Welsh Journals

it is not an unbiased academic study. Its theme is the unity of the Welsh tradition through the ages, the tradition being to guard the values of the nation. Although one-third of the survey deals with a period so remote that we know little of its political history, and although he occasionally fails to see the significance of some episodes (even the nationalist signifi- cance), Mr. Evans's survey is valuable, comprehensive and highly readable.] LLINOS SMITH Aberyswyth. MEDIEVAL WALES. By R. Ian Jack. The Sources of History Ltd. in associa- tion with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1972. Pp. 255. £ 3.50 ( £ 2.00 paper). Everyone who studies the history of medieval Wales soon becomes aware of the relative scarcity of source material and the profusion of surviving archives of the medieval English state and church always makes the problem seem worse. But the picture is not quite as black as it appears; despite the loss of practically all the records of the Welsh princes and the bulk of the judicial records of the post-1282 principality, and although the surviving archives of the entire medieval Welsh church comprise only a fraction of what is available for a single English diocese, there is material to be found. The Welsh medievalist must cast his net wider than his English counterpart but he need not cast it in vain, as Professor Jack shows in the latest volume in this series. Here, for the first time, is a detailed examination of the sources, beginning with a brief survey of the literary evidence from Gildas to Adam of Usk. This is followed by an account of the sad history of the official records of Wales, and the author then goes on to consider the material available in the Public Record Office, not only in the better-known classes like Chancery enrolments and Ministers' Accounts, but also in many less familiar groups. The remaining chapters deal with estate and family records, ecclesiastical archives, the work of the antiquaries, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, archaeological and numismatic evidence and maps and place- names. In conclusion, he comments on the Welsh archive situation and on the present gaps in Welsh medieval historiography. This, then, is Professor Jack's text and his message is twofold: first the material that is available in each of the groups he discusses, and secondly the vast amount of work which remains to be done on it. Few will disagree with the points he makes; detailed lists and calendars of available source material are needed as are new editions of basic texts, diplomatic studies of volumes like the Record of Caernarvon and painstaking examinations of material in the P.R.O. He calls, rightly, for an edition of the surviving acts of all the Welsh princes, an immense undertaking but an important one. Anyone involved in the teaching of medieval Welsh history will echo his plea for new works of synthesis;