Cambriae Typus

Humphrey Llwyd, an antiquary and mapmaker born in Denbigh, is thought of by many as the Inventor of Britain, having been credited with inventing the term British Empire, but he was also the man who put Wales on the map by producing the first published map of Wales.

As a leading member of the Renaissance period in Wales, Llwyd’s achievements are numerous and he played a major part in creating the concept of Wales as a nation.  Llwyd played an important role in ensuring the Welsh language and Welsh traditions could survive.

Llwyd was deeply interested in the Welsh past. His history of Wales, written in English but known by the Latin title Cronica Walliae ('The Chronicle of Wales'), was finished in 1559.

Although Llwyd relied heavily on medieval sources in Latin and Welsh, he broke new ground by adapting these to create a continuous history of medieval Wales.

His work remained influential long after his lifetime thanks to its publication, in a revised and expanded form, by David Powel as The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales, in 1584.

Llwyd also claimed another distinction for the Welsh: the discovery of America. In his history of medieval Wales, Llwyd told how Prince Madog had sailed to Florida in the 12th century to escape feuding among his brothers after the death of their father Owain Gwynedd.

Madog had therefore reached America long before Columbus, giving the Britons of Elizabeth I's day a better claim to North America than the Spanish.

With the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542, English became a requirement for appointment to any public office in Wales. Many of the Welsh nobility began to prefer English to Welsh, and left Wales to seek advancement in England.

Welsh humanist scholars such as Humphrey Llwyd saw this as a  danger to cultural life of Wales. They tried in various ways to promote the use of Welsh, hoping it would become one of the languages of Renaissance Europe.

One of the aims of the Protestant Reformation was that people should be able to read the Bible in their own language. In 1563, an Act for the Translation of the Scriptures and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh came before Parliament.

It is said that Humphrey Llwyd steered it through the House of Commons.

Humphrey Llwyd also travelled to Italy and in northern Europe, where he met Dutch map-maker Abraham Ortelius. In 1568, shortly before his death, Llwyd sent Ortelius 2 maps, which were printed in 1573, and an unfinished Latin book describing the history and geography of Britain.

Thanks to Ortelius, the book was printed in Cologne in 1572. A year later it was translated into English as the Breviary of Britain, and went on to influence many English scholars and poets.