Y Drych Cristianogawl

"Y Drych Cristianogawl" is an example of an early Welsh Catholic book and was the first book to have been printed on Welsh soil.

Books printed in the 16th and 17th centuries as part of the Counter-Reformation movement had to be printed abroad or on secret presses in these islands since Catholic printing was prohibited. Welsh Roman Catholics of the period endeavoured to print and publish a small number of Welsh language books to supplement their missionary activities. The first Catholic book from a Continental press was Morys Clynnog's "Athrauaeth Gristnogaul" (Milan, 1568) whilst the first of a tiny handful of secret press books was "Y Drych Cristianogawl" (The Christian Mirror). This title was printed on a press located in a cave on the Little Orme's Head near Llandudno.

Where was "Y Drych Cristianogawl printed?

Contemporary sources indicate that the printing took place in late 1586 and early 1587 on land belonging to the Catholic gentleman Robert Pue of Penrhyn Creuddyn. Pue played an important part in the proceedings, being assisted by a printer named Roger Thackwell and six others. One of these six was the priest William Davies, subsequently martyred at Beaumaris. In order to mislead the authorities the book was supplied with a false imprint in Latin claiming that it had been printed at Rouen in 1585. If Gwyn indeed was the author, his initials were deliberately inverted so as to mislead. Only the first part of the text was printed though the preface states that the intention was to print it in its entirety. The activity in the cave ceased and the participants fled when news reached the authorities of what had been going on. Later in 1587 the government discovered a secret press at the home of the doctor and scholar Sion Dafydd Rhys (1534-c.1619) in Brecon. Though it has been suggested that the intention was to print the remainder of the text here, there is no evidence to confirm this claim. The complete text of the "Drych" survives in a single manuscript which can be dated to the year 1600.

The importance of "Y Drych Cristianogawl"

"Y Drych Cristianogawl" is a work of importance as an example of an early Welsh Catholic book and also for the fact that it is the first book to have been printed on Welsh soil. Welsh books of the pre-1586/87 years came off London presses, the one exception being Morys Clynnog's Milan volume. Four copies only are extant, three of which are imperfect. It has all the appearances of a book printed in Britain rather than in France. The story of its printing is a romantic one and one of bravery in the face of danger. The cave in which it was produced has not been identified with certainty. One possibility is that it was a cave known to have been destroyed by quarrying operations in the years before the First World War.

Further reading

• Gruffydd, R. Geraint. Argraffwyr cyntaf Cymru: gwasgau dirgel y Catholigion adeg Elisabeth... Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1972

• Gruffydd, R. Geraint. "Gwasg ddirgel yr ogof yn Rhiwledyn." Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society, Vol. 9, no.1, July 1958, pp.1-23

• Jones, Philip Henry and Eiluned Rees, eds. A nation and its books: a history of the book in Wales... Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales in association with [the] Aberystwyth Centre for the Book, 1998