215-1236) and abbot of Whitland before that.
