National Library of Wales
Rare books
### Rare books

There are many rare books in the National Library of Wales including the three earliest books printed in Welsh, *[Yny lhyvyr hwnn](/wiki/Yny_lhyvyr_hwnn "Yny lhyvyr hwnn")* (1546\), [Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd](/wiki/Oll_synnwyr_pen_Kembero_ygyd "Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd") (1547\) and *A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe* (1547\) by [William Salesbury](/wiki/William_Salesbury "William Salesbury"). The Library also holds the first [Welsh translation of the complete Bible](/wiki/Welsh_Bible "Welsh Bible") (1588\). The National Library's rare books include collections of incunabula, sixteenth\-century European imprints, private press publications, bindings and scientific works.

Thanks to the collections of printed books that were donated by Sir John Williams, J. H. Davies and Edward Humphrey Owen, the Library has particularly strong holdings of publications in the Welsh language from before 1912\. Of the 286 Welsh books published between 1546 and 1710, the National Library possesses copies of 210, and has facsimiles of others that exist as a unique copy in another institution.

Many of the named collections of printed books include early or otherwise rare books:
* + - * + - * + - * 

#### Sir John Williams Collection

[thumb\|upright\|*[Yny lhyvyr hwnn](/wiki/Yny_lhyvyr_hwnn "Yny lhyvyr hwnn")*, 1546: attributed to Sir John Prise](/wiki/File:Yny_Lhyvyr_hwnn_title_page.jpg "Yny Lhyvyr hwnn title page.jpg")
[thumb\|upright\|First Welsh Bible, 1588](/wiki/File:1588_First_Welsh_Bible.jpg "1588 First Welsh Bible.jpg")
The Sir John Williams Collection forms the nucleus of the Library's printed books collection. The collection of approximately 23,360 volumes contains many items of importance to the history of Welsh printing, which were donated to the Library when it was established in 1907\. Nineteen of the first twenty\-two books published in Welsh are present, of which fourteen were acquired from the [Shirburn Castle](/wiki/Shirburn_Castle "Shirburn Castle") library with the Llanstephan Manuscripts. The collection from Shirburn Castle comprises 193 printed books and pamphlets that were all printed before 1750; a superb miscellany of books from the first century of Welsh printing. Some of the particularly significant items that belonged to Sir John are:

*  \[In this book ...] (1546\) by [Sir John Prise](/wiki/John_Prise "John Prise"), the only known copy of the first book printed in Welsh.
*  by [Gruffudd Hiraethog](/wiki/Gruffudd_Hiraethog "Gruffudd Hiraethog") (1547\).
* William Salesbury's *A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe* (1547\).
* A translation of the New Testament by Salesbury (1567\). The difficulty of reading Salesbury's pedantic translation prompted [William Morgan](/wiki/William_Morgan_%28Bible_translator%29 "William Morgan (Bible translator)"), vicar of Llanrhaeadr\-ym\-Mochnant, to begin his translation of the Bible in 1578\.
* [Y Drych Cristianogawl](/wiki/Y_Drych_Cristianogawl "Y Drych Cristianogawl") \[The Christian Mirror] (1586–7\), probably the earliest book printed in Wales.
* The first Welsh translation of the complete Bible by William Morgan (1588\). Morgan's Bible not only strengthened the hold of the Protestant faith in Wales, it also created a new and accessible prose.
* [John Penry's](/wiki/John_Penry "John Penry") pamphlet of 1588, *An exhortation unto the governours.*
* The Welsh translation of the first part of Canisius's *Opus catechisticum* by Rosier Smyth, published in Paris, 1609\.
* *Cân o senn iw hên Feistr Tobacco* \[A Diatribe against Tobacco] (1718\), the only extant copy.
* Early editions of [Morgan Llwyd](/wiki/Morgan_Llwyd "Morgan Llwyd"), [Robert Recorde](/wiki/Robert_Recorde "Robert Recorde"), Henry and Thomas Vaughan, and the epigrammist John Owen.
* A comprehensive collection of publications from the [Kelmscott Press](/wiki/Kelmscott_Press "Kelmscott Press").
* A 1488 edition of *[Lancelot du lac](/wiki/Lancelot_du_Lac "Lancelot du Lac"),* part of a large Arthurian collection.
* A Fourth Folio of Shakespeare (1685\).

#### Ty Coch Collection

Purchased in 1910, the library of Edward Humphrey Owen (1850–1904\), from Ty Coch, Caernarfon, is the third of the National Library of Wales' foundation collections. The 3,680 volumes are mainly of Welsh interest, with the 1567 New Testament and 1588 Bible to be found among some twenty books from the sixteenth century. Other items of interest are a first edition of Milton's *Paradise lost* (1668\), numerous first editions of [John Ruskin](/wiki/John_Ruskin "John Ruskin") and [George Borrow](/wiki/George_Borrow "George Borrow"), and books from the Baskerville and [Strawberry Hill](/wiki/Strawberry_Hill_Press "Strawberry Hill Press") presses.

#### John Humphreys Davies Bequest

When John Humphreys Davies died on 10 August 1926 he bequeathed his collection of over 10,000 printed volumes to the National Library of Wales. Davies was a keen bibliographer who acquired multiple copies of some works for variants in the typography and accumulated an important collection of Welsh literature, discovering some previously unrecorded works in the process. Some of the early Welsh books that Davies collected contain leaves or signatures that were not in the copies that the National Library already possessed. The rare books include:
* *Annerch ir Cymru* (1721\) by Ellis Pugh was the first Welsh book to be printed in America.
* A complete first edition of part one of *Aleluja, neu, Casgliad o hymnau, ar amryw ystyriaethau* (1744\) by [William Williams](/wiki/William_Williams_Pantycelyn "William Williams Pantycelyn") of Pantycelyn.
* *Testament Newydd* (1567\).
* *Y Bibl* (1630\).
*  (1661\), Ellis Lewis' Welsh translation, from the English translation by Winterton, of Jeremias Drexel's *De aeternitate considerationes.*
* A previously unrecorded large paper issue of *Y Bibl* (1690\).
* A copy of the 1688 edition of  \[Pilgrim's Progress] is one of the seventy\-three works by John Bunyan.
* Eighty\-three volumes of the works of [William Williams](/wiki/William_Williams_Pantycelyn "William Williams Pantycelyn") of Pantycelyn.

There are also substantial collections of pamphlets, elegies, almanacs, ballads, satires and tracts that Davies had collected.

#### Bourdillon Collection

In 1922 the National Library of Wales purchased the collection of French medieval literary texts and early illustrated books that had been assembled by [Francis William Bourdillon](/wiki/Francis_William_Bourdillon "Francis William Bourdillon") (1852–1921\). Bourdillon's library included twenty\-three editions of the *Roman de la Rose* and an important group of works on the Arthurian legend. The 6,178 printed volumes include sixty\-six incunabula, 180 *[English short title catalogue](/wiki/English_Short_Title_Catalogue "English Short Title Catalogue")* books (1475–1800\), including twenty\-five [*STC*](/wiki/Short-title_catalogue "Short-title catalogue") and fifty [*Wing*](/wiki/Donald_Wing%23The_Short-Title_Catalogue_.28STC.29 "Donald Wing#The Short-Title Catalogue .28STC.29") books. Further, there are 320 volumes that were printed in continental Europe during the sixteenth century, and another 260 items which date from the 17th and 18th centuries.

#### Incunabula

The National Library has a collection of about 250 [incunabula](/wiki/Incunabula "Incunabula"), which are predominantly German, Italian and French imprints. Sixty\-six of the incunabula, including seven different editions of the *Roman de la Rose,* with the accepted first edition among them, are part of Francis William Bourdillon's collection that was purchased by the Library in 1922\. At least three of the incunabula acquired from Bourdillon's library are not known in any other copy: a *Quatre fils Aymon*, a *Destruction de Jerusalem*, and a *Vie de Ste. Catherine*. [Sir Charles Thomas\-Stanford](/wiki/Sir_Charles_Thomas-Stanford "Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford") presented or bequeathed eighteen incunabula in total, half of which were printed in Germany.

Three examples of early English printing were donated to the Library by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies of Gregynog in 1921\. Two of these books were printed by [William Caxton](/wiki/William_Caxton "William Caxton"): *Speculum Vitae Christi* of 1488, and the copy of [Ranulf Higden's *Polychronicon*](/wiki/Ranulf_Higden "Ranulf Higden") (1482\) that had previously been the property of Higden's Monastery, St. Werburgh's Abbey at Chester. The third is another copy of the Polychronicon, printed by Caxton's successor [Wynkyn de Worde](/wiki/Wynkyn_de_Worde "Wynkyn de Worde") in 1495\. Nine specimens of early printed books (three German, five Italian and one printed in Ghent) were deposited by Lord Harlech between 1938 and 1941\. Other notable incunabula in the Library are the *Astronomica* by [Marcus Manilius](/wiki/Marcus_Manilius "Marcus Manilius") (1474\) with illuminated initials and borders, and [Hartmann Schedel](/wiki/Hartmann_Schedel "Hartmann Schedel")'s *Liber Chronicarum* (1493\).

During the time that the incunabula expert, Dr. Victor Scholderer, Deputy\-Keeper in the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum, spent in Aberystwyth during the Second World War, he took an interest in the National Library's small collection of fifteenth\-century printed books and produced a *Hand\-list of incunabula* that was published as a supplement to the *National Library of Wales Journal.* The hand\-list and its addenda and corrigenda describes 129 books, mostly printed in Germany, Italy and France, although examples from the Netherlands and England were also listed. Scholderer noted that some of the forty\-five books printed in France, particularly those in the vernacular, were very rare.

#### Sixteenth\-century imprints

There are approximately 2,500 sixteenth\-century European imprints in the Library. Works from the leading scholar\-printers of the early sixteenth\-century are represented in the collection, which covers a broad array of subjects. These include [Johann Froben](/wiki/Johann_Froben "Johann Froben") (Basle), [Jodocus Badius](/wiki/Jodocus_Badius "Jodocus Badius") (Lyons and Paris), [Robert Estienne](/wiki/Robert_Estienne "Robert Estienne") (Paris) and [Aldus Manutius](/wiki/Aldus_Manutius "Aldus Manutius") (Venice). Aldus Manutius of Venice, who is known for his dolphin and anchor [printer's device](/wiki/Printer%27s_device "Printer's device"), was the finest of the Italian printers of this period and about a hundred examples of his works, known as Aldines, are in the National Library. The Library's also owns works from the sixteenth\-century Antwerp press of [Christophe Plantin](/wiki/Christophe_Plantin "Christophe Plantin") and his son\-in\-law, [Balthasar Moretus](/wiki/Balthasar_Moretus "Balthasar Moretus"), who published De Symbolis Heroicis (1634\) with its title\-page designed by [Peter Paul Rubens](/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens "Peter Paul Rubens"). The collection of French medieval romances and editions of the *Roman de la rose* from the library of F. W. Bourdillon and the Aldines, which are from the collection of J. Burleigh James, are important features.

The National Library of Wales has one of the two copies of the 1539 edition of Miles Coverdale's [Great Bible](/wiki/Great_Bible "Great Bible"), that were printed on vellum and illuminated throughout. The other copy is in the library of [St. John's College, Cambridge](/wiki/St_John%27s_College%2C_Cambridge "St John's College, Cambridge").

#### Private presses

The Library has a substantial private press collection, some 1,800 volumes in total, with representative examples from all of the important British presses. The holdings of ordinary and special bindings of the [Gregynog Press](/wiki/Gregynog_Press "Gregynog Press") books are comprehensive and along with the reference collection from Gregynog, form the core of the National Library's collection of private press editions. However, the Library also has a complete set of the [Kelmscott Press](/wiki/Kelmscott_Press "Kelmscott Press") publications that Sir John Williams collected, including *The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer* (1896\). The private press collection has been developed through further acquisitions by donation, purchase and legal deposit, and contains examples of the productions by the [Doves Press](/wiki/Doves_Press "Doves Press"), [Ashendene Press](/wiki/Ashendene_Press "Ashendene Press") and the [Roxburghe Club](/wiki/Roxburghe_Club "Roxburghe Club"). Works from foreign presses have been collected and include many publications of the [Grolier Club](/wiki/Grolier_Club "Grolier Club"), the Bremer Presse edition of Luther's Bible (1926–1928\) and *Eclogues* of Virgil (1927\) from the Cranach Press

#### Fine bindings

The National Library has many examples of books with fine bindings in its holdings. These include under\-painted vellum, Victorian carved wood and papier\-mâché bindings, French art nouveau bookbinding and bindings by Bernard C. Middleton and the Gregynog Press binder, George Fisher. In the late 1970s, the library acquired an archive recording the work of the Birdsall bindery, Northampton.

Bourdillon's library includes books printed before 1600 in their original pigskin or stamped calf bindings and some examples of modern fine binding.

Examples of fore\-edge paintings that depict topographical scenes in Wales have been collected by the National Library, including a view of Conway Castle and Bridge on a 1795 copy of *The Poetical Works of John Cunningham*, a rural view, stated to be Wales, painted on a 1795 edition of Milton's *Paradise Lost* bound by Edwards of Halifax, and an 1823 English\-Welsh bilingual edition of *The Book of Common Prayer* with a double fore\-edge painting of (1\) Bangor and (2\) Bangor Cathedral. Other locations in Wales include Barmouth and Neath Abbey, both painted on books published during the nineteenth century. The earliest volume with a fore\-edge painting owned by the Library is the 1669 Book of Common Prayer with a depiction of the Crucifixion.

#### The Euclid Collection

The National Library's collection of works ascribed to Euclid contains more than 300 volumes, representing 270 editions, and is considered to be an important reference point for Euclidean bibliographical studies.
The collection has been developed through additions to the initial thirty\-nine volumes of early editions of the *Elements* that [Sir Charles Thomas\-Stanford](/wiki/Sir_Charles_Thomas-Stanford "Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford") donated in 1927, including further eleven volumes from Sir Charles in 1928\. With the subsequent additions the collection covers all of Euclid's works, including *Data, Phaenomena, Optica* and *Catoptrica* along with numerous editions of the *Elements,* in many languages. There are two incunabula (Erhard Ratdolt, Venice, 1482 and Leonardus de Basilea \& Gulielmus de Papia, Vicenza, 1491\) in the collection, as well as seventy\-three volumes from the sixteenth century, including the first English (Reynold Wolfe, London, 1551\) and Arabic (Typographia Medicea, Rome, 1594\) editions.


From where does the library collect works printed before 1600 with original bindings?