Annales Cambriæ

The (Latin for Annals of Wales) is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later editions were compiled in the 13th century. Despite the name, the record not only events in Wales, but also events in Ireland, Cornwall, England, Scotland and sometimes further afield, though the focus of the events recorded especially in the later two-thirds of the text is Wales. Sources The principal versions of appear in four manuscripts: A: London, British Library, Harley MS 3859, folios 190r–193r. B: London (Kew), National Archives, MS. E.164/1 (K.R. Misc. Books, Series I) pp. 2–26 C: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Domitian A.i, folios 138r–155r D: Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS. 3514, pp. 523–28, the . E: ibid., pp. 507–19, the . A is written in a hand of about 1100–1130 AD, and inserted without title into a manuscript (MS) of the where it is immediately followed by a pedigree for Owain ap Hywel (died 988). Although no explicit chronology is given in the MS, its annals seem to run from about AD 445 to 977 with the last entry at 954, making it likely that the text belongs to the second half of the 10th century. B was written, probably at the Cistercian abbey of Neath, at the end of the 13th century. It is entitled [1286]. C is part of a book written at St David's, and is entitled [1288]; this is also of the late 13th century. Two of the texts, B and C, begin with a World Chronicle derived from Isidore of Seville's Origines (Book V, ch. 39), through the medium of Bede's Chronica minora. B begins its annals with Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain "sixty years before the incarnation of the Lord." After A.D. 457, B agrees closely with A until A ends. C commences its annals after the empire of Heraclius (AD 610–41) at a year corresponding to AD 677. C mostly agrees with A until A ends, although it is clear that A was not the common source for B and C (Dumville 2002, p. xi). B and C diverge after 1203, C having fewer and briefer Welsh entries. D and E are found in a manuscript written at the Cistercian abbey of Whitland in south-west Wales in the later 13th century; the (which takes its title from its opening words) extends from 1132 BC to 1285 AD, while the extends from 1190 to 1266.