'Gesta Romanorum',

An imperfect manuscript consisting of a late sixteenth or early seventeenth century transcript in the hand of Llywelyn Siôn, the scribe of the preceding manuscript No. 13075B, of a Welsh version of tales from the medieval Latin compilation the 'Gesta Romanorum'. The individual tales do not bear descriptive headings but they are numbered 5-43, tales 1- 3, the beginning of No. 4, and the end of No. 43 being missing owing to the loss of ff. 1-6 and the end folio(s). The stories correspond to, and appear in the same sequence as, the forty-three tales which appear in the English version of the 'Gesta' published by Wynkyn de Worde ? circa 1510- 1515 (see S. J. H. Herrtage (ed.): The Early English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum . . ., Early English Text Society, Extra Series No. XXXIII, London, 1879, pp. xxi-xxii, xxix-xxxi). In the margins of ff. 75 verso-76 recto is a copy of a note dated 19 November 1657 wherein Mr. [ ]octor Rise of St. Brides Major, co. Glamorgan, esq., acknowledged that he owed John Lison (Leison) of Coychurch in the same county, yeoman, the sum of ten pounds which was to be repaid by 29 November. The note had been signed and sealed by the debtor, whose signature is not copied, in the presence of Watkin and Wenllian Leison. An 'englyn' attributed to Sir Tomas Lle' is to be found in the margin of f. 20 verso. .

Title based on contents.

Formerly known as Llanover B. 18.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 13076B.

The description is also available in the Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Volume IV (Aberystwyth, 1971).

Several personal names, some being signatures, have been inserted as marginalia, and the following are coupled with claims to ownership of the volume - Watkin Leison, ? 1657 and n.d., John Leyson, 1662 and n.d., ? David Edmund, 1662, ? John Thomas, n.d ., and John Moris, n.d.

Cwrt Mawr MS 142 in the National Library of Wales contains a twentieth century transcript of the present manuscript.

Published