He was a gentleman by birth, the second son of
Ffwg ap Robert ap Thomas Salbri Hen
, and
Annes
, daughter of
Wiliam ap Gruffydd ap Robin
of
Cochwillan
. He was b. at
Llansannan
but spent the greater part of his life at
Plas Isa
,
Llanrwst
. He was educated at
Oxford
and, in all probability, it was while he was there that he left the
Roman Catholic Church
and became a
Protestant
. He m.
Catrin
Llwyd
, sister of
Dr.
Elis
Prys
of
Plas Iolyn
. Although
Sir
John
Wynn
of
Gwydir
and others suggest that he lived to about the end of the century, it is practically certain that he d.
about 1584
or shortly before that.
William
Salesbury
's industry was actuated mainly by two motives: a desire to make the Holy Scriptures available to the
Welsh
, and a desire to impart knowledge and learning to them in their own language. His first attempt to render the Scriptures into
Welsh
was a translation of the lessons used in the Church Communion service, printed in
1551
under the title
Kynniver llith a ban
. His plans were upset for a time when the
Roman Catholic
faith was revived under
queen
Mary
(
1553-8
), but in
1563
, early in the reign of
queen
Elizabeth
, a law was passed directing the translation of the
Bible
and the
Book of Common Prayer
into
Welsh
, and he was invited to assist
Richard
Davies
,
bishop of S. Davids
, in this work. The
Prayer Book
and the
New Testament
were finished by
1567
when both texts were published.
Salesbury
was responsible for the greater part of the work: as far as can be ascertained, he
translated the Prayer Book
and all the books of the
New Testament
except the
Book of Revelations
, translated by
Thomas
Huet
,
precentor of S. Davids
, and the following epistles translated by
Richard
Davies
—
1 Timothy
,
Hebrews
,
James
, and
1 and 2 Peter
. It is probable that
Salesbury
and
bishop
Davies
began to
translate
the
Old Testament
into
Welsh
, but for some reason — according to
Sir
John
Wynn
because they disagreed about the meaning and derivation of a word — the work was discontinued and there was no
Welsh
version of the
Old Testament
until
(
bishop
)
William
Morgan
published his translation of the
Bible
in
1588
.
Salesbury
's translations were severely criticized and, indeed, were barely welcomed, owing to the fact that they were so full of Latinisms and other orthographical peculiarities as to be unintelligible to a great many of his contemporaries. For all that, they were fine translations, both as regards language and style, and
Morgan
's debt to them is great.
Salesbury
did not confine his activities to the
translation of the Scriptures
. In
1547
he
published a dictionary for the instruction of his fellow-countrymen in English
; this was possibly the first book to be printed in
Welsh
. Three years later he
published a book intended to help the English to learn Welsh
. One of his bestknown books is
Oll Synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd
, a collection of
Welsh
proverbs, published about
1547
with the object of making his fellow-countrymen acquainted with the traditional wisdom of their nation. There were other books which he translated into
Welsh
, e.g. in
1552
, a
Latin
treatise on rhetoric which, however, he did not publish, and, some time between
1568
and
1574
, a herbal which he translated from the original
Latin
and
English
sources and which also remained unpublished (the latter —
Llysieulyfr
— was published in
1916
). In addition to the works already mentioned,
Salesbury
published a number of books in
English
and
Welsh
on various subjects.
William
Salesbury
was the most learned
Welshman
of his day: he was proficient in
Hebrew
,
Greek
,
Latin
, and a number of modern languages, and was a master of many different subjects. But, above all, he was a
Welsh scholar
and
man of letters
, and was one of the most brilliant representatives of Renaissance humanism in
Wales
. It would be hard to find anybody who has rendered greater service to the
Welsh
nation than
William
Salesbury
. His great contribution was his
translation of the Scriptures into Welsh
, thus laying the foundations of modern
Welsh
prose.
