Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/209

 by Robert Crowley, who in the same year also published for Salesbury a small tractate (4to, pp. 4) entitled ‘Ban wedy i dynny … o hen gyfreith Howel da, &c. A certaine case extracte out of the Auncient Law of Hoel da … whereby it may be gathered that priestes had lawfully maried wyues at that tyme.’ The work was apparently intended as a supplement to ‘The Baterie.’ A copy is in the possession of the Rev. Chancellor Silvan Evans (Revue Celtique, i. 383–4). It is probably to this work that Wood (loc. cit.) referred when stating that Salesbury published ‘the laws of Howell Dda.’

Salesbury had already produced some important philological books. Under the title ‘Oll Synwyr Pen Kembero’ he edited and published a collection of Welsh proverbs which had been compiled by his friend and neighbour, Gruffydd Hiraethog [q. v.] Only one copy is known; it is at Shirburn Castle, in the Earl of Macclesfield's collection. It was printed by Nicholas Hyll, and bears no date. Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans is of opinion that it was issued in 1546, in which case it was the earliest extant book printed in Welsh. Its claim to this place is, however, contested by another work, also said to have been printed in 1546, of which no copy is now known to exist. This has been described as a Welsh almanac, with portions of the Scriptures (e.g. the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer) in Welsh, and on that account called ‘Beibl’ (, Welsh List, 1717;, Cambr. Bibl. p. 3). It is said by Bishop Humphreys to be either by Salesbury or Sir John Price (d. 1573?) [q. v.] (, Athenæ Oxon. i. 218, 359). Salesbury is said to have brought out in 1547 another ‘Calendar of Months and Days,’ possibly a revised version of the former volume; but this work is also unknown (, Cambr. Bibl. p. 6).

In 1547 Salesbury issued ‘A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe moche necessary to all suche Welshemen as wil spedly learne the englyshe tôgue thought vnto the kynges maiestie very mete to be sette forthe to the vse of his graces subiectes in Wales: Wherevnto is p'fixed a litle treatyse of the englyshe pronûcicion of the letters,’ London, 4to. This is really a Welsh and English dictionary, the first of its kind, and, as is further explained in a dedication to Henry VIII, was intended to facilitate the acquisition of English by Welshmen, whom Salesbury desired to see converted into a bilingual nation, while most of his educated countrymen at the time thought it best that the Welsh language should be allowed to die as soon as possible. The dictionary was printed in black letter by John Walley [q. v.] Perfect copies are in the Peniarth Collection and in the possession of Chancellor Silvan Evans, while there are two copies (one of them imperfect) in the British Museum. A facsimile reprint was issued by the Cymmrodorion Society in 1877. The ‘litle treatyse’ prefixed to the dictionary Salesbury supplemented in 1550 by a treatise entitled ‘A playne and a familiar Introductiô, teaching how to pronounce the letters in the Brytishe tongue, now commonly called Welshe,’ London, 4to; this was apparently intended for English-speaking people resident in Wales. No copy of the original edition is known; but there are in the British Museum two copies of a second edition in black letter, ‘perused and augmêted’ by the author, and ‘imprinted at London by Henry Denham for Humfrey Toy’ [1567]. Salesbury describes Toy as ‘my louinge Friende,’ and dedicated the book to him while ‘soiurning at your house in Paules Churchyarde, the 6 day of Maij 1567.’ An eighteenth-century transcript is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 33777). The full text (omitting only such parts as had no phonetic interest), and a diplomatic reproduction of the earlier Welsh tract of 1547, with a translation in parallel columns and notes, appeared in Ellis's ‘Early English Pronunciation’ (iii. 743–94, London, 1871, 8vo). Salesbury's account of the pronunciation of English in his time is there described as ‘the earliest which has been found’ (cf. Y Cymmrodor, i. 120). In the same year (1550) Robert Wyer printed ‘The Descripcion of the Sphere or Frame of the World, set forth by Proclus Diadochus, and Englysshed by me, Wyllyam Salysburye’ (black letter, 12mo). The translation was made from Linacre's Latin version, and was dedicated by Salesbury from ‘Thauies Inn’ ‘to his louynge cosen, John Edwardes of Chyrke’ (Denbighshire), who had desired the translator to procure him an English work on the subject (Brit. Mus.). In 1551 he published, while ‘dwellynge in Elye rentes in Holbourne,’ a Welsh translation—for the most part from the Vulgate—of the Epistles and Gospels appointed to be read in churches throughout the year, under the title ‘Kynniver Llith a Ban,’ the printer being Robert Crowley (London, 4to). The only perfect copy is at Shirburn Castle; but the principal of Bala College (Dr. T. C. Edwards) has another, from which the title-page is missing. Only a few leaves are in the British Museum.

After the accession of Mary, Salesbury seems to have withdrawn, not to his better known residence at Plas isaf—of which he is