The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales: A part of the most famous Yland of Brytaine...

Additional information

First edition, 1584, engraved title within ornate architectural woodcut borders, [8], 1-22, [2] BLANKS, 401, [1], [11] table, [1] printers, text printed in black letter & roman type, numerous woodcut illustrations including woodcut portraits & (uncoloured) armorial shields, colophon with printer's woodcut device to final leaf verso, title somewhat browned with small paper repair to lower inner margin not affecting decoration or text, spotting & dust-soiling throughout, evidence of some scattered old ink marginalia, all now somewhat indistinct, final three leaves (Gg1-3) partly trimmed at outer & lower margins without loss of text (probably from another copy), lacks final blank [Gg4], all edges gilt, new endpapers, modern black boxed calf, to style, gilt spine title, a.e.g. Signatures: [8], A-Gg3. Leaves K4 & K6 bound before K3 & K5. Pages 212, 208 & 219 mis-numbered 194, 208 &209. (184*132 mm). Sabin 40914; STC 4606. First edition of the first printed history of Wales and an important source in the history of Welsh historiography. In the 1580s, Sir Henry Sidney, lord president of Wales, asked the antiquary David Powel to prepare an English edition of Caradoc's medieval history based on a translation by Humphrey Llwyd. It was the source of the legend of the discovery of America by the Welsh prince Madoc ap Owen about 1170, which for 'centuries spawned countless tales of encounters with Welsh Indians on the American frontier' (ODNB).