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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
The distinction of putting into print the first book ever produced within the principality of Wales has recently been proved to belong to a group of Catholic outlaws operating in North Wales. Their book bears the date 1585 and though it was perhaps really printed in 1586 or early 1587, it antedates by over one hundred and thirty years the two ballads with which Isaac Carter inaugurated the modem press inside Wales at Trefhedyn in Cardiganshire in 1718 (1). The evidence for this press has gradually been pieced together over a number of years (2), but it is scattered in books and periodicals, and may here be brought together and compared with the bibliographical evidence of the book itself.
1. Ifano, Jones, A History of Printing and Printers in Wales to 1810 . Cardiff, 1925. p.34.Google Scholar
2. It was given in full by I. Jones, op. cit. pp. 16–27, as he knew it in 1925, but other evidence has been brought to light since then. See the references below.
3. First noticed by Fr. Cronin in St. Peter”s Magazine June 1924 and used by Mr. Emyr, Gwynne Jones, Librarian of Bangor, in “Robert Pugh of Penrhyn Oreuddyn’ in Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society vol. 7 (1946) p, 10.Google Scholar I have transcribed it “in full from the original in the Public Record Office, and it will be found in Appendix A.
4. The prescribed penalty for illegal printing including destruction of the press and defacement of the type.
5. STC. 5682, p. 41.
6. STC. 17456, p. 39.
7. In 1588 he writes “the last years, as I am almost persuaded, the verye same day, or by all likely-hood the very same week”, but in 1589 this becomes “the last parliament, by al liklihood the very same week.”
8. Robert Persons” A book of Christian exercise appertaining to resolution which had been printed at least eleven times before 1589. See STC. 19353–19363.
9. There was an entry of The historic of Frier Rush in the Stationers Register for 1568–9. See STC. 21451.
10. STC. 19613. I quote from I. Jones, p. 18.
11. The stonebuilt house called Penrhyn Old Hall still stands, A plate of it illustrates Mr. Gwynne Jones” article.
12. There is confusion about the numbers and names of those in the cave in Mr. Geraint Bowen’s article “Gwilym Pue Bardd Mair a theulu'r Penrhyn” in Efrydiau Catholig II pp. 11–35, due to a misreading of an index entry. He also posits two editions of the Drych, one at Rouen, one from the cave press. But this is not required, see below.
13. Challoner, p. 196. This is an episode in the martyr's life which has hitherto escaped notice. But see T. P. Ellis, pp. 158–160 where the episode is given to a “Sir William Guy”, clearly a mistake for the “Sir William Dai” of Pugh's poem. His citation from Robert Williams” History of Aberconway shows how popular memory preserved the story of the discovery of the cave of Rhiwledgyn.
14. Professor Foster and Mr. G. Gruffydd have made an interpretation of this pseudonym which I find more convincing than the one cited in Mr, Ifano Jones’ book. They suggest that Iathro (us) is Jethro, alluding to the father-in-law of Moses who is recorded as being a priest in Madian and offering sacrifices (Exodus 3.1, 18. 12); Favo they connect with the Welsh word “fau” a cave, the two words coupled referring to a priest in a cave, i.e. William Davies. Could he he the true author of the Dryeh?
15. George L'Oyseler printed English books at Rouen in blackletter type in the years 1580–1585. His types are markedly different from similar sized English founts, especially in the capitals, whereas the main text type of the Drych (83 mm. textura) is like that of John Cawood (Isaac, plate 54), its 82 mm, roman type close to the 81 mm. of Thomas Orwin (Isaac, plate 70) and the smallest roman like Hugh Singleton's 68 mm. (Isaac, plate 57 a.)
16. The fact that the remainder of the Drych was never printed, as promised, though it exists in a Cardiff manuscript written by the Catholic scribe Llywelyn Sion, suggests that the discovery of the press Interrupted or prevented work on a second volume.
17. Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society, II. pp. 176–188.
18. See the Welsh title of the pamphlet, quoted below. This description of Robert echoes that in the Drych, and would perhaps be more understandable if used while the author was alive than sixty years after his death; so would the publication of his poems.
19. There is nothing except the types to judge by, and these are commonplace. Yet the general appearance of the type and its even setting seem to me more characteristic of late sixteenth, than of mid-seventeenth, century standards, which are usually poor. Much of the text is in an 83 mm. italic which was not among the founts used at Rhiwledyn for the Drych, though the 83 mm. reman may be the same. The Ynglynion has a larger size (144 mm) roman and italic which can be matched in the types of Elizabethan printing-houses. See Isaac, plate 65.
20. T. Parry-Williams, Carolau, p.6.
21. The identification of these notes as being in his handwriting is made by Davies, J. in Bywyd a Gwaith Moses Williams , Cardiff, 1937, p. 113.Google Scholar
22. White was martyred in 1584, at Wrexham. One at least of the existing manuscripts (Peniarth MA. 158) containing all five of the poems, is dated before 1600. (Parry-Williams p. 9.)