Juvencus Manuscript

This article is about the manuscript. For the poet, see Juvencus.

The Juvencus Manuscript (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ff. 4.42; Welsh: Llawysgrif Juvencus) is one of the main surviving sources of Old Welsh. Unlike much Old Welsh, which is attested in manuscripts from later periods and in partially updated form, the Welsh material in the Juvencus Manuscript was written in the Old Welsh period itself; the manuscript provides the first attestation of many Welsh words.[1]

Around the second half of the ninth century,[2] someone copied two Old Welsh poems into the margins: a nine-stanza englyn poem on the wonders of God's creation (generally known as the 'Juvencus nine'), and, on folios 25–26, a three-stanza poem which seems to represent a warrior lamenting his misfortunes (known as the 'Juvencus three'). These are the earliest surviving englynion.[3] The parts of the manuscript containing the 'Juvencus three' were cut out of the manuscript and stolen in the early eighteenth century by the antiquary Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709), but were found after his death and returned to the manuscript.[4]

  1. ^ John T. Koch, 'The Juvencus Manuscript', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.
  2. ^ Helen McKee, 'Scribes and Glosses from Dark Age Wales: The Cambridge Juvencus Manuscript', CMCS, 39 (2000), 1-22.
  3. ^ John T. Koch, 'The Juvencus Manuscript', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.
  4. ^ Myriah Williams, 'Cambridge Juvencus (MS Ff.4.42)', http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FF-00004-00042.