Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T00:26:06.637Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Publishing and Book Culture

Publishing in Wales

Renaissance and Resistance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jacob D. Rawlins
Jacob D. Rawlins
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Utah

Summary

The creation of texts preserves culture, literature, myth, and society, and provides invaluable insights into history. Yet we still have much to learn about the history of how those texts were produced and how the production of texts has influenced modern societies, particularly in smaller nations like Wales. The story of publishing in Wales is closely connected to the story of Wales itself. Wales, the Welsh people, and the Welsh language have survived invasion, migration, oppression, revolt, resistance, religious and social upheaval, and economic depression. The books of Wales chronicle this story and the Welsh people's endurance over centuries of challenges. Ancient law-books, medieval manuscripts, legends and myths, secretly printed religious works, poetry, song, social commentary, and modern novels tell a story of a tiny nation, its hardy people, and an enduring literary legacy that has an outsized influence on culture and literature far beyond the Welsh borders.
Get access

Keywords

publishinghistory of the bookhistory of WalesWelsh languagehistory of printing
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
Online ISBN: 9781108951159
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 28 April 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arber, E. (1875). A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1557–1640, Vol. 1. London: Stationers’ Company.Google Scholar
Aronstein, S. (2019). “Beyond the Fields We Know”: Wales and Fantasy Literature. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 619–36.Google Scholar
Barnard, J. and McKenzie, D. F., eds. (2002). The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 4: 1557–1695. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernard, G. W. (2011). The Dissolution of the Monasteries. History, 96(324), 390–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, J. and Macraild, D. M. (2003). Nineteenth-Century Britain. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bollard, J. K. (2006). Legend and Landscape of Wales: The Mabinogi. Llandysul: Gomer.Google Scholar
Bolt, R. (2013). A Man for All Seasons. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Botkin, B. A. (1996). Definitions of Folklore. Journal of Folklore Research, 33(3), 255–64.Google Scholar
Brad y Llyfrau Gleision. (n.d.). National Library of Wales, www.library.wales/digital-exhibitions-space/digital-exhibitions/europeana-rise-of-literacy/the-blue-books-reports/brad-y-llyfrau-gleision#?c=&m=&s=&cv=8&xywh=-705%2C-1%2C3287%2C2792, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Brehaut, E. (1912). An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville. New York: Columbia University.Google Scholar
Bromwich, R. and Evans, D. S., eds. (2012). Culhwch ac Olwen. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Cambrensis, G. (2018). The Description of Wales. Frankfurt: Outlook Verlag.Google Scholar
Campbell, W. (2012). Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII: From Original Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clair, C. (1976). A History of European Printing. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Collinson, P., Hunt, A., and Walsham, A. (2002). Religious Publishing in England: 1557–1640. In Barnard, J. and McKenzie, D. F., eds., The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 4: 1557–1695. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 29–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cull, M. R. (2014). Shakespeare’s Prince of Wales: English Identity and the Welsh Connection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J. (2007a). A History of Wales, revised ed. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Davies, S. (2007b). The Mabinogion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, T. E. (1959). Rees, William (Gwilym Hiraethog; 1802–1883), Independent Minister, Writer, Editor, and Political Leader. Dictionary of Welsh Biography, https://biography.wales/article/s-REES-WIL-1802, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Delamarre, X. (2003). Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise, 2nd ed. Arles: Errance, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar
De Lamartine, A. (1854). Memoirs of Celebrated Characters, Vol. 2, 2nd ed. London: Richard Bentley.Google Scholar
Dennis, R. D. (2002). Llyfr Mormon: The Translation of the Book of Mormon into Welsh. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 11, 45–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, D. C. and Rothwell, H. (1996). English Historical Documents, 1189–1327. Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, E. (2019) Romantic Wales and the Eisteddfod. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 285–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisteddfod. (n.d.). The National Eisteddfod of Wales, https://eisteddfod.wales/about-us, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Ekwall, E. (1930). Early Names of Britain. Antiquity, 4(14), 149–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. (1974). Land of My Fathers: 2,000 Years of Welsh History. Swansea: John Penry Press.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (2019). Tudor London and the Origins of Welsh Writing in English. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 212–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds. (2019). The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feather, J. (2006). A History of British Publishing, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ferris, P., ed. (1985). Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Fulton, H. (2019). Britons and Saxons: The Earliest Writing in Welsh. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 26–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerald of Wales. (1997a). The Description of Wales. Vision of Britain, www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Cambrensis_Desc/31, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Gerald of Wales. (1997b). The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales. Vision of Britain, www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Cambrensis_Tour/2, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Glyn, I. (2016). Y ty hwn (“This House”). Literature Wales, www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/national-poet-wales/cerddi-comisiwn-ifor-ap-glyn/this-house/, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Gruffydd, R. G. (1998). The First Printed Books, 1546–1604. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 55–65.Google Scholar
Guest, C. (1877). The Mabinogion. London: Bernard Quaritch.Google Scholar
Gutjahr, P. C. (2007). Diversification in American Religious Publishing. In Casper, S., Groves, J. D., Nessenbaum, S. W. and Winship, M., eds., A History of the Book in America, Vol. 3: The Industrial Book, 1840–1880. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 194–202.Google Scholar
Hemmings, B. (2019). Old Welsh Proverbs, Sayings and Phrases. Welsh Gift Shop, https://welshgiftshop.com/blogs/welsh-gift-shop/8681985-old-welsh-proverbs-sayings-and-phrases, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Hopkins, M. (n.d.). Wales’ First Permanent Printing Press. Why Did It Take So Long? WordCatcher, https://wordcatcher.com/wales-first-permanent-printing-press-why-did-it-take-so-long-mel-hopkins, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Huws, D. (1998). The Medieval Manuscript. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 26–39.Google Scholar
Huws, D. (2008). The Welsh Book. In Morgan, N. and Thomson, R. M., eds., The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 2: 1100–1400. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 390–96.Google Scholar
Jenkins, G. H. (1998). The Eighteenth Century. In , P. Jones, H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 109–22.Google Scholar
Jenkins, G. H. (2007). A Concise History of Wales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds. (1998). A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book.Google Scholar
The Juvencus Englynion (1932). Celtic Literature Collective, www.maryjones.us/ctexts/juvencus.html, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. (2014). Blessed William Davies, Priest and Publisher. Manchester: Universe Media Group.Google Scholar
Koch, J. T. (2006). Celtic Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC–CLIO.Google Scholar
Laws in Wales Act. (1535). Legislation.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Hen8/27/26/contents, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Laws in Wales Act. (1542). Legislation.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Hen8/34-35/26/contents, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Lee, L. (2015). I Can’t Stay Long. London: Penguin Classics.Google Scholar
Luft, D. (2019). Commemorating the Past after 1066: Tales from The Mabinogion. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 73–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, C. (1876). The Poetical Works of Charles Mackay: Now for the First Time Collected Complete in One Volume. London: Frederick Warne.Google Scholar
Madden, L. (1998). The National Library of Wales and the Future of the Book. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 399–405.Google Scholar
Malory, T. (1889). Le Morte D’Arthur. London: David Nutt. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:23?rgn=div1;view=toc, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Miles, W. G. (1856). Second Annual Festival of Deseret Typographical Association. Deseret News, February 13, p. 4.Google Scholar
Moore, D. (2005). The Welsh Wars of Independence. London: The History Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, W. (1588). Dedication in the Welsh Bible of 1588, translated by A. O. Evans. National Library of Wales, www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/printed-material/1588-welsh-bible/english-translation-of-the-dedication-in-the-1588-bible, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Morgan, N. and Thomson, R. M., eds. (2008). The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 2: 1100–1400. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nennius. (1848). Historia Brittonum. The Camelot Project, https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/nennius-history-of-the-britons, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Newton, M. (2016). Text: Cyfraith Hywel. Exploring Celtic Civilizations, https://exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu/prsp-record/text-cyfraith-hywel/, accessed July 92021.Google Scholar
Parr, C. (2011). Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence, edited by Mueller, J.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry, C. (2001). Libri Walliae: A Catalogue of Welsh Books and Books Printed in Wales 1546-1820: Supplement. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales.Google Scholar
Price, A. (2019). Welsh Humanism After 1536. In Evans, G. and Fulton, H., eds., The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176–93.Google Scholar
Price, J. (1546). Yny lhyvyr hwnn. National Library of Wales, www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/printed-material/yny-lhyvyr-hwnn/#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-400%2C-68%2C2584%2C2195, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Pryce, H. (1998). The Origins and the Medieval Period. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 1–23.Google Scholar
Pughe, W. O. (1795). The Mabinogion, or juvenile amusements, being ancient Welsh romances. Cambrian Register, pp. 177–87.Google Scholar
Ramsay, D. (1990). The History of the American Revolution, edited by H. Cohen, Lester, 2 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. Originally published in 1789.Google Scholar
Rees, E. (1987). Libri Walliae: A Catalogue of Welsh Books and Books Printed in Wales 1546-1820. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales.Google Scholar
Rees, E. (1998). The Welsh Book Trade from 1718 to 1820. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 123–33.Google Scholar
Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales, 3 Vols. (1847). London: William Clowes and Sons. www.library.wales/digital-exhibitions-space/digital-exhibitions/europeana-rise-of-literacy/the-blue-books-reports/report-of-the-commissioners-of-inquiry-into-the-state-of-education-in-wales#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-707%2C121%2C4652%2C3951, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. (2002). The Latin Trade. In Barnard, J. and McKenzie, D. F., eds., The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. IV: 1557–1695. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 141–73.Google Scholar
Roser, M. (2013). Books. Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/books, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Ross, D. n.d. Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy (1534) – original text. Britain Express, www.britainexpress.com/History/tudor/supremacy-henry-text.htm, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Rummonds, R.-G. (2004). Nineteenth-Century Printing Practices and the Iron Handpress. London: The British Library.Google Scholar
Smith, W. (1874). The Student’s Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Abridged. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Snell, M. (2019). Alfred the Great Quotations. ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/alfred-the-great-quotes-1789330, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
St. Davids Cathedral’s Famous Faces. The History Press, www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/st-davids-cathedral-s-famous-faces/, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. (1991). On the Air with Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts. Edited by Maud, Ralph. New York: New Directions.Google Scholar
Thompson, E. P. (1963). The Making of the English Working Class. London: IICA.Google Scholar
Underwood, T. and Underwood, G. (1807). The Repertory of Patent Inventions, and Other Discoveries and Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture. London: J. Wyatt, Repertory Office.Google Scholar
Wales. (2015). Colophon Foundry, www.colophon-foundry.org/custom/wales/, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Walters, H. (1998). The Periodical Press to 1914. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 197–208.Google Scholar
Journals, Welsh. n.d. National Library of Wales, https://journals.library.wales/search?range%5Bmin%5D=1735&range%5Bmax%5D=2007&alt=*%3A*&page=1&refine=&alt=*%3A*&sort=score&order=desc&rows=12, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Welsh Language Act. (1967). Legislation.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/66/enacted, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Welsh Language Act. (1993). Legislation.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/38/contents, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Whitteridge, G. (1973). The Identity of Sir Thomas Malory, Knight-Prisoner. The Review of English Studies, 24(95), pp. 257–65.Google Scholar
Williams, G. (1998). The Renaissance and Reformation. In Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., eds., A Nation and Its Books: A History of the Book in Wales. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and the Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, pp. 41–54.Google Scholar
Wood, M. n.d. William the Conqueror: A Thorough Revolutionary. BBC History Trails, www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/conquest/norman/william_the_conqueror_02.shtml, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Wright, T. (1863). Of the Character, Customs, and Habits of This People (the Irish): From The Topography of Ireland by Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis, 1187. Library Ireland, www.libraryireland.com/articles/CambrensisTopographyDistinction3-10/CambrensisTopographyDistinction3-10.html, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar
Yr Amserau. n.d. Welsh Newspapers, National Library of Wales, https://newspapers.library.wales/browse/4239147, accessed July 9, 2021.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Publishing in Wales
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Publishing in Wales
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Publishing in Wales
Available formats
×