This is a treasure. When I found it, it had begun to fall apart. Even with the extreme care I took as I copied it, it was still in bad shape when I returned it. That last time I checked the UW catalog for it, it was no longer there.

The book shows facsimiles of multiple pages from several books which were created in Wales prior to 1100 CE. The scripts in these books show that, even though written over 300 years after the creation of the great Insular books like Lindisfarne and the Book of Kells, the Welsh still followed exemplars that obviously come from the same school of writing. The hands are exquisite in form and care and easily readable after one takes only a few minutes to become acquainted with letter form.

It is truly sad that these pages are becoming lost to the people who have dedicated themselves to learning and, hopefully, passing on the skills that the scribes who wrote these books had. Their art enriches us with both knowledge and beauty. ( )