John Gwenogvryn Evans

He was apprenticed to a grocer, then returned to school, where one of his teachers was William Thomas (Gwilym Marles).

Evans subsequently began to take an interest in ancient Welsh manuscripts, and set up his own printing press in Pwllheli to create facsimiles of major Welsh medieval manuscripts, such as the books of Aneirin and Taliesin.

[1] After the publication of the first volume in the Series of Old Welsh Texts in 1887, Evans was awarded the degree of MA honoris causa by the University of Oxford.

His connection with Sir John Williams was important in the history of the establishment of the National Library.

The initial reception of his Taliesin work suffered on several counts: the books were issued during the First World War; and in 1918 the Taliesin work was badly criticised in the Welsh journal Y Cymmrodor, which thereafter damaged his standing in Wales.