Delw y Byd: A Medieval Welsh Encyclopedia ed. by Natalia I. Petrovskaia, and: Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen: The Middle Welsh Life of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins ed. by Jane Cartwright (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Delw y Byd: A Medieval Welsh Encyclopedia ed. by Natalia I. Petrovskaia, and: Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen: The Middle Welsh Life of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins ed. by Jane Cartwright Helen Fulton Delw y Byd: A Medieval Welsh Encyclopedia. Ed. by Natalia I. Petrovskaia. (MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature) Cambridge: Modern Humanities Research Association. 2020. x+ 183 pp. £37.85. ISBN 978–1–78188–949–7. Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen: The Middle Welsh Life of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. Ed. by Jane Cartwright. (MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature) Cambridge: Modern Humanities Research Association. 2020. x+ 133 pp. £39.99. ISBN 978–1–907322–59–4. With the publication of these two edited volumes, the MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature now comprises six editions representing some key works of Middle Welsh prose and poetry, including court poetry, nature poetry, and historical writing. The series aims to make Middle Welsh texts accessible to students and scholars who may have little or no knowledge of the language and, as someone contracted to produce an edition for the series in the future, I welcome this initiative for the support of medieval Welsh literature and its importance within comparative medieval studies. These two new volumes perfectly represent the aims and achievements of the series. Each of them makes available a significant Middle Welsh text illustrative [End Page 604] of a specific genre of interest to medievalists. The first, Delw y Byd, presents a selection of chapters from a thirteenth-century Welsh prose translation of Book 1 of the twelfth-century Latin encyclopedia by Honorius Augustodunensis, Imago mundi (whose title, 'image of the world', is exactly repeated in the Welsh title). The second, Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen (literally, 'the story of the virgins of Germany'), is the first edited text of the Welsh Life of Saint Ursula, adapted from Latin versions by the poet and hagiologist Syr Huw Pennant, active in the first half of the sixteenth century. Though differing in dates, both texts exemplify the interest among medieval Welsh writers and patrons in Latinate non-fiction prose from the worlds of secular and religious learning. In her edition of Delw y Byd, Natalia I. Petrovskaia presents 67 of the 136 chapters of the Welsh text, justifying her selection on the grounds of'structure, use, and representativeness' (p. 27). In other words, she has selected chapters which are necessary to preserve the basic structure of the text in its geographical description of the world, chapters which were evidently the subject of discussion, and chapters representative of particular sequences, such as lists of countries, planets, or constellations. She provides a full list of chapter numbers in the complete text, making it clear which chapters have been selected for this edition. The edited text itself is not very long, representing just under 30 pages sandwiched between the slightly longer introduction and notes. A comprehensive glossary and bibliography complete the volume, enabling students of Middle Welsh to work their way through the text. Petrovskaia has provided her own editorial section headings, starting with 'The Structure of the World' and moving on to 'Earth', 'Water', Air', and 'Fire', following the structure of the Latin text. The two versions of the Welsh text that are found in the Red Book of Hergest (late fourteenth century) are clearly distinguished in this edition, and in general the complexity of the manuscript transmission of Delwy Byd is dealt with very adeptly. The Introduction includes a full account of the syntactic and orthographical features of the text, along with some reflections on practices of translation, such as the authorial challenge of changing Latin syntax into idiomatic Welsh prose. The notes cover textual, linguistic, and background information, with useful references for further reading. Petrovskaia's book is a very useful addition to the 1928 edition of Delw y Byd by Henry Lewis and P. Diverres, which was based on only three of the five medieval manuscript sources. In contrast to the manuscript complexity of Delw y Byd, the text of Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen survives in only one manuscript (Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 182), making Jane Cartwright's...