More new finds from the past...
...revealed by Mari James, St David’s Cathedral Library Development Officer
In the Cathedral Library we are often finding evidence from the past that has been lost or, more accurately, mislaid and hidden for many years. This is always exciting. It will often explain a mystery or a gap in our existing knowledge. Historic library shelves will have many of these treasures hidden safely in plain sight.
Some of these new old finds can be found in a book we recently launched: “Governance of St Davids 1600 to 1740” published by University of Wales Press and edited by J. Wyn Evans. This transcribes and provides informed commentary on hand written working papers and records from the cathedral between the end of “The Great Rebellion” and the advent of William and Mary. These had been essentially unknown on Bodleian Library shelves. Full of intrigue reflecting turbulent times, the book is now for sale in the Cathedral nave shop.
The Tomb of Edmund Tudor cannot be called hidden. It is in the middle of the Cathedral presbytery. But recent research by Prof Emerita Madeleine Gray sheds far more light on exactly how many tombs this founder of the Tudor dynasty may have had. And also on the exact origin of the actual Purbeck marble tomb we have now.
On 4th July 2026 the USA will be celebrating 250 years since its Declaration of Independence in 1776. On that day the Cathedral Library will display “Maps of North America in 1776” that have been hidden on its own shelves since Samuel Dunn published his atlas in 1776. What was the country called? What was the evidence of Welsh presence in the young country? How were the first nations represented who were there before Europeans arrived? Was Greenland really a peninsula off Canada, as shown? It’s all there.
Meanwhile, joint research is continuing with colleagues in Westminster Abbey Library on their early Welsh Bible. This was safely stored on their shelves since William Morgan gave it to the Abbey Library in November 1588. More of its secrets will be revealed later this year. It is also part of a Wales Week in London tour of the Abbey in March.
For information on these and other activities: Library@stdavidscathedral.org.uk