The Strata Florida slates

Thirty-five inscribed slates from Strata Florida Abbey, Cardiganshire, dated to the fifteenth century. Many of the slates are broken fragments with the inscriptions consequently often being incomplete; all are irregular in shape. The inscriptions comprise both text, the majority being in Welsh with examples of Latin and English, and pictures, comprising zoomorphic and anthropomorphic forms, geometric shapes and patterns, as well as other indefinite markings. The majority of the slates are inscribed on one face only, with eleven bearing inscriptions on both sides (SF 1, 3, 5-7, 15, 19, 22, 24, 28-29).
The five slates SF 13-14, 23, 25-26 are all broken fragments of one original slab (along with other still missing sections); with the exception of SF 13 the fragments can be joined up into one larger piece. SF 13-14 and 26 contain parts of a single epitaph, incised in large outline letters, which together appear to read: 'Hic ia[cet] ...es ap ... [a]p ll[ywelyn] [mona]chus'. SF 33 and 35 are also two fragments of a single slate.

Arranged at NLW very broadly as follows: items containing text; items containing little or no text.

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Disgwylir i ddarllenwyr sydd am ddefnyddio papurau modern yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru gydymffurfio â Deddf Warchod Data 2018 a Rheoliadau Diogelu Data Cyffredinol 2018 yng nghyd-destun unrhyw brosesu ganddynt o ddata personol a gasglwyd o gofnodion modern sydd ar gadw yn y Llyfrgell. Nodir y manylion yn yr wybodaeth a roddir wrth wneud cais am Docyn Darllen.

Ministry of Works; Deposit, with the permission of the Representative Body of the Church in Wales; 1950?

The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: E. D. Jones, 'Ysgriflechi Cymraeg Ystrad Fflur', in Llên Cymru, 1 (1950), 1-6; E. D. Jones, 'Inscribed Slates from Strata Florida', in Ceredigion, 1 (1950).

Title based on contents of fonds.

Dated on the basis of E. D. Jones's analysis in 'Ysgriflechi Cymraeg Ystrad Fflur', in Llên Cymru, 1 (1950), 1-6.

A few items are fragile, with the slate beginning to split (SF11, SF19).

May 2019.

Description compiled by Myra Booth-Cockroft and Rhys Jones.

Usual copyright laws apply.

Discovered in 1946 (?and later) by the abbey site's curator Rhys Jones, during excavation and clearing work by the Ministry of Works.

Two further slates, inscribed with Welsh poetry and foliage, are on display in the visitor centre at Strata Florida. Inscribed slates of a broadly similar date were discovered at the site of the old church in Smarmore, County Louth, Ireland, in 1959 (these are now National Museum of Ireland 1961: 8-56 and 1963: 89-91) and during the excavation of the drain of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1991. Some thirty slate tablets dating from the twelfth century or earlier were discovered at the site of Nendrum Monastery, County Down, Northern Ireland (these are now in the Ulster Museum, Belfast).

E. D. Jones, 'Ysgriflechi Cymraeg Ystrad Fflur', in Llên Cymru, 1 (1950), 1-6.

E. D. Jones, 'Inscribed Slates from Strata Florida', in Ceredigion, 1 (1950), 103-105.

Published