Archive details:

Black Book of Basingwerk

National Libray of Wales

Ref: MS 7006D

Type: Document

Date: Late fifteenth century

The late fifteenth-century parchment manuscript known as the Black Book of Basingwerk (Llyfr Du Basing), now NLW MS 7006D, is largely the work of the Welsh poet and scribe Gutun Owain (fl. 1460-1500). While the manuscript was likely at Basingwerk at the time of the Dissolution - and before - it was probably copied at Valle Crucis. The Black Book of Basingwerk is unusual among medieval Welsh manuscripts in retaining its original wooden boards covered with blind-tooled calf; the use of gold in some of its decorated letters and the use of bluish-green ink is also uncommon.

Sites linked to this archive

Basingwerk Abbey, Flintshire

People linked to this archive

Gutun Owain; Gruffudd ap Huw ab Owain , poet

Thomas Pennant , Abbot of Basingwerk