Brut y Tywysogion or the Chronicle of the Princes: Peniarth MS, 20 Version

Brut y Tywysogion, or The Chronicle of the Princes, has long been recognized as one of the most important primary sources for the history of medieval Wales and perhaps the greatest example of medieval Welsh historiography—one that provides important contemporary details about events in England and elsewhere. The chronicle covers the years from 682 to 1332, with entries focusing on events such as eclipses, plagues, and earthquakes, in addition to the records of rulers and ecclesiastic events. This translation by Thomas Jones is based on the Peniarth MS. 20 version, the most complete extant version of the manuscript, and notes throughout the book detail the differences between the three surviving versions.

Brut y Tywysogion or The Chronicle of the Princes was described by Sir J. E. Lloyd as 'the greatest monument of Welsh historiography in the Middle Ages'. It has long been recognised as a source of prime importance for the history of medieval Wales and as one which supplies details of interest about contemporary events in England and elsewhere. Of the original thirteenth-century Latin text no copy has survived, but three independent Welsh translations are extant. In this volume, Professor Thomas Jones (1910–72) gives an English translation of the Peniarth MS. 20 version, which is the most complete of the three and which was published in full for the first time in 1941. In his Introduction, Professor Jones surveys the work of earlier scholars. He discusses the contents, origin, and sources of the chronicle and describes the special characteristics of the Peniarth MS. 20 version. The detailed notes show the many discrepancies in the three Welsh versions as compared with one another and, used in conjunction with the text, they supply the combined substantial evidence of three Welsh versions and so of the lost Latin chronicles that underlie them.