The historie of Cambria, now called Wales: a part of the most famous yland of Brytaine

London: Rafe Newberie and Henrie Denham, 1584. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. The First and Rarest of All Editions, 1584, the First Work to Claim that the Welsh Discovered America. Octavo, engraved title page (16), 22, [2] blank, 401 pp, [1], [12] table, printed in Roman and black letter, illustrated with woodcut portraits, title page, initials and tail pieces, with blank leaf B4 and with final blank. Early nineteenth century full brown calf, re-spined, old laid down, morocco spine label, text with only minor browning and occasional damp staining, hinges strengthened, speckled text block edges. Bookplate (Richard Myddlelton Biddulph), & book label (Abel E Berland) to fpd (188*138 mm). (ESTC S121940. Sabin 40914. Luborsky & Ingram. Engl. illustrated books, 1536-1603, 4606). This work was the first to attribute the original discovery of America to the Welsh in the 12th century and contains two very early references to King Arthur, including a description of the discovery of the bones of King Arthur and his queen. The first and rarest of all the editions (Sabin 40914) of this famous history of Wales and Welsh royalty from the 7th to 13th centuries and the Princes of Wales of the blood royall of England from Edward 1 to Elizabeth. Caradoc of Llancarfan, as 12th century Welsh ecclesiastic, and historian, was a friend of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who at the conclusion of his famous 'British History' [one of the earliest and most important sources for the legends of King Arthur].. says: 'The princes who afterwards ruled in Wales I committed to Caradog of Llancarvan, for he was my contemporary. And to him I gave the materials to write that book'... Caradog's chief work [Brut y Tywysogion] was a sort of continuation of Geoffrey's fictions from the beginning of really historical times down to his own day. In its original form Caradog's chronicle is not now extant (DNB). The work was translated into English in the 16th C by Humphrey Llwyd but remained in manuscript. David Powell, a Welsh historian, was requested by Sir Henry Sidney, lord president of Wales, to prepare for the press an English translation.... The work appeared, under the title 'The History of Cambria,' in 1584, with a curiously admonitory dedication to Sir Philip Sidney, the president's son; though Llwyd's translation was the basis, Powell's corrections and additions, founded as they were on independent research, made the 'Historie' practically a new work... and later historians of Wales have to a large extent drawn their material from it (DNB XVI>238). This work also contains two very early references to King Arthur. The first reference on p13 is a note about the creation of Glastonbury monastery on the Isle of Avalon by Ivor in the 7th century. The second and more dramatic reference occurs on page 238, describing the discovery in 1179 of the bones of King Arthur and Guinevere.