Welsh Journals

THE DISPERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS OF EDWARD LHUYD THE achievements of Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709), second keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, as naturalist, antiquary or comparative philologist are sufficiently recognised by modern scholars in these now disparate disciplines that simply to chronicle them is a needless exercise. On the other hand, knowledge of the tortuous story of the ownership, use, and extraordinary mishaps which befell Lhuyd's manuscripts in the two centuries after his death is only sketchily recorded in modern literature1; and it is characterised by errors, omissions, and the perpetuation of the hearsay evidence, often spurious, of earlier commentators. This survey attempts to outline the story in a logical progression. The complicated sequence of events from Lhuyd's death in 1709 to the purchase of the manu- scripts by Sir Thomas Sebright in 1715 is followed by an analysis of the two Sebright gifts, in 1782 and 1797 respectively, to Trinity College, Dublin, and to Thomas Johnes of Hafod (Cardiganshire). At the core of the study is an assessment of the Sebright family's tenure of the collection; and this is followed by an examination of the known manuscript catalogues of the collection before the Leigh and Sotheby sale of the Sebright library in 1807. A study of the printed sale catalogue of 1807 prefaces a view of the manuscript catalogues of Lhuydiana of the majority buyers at the sale-the Vaughans of Hengwrt and Rug, and Wynn of Wynnstay. In conclusion, a tentative plotting of the extant Lhuyd manuscripts is given, in the hope that further information on those items which have hitherto escaped attention will be forthcoming. The Lhuyd manuscripts were dramatically subjected to three fires, two in connection with the Wynnstay holdings and one at Hafod. The importance of the manuscripts for Celtic scholarship was always known, or sensed, to be unique. It was this sense of uniqueness which gave resonance to contemporary comment. Three such 1 The notable exceptions are Walter D. Love, 'Edmund Burke, Charles Vallancey and the Sebright Manuscripts', Hermathena, XCV (1961), 21-35; Anne and William O'Sullivan, 'Edward Lhuyd's Collection of Irish Manuscripts', Transactions of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion, 1962, pp. 57-76.