National Library of Wales

In 1873, a committee was formed to collect Welsh materials and place them at University College Aberystwyth . In 1905, funding for the formation of two Welsh organizations — the National Library and the National Museum of Wales — was pledged to the UK state budget, and the Privy Council instructed the committee to decide on their intended location. The main applicants for the placement of these institutes were Aberystwyth and Cardiff , the first was preferred over the location of the library, while it was decided to open a museum in Cardiff. One of the arguments for hosting the National Library in Aberystwyth was that the collection was already in storage at University College. In addition, the promise of Sir John Williams , Queen Victoria’s physician and famous book collector , in the case of Aberystwyth’s choice to donate his collection of books to the library, which in particular included the Hengurt-Peniart manuscripts , as well as £ 20,000 , was of great importance when choosing a city. The Royal Charter on the creation of the national library of the museum was issued on March 19, 1907 ^[1] .

In 1908, a competition was announced for the development of the National Library building project, which a year later was won by Sydney Greensdale, who described his vision of the building's exterior as a “deliberately smooth and austere” style ^[2] . In 1911, on the top of Penglays Hill, towering above Aberystwyth, in the place of Tir Grogitan, the first stone of the building was laid, and in 1916 the building was opened for operation. The first floor of the building was finished with Cornish granite , and the remaining floors with Portland stone . The overall design of the library has changed several times, in particular, in the 1950s , the architect Charles Holden constructed the central building of the library. In 1996, a third building was built to increase library storage.

Over 4 million printed volumes are in the collection of the National Library, including such rare books as Yn y lhyvyr hwnn of 1546 ^[3] , the first book printed in Welsh , the first copy of the complete translation of the Bible by William Morgan into Welsh 1588 ^[4] . As a repository of required copies, the library receives the volume of each book printed in the UK and Ireland ^[5] . The principal areas of replenishment of the book collection are the theme of Wales, the Welsh language and materials relating to the Celts ^[5] .

The National Library is the repository of the Wales Political Archive ^[6] and the Wales National Video and Audio Archive ^[7] . The library contains a large number of maps ^[8] , photographs ^[9] , paintings ^[10] , periodicals and newspapers ^[5] . In addition, it stores a large number of Welsh archival materials.

Peniart Manuscript Collection

An important place in the collection of the National Library is occupied by the collection of medieval manuscripts, the main part of which is the so-called collection of manuscripts “Peniart”, transferred in 1909 by John Williams. The beginning of this collection was laid by Robert Vaughan (c. 1592 - 1667 ) from Hengurt , Merionetshire , where it was until 1859 , when it was transferred by will to another well-known antique dealer William Watkin Wynn from Penyart , who gave her the current name. In 1904, the Hengurt-Peniarth Library ( Wall. Hengwrt-Peniarth ) became the property of Sir John Williams ^[11] .

The manuscripts with the nomenclature name Peniarth include such well-known manuscripts as the “Hengurt version” of Jeffrey Chaucer’s works in English ( Peniarth MS 392 ) ^[12] , the Latin version of Hivel's Good laws ( Peniarth MS 28 ) ^[13], and living in the Cornish language Beunans Meriasek ( Peniarth MS 105B ) ^[14] . But the crown of the collection is still considered the most important Welsh manuscripts: the Black Book from Carmarthen ( Peniarth MS 1 ) ^[15] , the Book of Taliesin ( Peniarth MS 2 ) ^[16] , the White Book of Riederh ( Peniarth MS 4 ) ^[17] and the Chronicle of Princes ( Peniarth MS 20 ) ^[18] .

• Official Website of the National Library of Wales (Wall.) , (English)
• National Library Online Catalogs
• Digital Mirror Library Funds Processing Project
• Biography project of famous Wales residents, Welsh Biography Online
• Wales National Video and Audio Archive
• Welsh Journals Online Welsh Magazine Digital Processing Project
• Content of the National Library of Wales Journal 1939–2000 (Genuki )