The Welsh King and His Court

2002 (Reprint of the 2000 First Edition)  8vo  xlvii, 603 pp  Monochrome frontispiece photographic portrait of Professor Glanville R. J. Jones, alongside diagrams, tables, and distribution plans throughout the text.  Original publisher’s bright red cloth boards; spine lettered in gilt very good condition in very good dustwrapper.

Arising from the work of the Seminar on Ancient and Medieval Law, this volume provides an exhaustive examination of the “Tractatus de Curia” (The Law of the Court), the opening tractate found in the medieval Welsh lawbooks traditionally attributed to Hywel Dda. Edited by leading Celticists T. M. Charles-Edwards, Morfydd E. Owen, and Paul Russell, the 22 specialist chapters investigate royal status, palace officers (including the judge of the court, household priest, poet of the household, and royal falconer), female status at court, royal hospitality, commorth, food renders, and archaeological evidence for royal llysoedd (princely courts) such as Rhosyr. The volume integrates legal manuscripts, comparative Irish and Anglo-Saxon legal traditions, linguistic analysis, and regional toponymy.