The Welsh Manuscripts Society, also known as the Society for the Publication of Ancient Welsh Manuscripts, was an organisation formed in

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, in 1837. It was led by prominent members of the clergy and other notables including Taliesin Williams. It had the purpose of collecting, studying, and, as a

text publication society A text publication society is a learned society which publishes (either as its sole function, or as a principal function) scholarly editions of old works of historical or literary interest, or archival documents. In addition to full texts, a text p ...

, of publishing manuscripts relating to the ancient

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

and

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and Wales. Its final publication was ''Barddas; or, a collection of original documents, illustrative of the theology, wisdom and usages of the Bardo-Druidic system of the isle of Britain'', edited and translated by Rev.

John Williams (Ab Ithel) John Williams (bardic name: Ab Ithel) (7 April 1811–27 August 1862), was an antiquary and Anglican priest. Born in Llangynhafal, Denbighshire Wales in 1811, he graduated from Jesus College, Oxford in 1835 to become the Anglican curate of ...

. The first volume appeared in 1862; and the second volume, in an incomplete form, in 1874.

References

External links

Meic Stephens, Hen bersoniaid llengar, Oxford University Press
Clubs and societies in Wales Text publication societies 1837 establishments in Wales Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom {{Wales-org-stub