The new Small World exhibition at the Library has been an opportunity to search our collections for early manuscripts on the theme of travel. A selection of our findings is presented for the next 6 months in the Hengwrt exhibition room.
Manuscript evidence dispels the myth that Wales was in the past an isolated and inward-looking nation. Welsh people travelled well-beyond Wales during the medieval and early modern periods as soldiers, merchants, pilgrims and students. Two examples suffice to show an awareness of other countries and cultures beyond Offa’s Dyke:
Elis Gruffudd (‘A Soldier of Calais’) was born in the parish of Llanasa, Flintshire, around 1490, and he travelled widely on the continent as a soldier. He settled at Calais in 1530, where he wrote a chronicle in Welsh, which includes vivid descriptions of contemporary events. Elis was an eyewitness to the meeting between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France at ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’ near Calais in 1521, and his description of the splendour of that occasion can be seen in our exhibition. He arranged for his chronicle to be transported from Calais to Flintshire soon after its completion in 1552, and although digitized on our website, it still awaits full study and publication.
In contrast, virtually nothing is known of a priest called Dafydd Fychan, who lived in Glamorgan during the first half of the 15th century. We have no evidence that he ever left Wales, but he was aware of the existence of far-flung corners of the world. He translated into Welsh the popular travel tales of the Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone, who had spent the years 1318-30 as a missionary in the Far East, including China and India. Dafydd’s translation can be seen in our exhibition, and includes a description of ‘the kingdom called Tubec’, or Tibet. It was another century or so before a reference to Tibet appeared in an English source!
Maredudd ap Huw