Pwy yw'r gwr

The inscription Pwy yw’r gwr (Who is the man?) was created by David Jone in 1956 to decorate the chapel wall of the convent of the Carmelite nuns of Presteigne in North Wales. The inscription measures 25 by 31 inches, making it Jones’s largest inscription. It consists of eight long lines divided horizontally by a white space that exerts a powerfully unifying force. It is painted in black and olive-green opaque watercolour onto a background of medium white paper that was first painted in Chinese white. Jones explained that ‘the first block of lettering is from a Welsh 15th-century (sic) poet. So, the Welsh comes first, and the Latin translation follows. Then there is a space and a bit of the Canon of the Mass, the Latin line first, as that is the language of the original, and the Welsh translation follows’.1 Jones had great difficulty constructing the inscription due to the varying number of letters in each line. He wrote the inscription in pencil over and over, ‘endlessly readjusted over its entire surface’2 until he felt confident that the wording and spacing were correct. He reckoned, ‘I’ve a kind of feeling it's best done with the eye alone, if you can manage it’3 (Image displayed here of digitised draft). While the nuns apparently rejected the inscription as too esoteric, Jones adored this artwork and placed it prominently in his bed sitting room in Harrow.4 

Written in both Welsh and Latin, the inscription connects  Wales and Roman Britain. This tradition was vitally important to Jones. He wrote to The Times in  June 1958 that: 

the survival of something which has an unbroken tradition in this island since the end of the sixth century, and which embodies deposits far older still, cannot be regarded as a matter of indifference by any person claiming to care for the things of this island.8 

The inscription emphasises the connection repeatedly. It rhymes Welsh and Latin throughout: vir and gwr; goron and coronam; puram and pur. This rhyming pattern emphasises the shared roots of the two languages. It uses the Latin letter "v" instead of "u," evoking a Roman aesthetic. The letter "U" was not widely recognised as distinct from "V" in Latin script until the 14th century. The ligature of the ‘N’ and the capital ’E’ in ‘VULNERATUS’ resembles the script known as Roman Book Capital. Inspired by the lettering on ancient Roman monuments, it was used in the earliest Catholic church documents.  
 

Jones’s inscription contains four distinct types of the letter ‘e’, reflecting the letter’s development through time in Catholic religious documents. It is still influential today (for example, in the font TIMES NEW ROMAN). The words for ‘man and ‘God’ are highlighted in gold, perhaps underlining that the ‘man who bears the crown’ is the incarnated God. 

The use of diamonds and crosses for punctuation evokes the ancient texts of Wales.  

It resembles the Black Book of Carmarthen,9 a thirteenth-century poetry collection which relates stories of Arthur and Merlin. 

As Nicolete Gray has written, Jones did not study the handwriting of ancient texts in detail10 but wanted to develop ‘a feel’ of the old Welsh manuscripts, to foreground the importance of ancient Welsh history in the development of British culture.   

The ‘hostiam’ sequence in the inscription is taken from the traditional Unde et memores part of the traditional Catholic Mass. The reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which began in 1955, and the introduction of the Novus Ordo Mass in 1969,  omitted or revised some prayers, including the Unde et memores. This change deeply aggrieved Jones, who thought modernisation excluded eternal spiritual truths. On 12 December 1967, he wrote to his friend Saunders Lewis, the founder of Plaid Cymru, that these reforms showed ‘an appalling lack of sensitivity’.11 

Jones’s favourite Good Friday hymn, the sixth century Vexilla Regis, was dropped from the Good Friday liturgy. Worst of all, in Jones’s opinion, Latin was replaced throughout the world by the vernacular. Elimination of Latin ended linguistic continuity with Classical times, and English hymns replaced beautiful plainchant.12  

 

The Welsh wording in the inscription is drawn from the Cywydd I Grist, a sixty-line 14th-century cywydd by Gruffudd Gryg. The poem commemorates the death of Christ on the cross but also celebrates his resurrection and mankind’s redemption through his sacrifice. It recalls the pre-Augustinian Christianity of Saint Patrick and Gildas. Saint Patrick is widely recognized as the patron saint of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish people in the 5th century. Gildas was a 6th-century British monk and historian best known for his work ‘De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae,’ which provides a contemporary account of post-Roman Britain. Gildas criticises the moral and spiritual decline he saw in British society, including among the clergy. He laments that while Christianity had been established in Britain, many leaders and church officials had become corrupt, lazy, and more interested in worldly affairs than in true Christian faith and conduct. Gildas calls for repentance and a return to genuine Christian values, using biblical references to warn of divine punishment for continued sinfulness.13 The inscription consequently foregrounds the ancient Catholic heritage of Wales to challenge the dominant contemporary Protestant non-conformism. The cywydd, a standard form of medieval Welsh poetry, features the use of cynghanedd, a strict metrical structure and internal rhyme. It is known for its complex structure and musical quality, consisting of rhyming couplets, with each line typically containing seven syllables. The cywydd often alternates between cynghanedd (a Welsh system of sound patterns involving alliteration and consonance) and softer rhyme patterns. Its rhyme scheme traditionally uses cynghanedd lusg, which includes an accented syllable followed by an unaccented rhyme. The form was popularised by the Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, and it became a cornerstone of Welsh poetry, particularly for its musical flow and expressive potential. Cywyddau (plural of cywydd) often explore themes of love, nature, and personal reflection, embodying the lyrical and rhythmic beauty characteristic of Welsh literary tradition. Jones loved this: 

great poetic tradition belonging exclusively to this island; a metrical art form with its own special perfections. This tradition was eight centuries old when Chaucer began the prologue; so ‘Whan that Aprille’ was in England, it was already past midsummer in Wales.14  

The sophistication of these ancient Welsh forms highlights the beauty of the poetic tradition in Europe’s oldest language.  

 

Banks, A., and P. Hills, The Art of David Jones (Lund Humphries, 2015) 

Dilworth, Thomas, David Jones Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet (Vintage, 2017) 

Gerson, Mark, (Walter) David Michael Jones, October 1965, cibachrome print from original transparency, 295 mm x 295 mm <https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw12743/Walter-David-Michael-Jones> [accessed 5 March 2026] 

Gildas, The Ruin of Britain, ed. by Michael Winterbottom (6th century; Phillimore, 1978) 

Gray, Nicolete, The Painted Inscriptions of David Jones (Gordon Fraser, 1981) 

Hamilton, Alex, ‘From David Jones’s Locker’, The Guardian, 11 February 1972, p. 8 

Jones, David, Dai Greatcoat, ed. by Rene Hague (Faber & Faber, 1980) 

——, Epoch and Artist (Faber & Faber, 1959) 

——, ‘Letter to Nicolete Gray, 4 April 1961’, in The Painted Inscriptions of David Jones (Gordon Fraser, 1981) 

——, ‘Letter to Saunders Lewis’, letter, 12 December 1967, National Library of Wales, CF 1/16 

——, ‘Welsh Poetry’, in Epoch and Artist (Faber & Faber, 1959) 

unknown, ‘Lyfr Du Caerfyrddin’, Book, Carmarthen, c1250, National Library of Wales <https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/the-black-book-of-carmarthen> [accessed 6 November 2025]