The Black Book of Carmarthen together with the rest of the Peniarth collection of manuscripts is now housed among the Special Collections of the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, the collection having been purchased in 1904 for the proposed National Library by its primary founder and foremost benefactor, Sir John Williams, baronet (1840-1926), physician to the Duchess of York. Gwenogvryn Evans gave priority of place to the 'Black Book', designating it Peniarth MS 1. Since then, the collection has been known as the Peniarth Manuscripts. Gwenogvryn Evans for his Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1899. While at Peniarth, the Welsh manuscripts were catalogued by J. When Robert Vaughan's great-great-great-great grandson, Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, 3rd baronet, died in 1859, the books and manuscripts at Hengwrt passed by bequest to his friend William Watkin Edward Wynne (1801-80) of Peniarth near Tywyn, Merionethshire. 167) that the poet SiƓn Tudur (died 1602) of Wigfair, St Asaph, also owned the manuscript at one time. Robert Vaughan himself says in another manuscript (NLW MS 5262, p. 1520-1584?), translator of the New Testament into Welsh, has also written a note at the bottom of one of the pages. However, at some former period it seems to have been owned by another scholar and book-collector, Jasper Gryffyth (died 1614), warden of Ruthin Hospital, who has written in the 'Black Book' both his name in Hebrew characters and a note on its contents. Little is known of its history after its rescue by Sir John until its acquisition by the seventeenth-century antiquary Robert Vaughan (1592?-1666), who put together a vast collection of printed books and manuscripts of primary importance in Welsh and other languages at Hengwrt, his home near Dolgellau, Merionethshire. He found the 'Black Book', it is said, in the possession of the treasurer of St Davids Cathedral, the manuscript at the time reputed to have come from Carmarthen Priory. He had been appointed chief registrar of the crown in ecclesiastical matters and in this capacity undertook the task of searching the monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII. The manuscript came into the hands of Sir John Price of Brecon (1502?-1555), a man with antiquarian and literary interests.
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