Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ieuan ab Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd

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617636Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28 — Ieuan ab Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd1891Daniel Lleufer Thomas

IEUAN ab Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd (fl. 1410–1440), Welsh bard, was a native of Glyn Aeron, Cardiganshire. His father resided at Park Rhydderch; is described as lord of Genau'r Glyn and Tregaron in the same county, and was an ancestor to the Pryse family of Gogerddan (Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, i. 15, 44), and in the female line to the Wynnes of Peniarth. Ieuan ab Rhydderch appears to have been a collector of Welsh manuscripts, for a valuable volume of Welsh mediæval romances, known after him as 'Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch,' once belonged to him, and is now preserved in the Hengwrt collection at Peniarth (MSS.4 and 5). Another volume in the same collection (MS. 450), containing poems by Davydd ab Gwilym, and supposed to be in that poet's own handwriting, has also probably come from Rhydderch's collection. Ieuan's own poetry is chiefly of a religious character, like his poems to the Virgin Mary and to St. David, which are published in the Iolo MSS. (pp. 298, 310). Three extracts from his works, as specimens of curious metres, are also printed in 'Cyfrinach y Beirdd' (pp. 53, 120). Many other of his poems are preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 14866, 14966, 14969, 14970, 14979, 15000). Some are also found in Hengwrt MSS. (172); an English poem by Ieuan is in ib. 274, and possibly another in 479 may be assigned to him.

[See Cat. of Hengwrt MSS. in Archæologia Cambrensis, 3rd ser. xv. 290, 306, 4th ser. i. 89, ii. 106; Brit. Mus. MSS. Cat.]

D. Ll. T.