Welsh Journals

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ABSTRACT A short study of the career of J. Gwenogfryn Evans, and of the circumstances that led him to devote his life to Welsh literature and bibliography. His primary motives are traced to his ill-health and his initial dependence on his wife's family when he could not pursue his Unitarian ministry. His work as copyist, compositor and printer of the Old Welsh Texts is described in that context, as is his work as Inspector of Welsh MSS. on behalf of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. The influence of Oxford and Sir John Rhys on his career is analysed, as is his often fractious relationship with other Welsh and Celtic scholars, John Morris-Jones in particular. The study concludes that despite his outstanding achievements and the many honours and plaudits he received during his lifetime, the perceptions of the nature of his work as a copyist, editor and cataloguer, allied to his abrasive personality and his unfortunate later attempts to interpret mediaeval texts, explain why he was not accepted as a scholar by his contemporaries.