Page:Welsh Medieval Law.djvu/14

 Aberffraw in North Wales, and which give other indications that they pertain to the kingdom of Gwynedd in N.W. Wales, of which Aberffraw was the chief royal residence. Aneurin Owen dubbed them the 'Venedotian Code', that is, the code of Venedotia or Gwynedd, a name with which we need not on the whole quarrel. As it will be necessary, however, to diverge from Owen's other designations, this class will be distinguished here as the Book of Gwynedd. The chief exemplar is the Peniarth MS. 29 (MS. A) referred to above. References to a certain lorwerth ap Madog indicate his influence as a jurist on this class, but they are such as show that the Book of Gwynedd was regarded as existing before his time. (b) Those which refer exclusively to the King of Dinevwr in South Wales, but are void of any other reference such as would lead one to associate them in any special degree with that Deheubarth of which Dinevwr was held to be the chief royal residence. From a passage in the preface it appears that their original was written not only outside Deheubarth but in Powys and by a Powysian. Is it possible that they represent what Aneurin Owen would have called the 'Powysian Code'? Unfortunately he styled them the 'Gwentian Code' as being the code adapted to Gwent or Southeast Wales, for which there appears to be no evidence of any kind. A peculiarity of the preface of this class