Guest, Charlotte.

The Mabinogion – From the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, and other ancient Welsh manuscripts, with an English Translation and Notes; by Lady Charlotte Guest. [Complete and original Second Impression of the First Edition in Seven Volumes. Bound in Three Volumes with new titlepages from the year 1849 but retaining all original titlepages dated from 1838 – 1849]. Part I (1838) containing “The Lady of the Fountain” / Part II (1839) containing “Peredur the son of Erawc” / Part III 1840) containing “Geraint the son of Erbin” (including the Icelandic Version of Erec) / Part IV (1842) containing “Kilhwch and Olwen” / Part V (1843) containing “The Dream of Rhonabwy and the Tale of Pwyll Prince of Dyved” / Part VI (1845) containing “Branwen the Daughter of Llyr” / “Manawyddan the Son of Llyr” and “Math the Son of Mathonwry” / Part VII (1849) containing “The Dream of Maxen Wledig” / “Lludd and Llevelys” and “The History of Taliesin”.

Second Impression of the First Edition. Three Volumes containing all seven original publications (complete Set). London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman and W.Rees, Llandovery, 1838 – 1849. Large Octavo (17.5 cm wide x 26 cm high). Pagination and collation of Illustration: Volume I (includes Parts I and II): XXIII, 411 pages with 15 plates (of which 3 are large fold-out-plates) and 7 text-illustrations (Lithographs). / Volume II (includes Parts III, IV and V): 444 pages with 4 plates and 13 text-illustrations (Lithographs). / Volume III (includes Parts VI and VII): 400 pages with 1 plate and 29 text-illustrations (Lithographs). Hardcover / This is the original edition from 1838 – 1849, recently rebound by a professional bookbindery in Germany in stunning half-leather with marbled paper-covered boards and in the style of the original bindings. ALl Volumes in protective Mylar. Excellent, absolutely stunning condition with only the mildest sign of foxing to a few pages. We have never handled this set in a better condition. Provenance: Name of preowner L. Wheldon-Jones (1907) to endpaper of Volumes II and III and loosely inserted an envelope-front, addressed o Mr. E. P. Jones, Diphwys Casson Slate Company (Festiniog, via Carnarvon), (that is Evan Parry Jones).

Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (née Bertie; 19 May 1812 – 15 January 1895), later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English aristocrat who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of the Mabinogion, the earliest prose literature of Britain. Guest established the Mabinogion as a source literary text of Europe, claiming this recognition among literati in the context of contemporary passions for the chivalric romance of King Arthur and the Gothic movement. The name Guest used for the book was derived from a mediaeval copyist’s error, already established in the 18th century by William Owen Pughe and the London Welsh societies.

As an accomplished linguist and the wife of a foremost Welsh ironmaster John Josiah Guest, she became a leading figure in the study of literature and the wider Welsh Renaissance of the 19th century. With her second husband, Charles Schreiber, she became a well known Victorian collector of porcelain; their collection is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She also created major collections of fans, games, and playing cards, which she gave to the British Museum. She was noted as an international industrialist, pioneering liberal educator, philanthropist and elite society hostess.

Guest arrived in Wales already expert in seven languages. She learnt Welsh, and associated with leading literary scholars of the Abergavenny Welsh Society Cymdeithas Cymreigyddion y Fenni, notably including Thomas Price, and John Jones (Tegid) who supported and encouraged her in her work. Villemarqué had an initially cordial relationship with her about Breton sources, but then plagiarised her work. She translated several mediaeval songs and poems, then in 1837 she began on the Mabinogion. John Jones (Tegid) borrowed a copy of the Llyfr Coch Hergest manuscript for her from Judge Bosanquet, who had originally commissioned him to transcribe a copy when Tegid was a young scholar at Oxford. The first tale Charlotte translated from Tegid’s transcription was “The Lady of the Fountain” or “Owain,” which was well received when published in 1838.

Some characters from the tales had been profiled in William Owen Pughe’s Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales. Pughe published a translation of the first episode of Pwyll, from the First Branch, in 1795, and again in 1821. He made a complete translation of all the tales, but the work was unpublished at his death in 1835. Guest did not rely on Pughe’s translations, though she did use a Welsh dictionary Pughe had completed in 1803.

The Charlotte Guest Mabinogion became the first translation of the material to be published in modern print format. It was published in seven volumes between 1838 and 1845, with the first volumes dedicated to Guest’s favourite Arthurian material. In 1849 the work was republished in three volumes: Volume I contained the Welsh Romances Owain, Peredur, and Geraint and Enid; Volume II contained Culhwch ac Olwen and The Dream of Rhonabwy. Volume III contained the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and Taliesin. Geraint and Enid in Volume I was the basis for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s two poems about Geraint in the Idylls of the King.

The seven volume series 1838–45, and the three volume set 1849, were all bilingual, presenting Tegid’s transcribed Welsh text, and Guest’s English translation. They included copious scholarly footnotes, mainly in English, totalling 145 pages in all. They were lavishly produced, with full illustrations, and gold tooled, leather covers. All volumes were published simultaneously in Llandovery, Wales by the Tonn Press, and by Longmans of London. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Catalogue Ten – International Literature · Catalogue Three – Literature by Women · English Literature – Rare · Illustrated Books Rare · Wales · Wales Folk History · Welsh Art · Welsh Folklore · Welsh History · Welsh History – Rare · Welsh Literature · Welsh Literature – Rare · Welsh Poetry · Women and Literature
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 31326AB

EUR 2.800,-- 

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