FOUR historic play scripts giving Cornwall residents and visitors a glimpse into early Cornish language and medieval outdoor theatre tradition, will go on show together for the first time in the county this summer.  

Kresen Kernow’s exhibition, entitled in Cornish and English Mes a’n Kemmyn/Out of the Ordinary, will unite The Cornish Ordinalia and The Creation of the World (on loan from the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford) with The Life of St Meriadoc and The Life of St Kea (on loan from the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth) under one roof  for the first time in history.  

Cornish – or Kernewek – is from the same Brythonic family of Celtic languages as Welsh and Breton (the ancient language of Brittany, France), so that is why some of these manuscripts ended up in the Welsh national collection.

The exhibition in Cornwall will run from Tuesday, June 22, to Saturday, September 25, at the Duchy’s news state-of-the-art archive centre on the former Brewery site in Redruth. Tickets for the exhibition are free, but will need to be booked in advance. To find out more visit kresenkernow.org/events

Written in Cornish to spread Christian teachings and stories, the manuscripts feature well-known Bible stories – including Noah’s great flood and the Passion of Christ – as well as more obscure and forgotten tales, such as the life of St Meriadoc, Camborne’s patron saint. The Cornish Ordinalia, which dates from the 1400s, contains possibly Britain’s earliest full play scripts, pre-dating Shakespeare by nearly 200 years. It also contains what may be the world’s earliest stage diagrams and is the oldest complete text in the Cornish language. 

The Bodleian Library manuscripts have been part of the Oxford University library’s collection for more than 400 years and this is the first time they have returned to Cornwall. The Life of St Meriadoc, or Bewnans Meriasek in Cornish, is recorded in Wales in the 1650s as part of a Welsh library collection, while The Life of St Kea, or Bewnans Ke in Middle Cornish, caused a stir when it was discovered only 20 years ago in the papers of a then-recently deceased academic.  

The exhibition is being funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the £11.7m grant which built Kresen Kernow, which opened in 2019. This summer’s celebrations include a wide range of events and activities, including a range of online talks, a symposium, school activities, creative workshops and summer holiday family learning.  

Pedr ap Llwyd, Chief Executive and Librarian of the National Library of Wales, said: “I’m delighted that the National Library of Wales is able to support this much anticipated and rare opportunity to see such important historic Cornish manuscripts brought together and celebrated for the first time under one roof. It is also fitting that this will be happening at the heart of Cornwall itself. The four manuscripts provide a rich corpus of Middle Cornish literature, and will encourage a renewed awareness of the language itself and of the rich outdoor theatre tradition upheld across Cornwall many centuries ago.” 

 Stephen Rushworth, Cornwall Council cabinet portfolio holder for economy, said: “The return of the Ordinalia Manuscripts is an incredible opportunity to evidence Cornwall’s history of innovation through our rich heritage and language. It provides a fitting culmination to the original ambition of the Kresen Kernow project – to provide sector-leading facilities, a home for Cornwall’s archives and to give our local communities access to our rich set of collections and heritage. Kresen Kernow and it’s programme contributes to delivering Cornwall’s Creative Manifesto vision of being the UK’s leading rural creative economy.”  

 The exhibition forms part of a wider programme of celebrations called Ordinalia Nessa. These include a programme of activity being delivered by the Hall for Cornwall in Truro and performances of The Cornish Ordinalia by St Just and District Trust CIO.  

The Hall for Cornwall is also offering a programme of activities for young people, with new artist opportunities and training at its core. Working with schools and their Youth Theatre and Dance companies, young people from across Cornwall will perform pieces inspired by the historic play scripts, culminating in performances at Kresen Kernow in August to entertain and educate their visitors. 

 As well as seeing the exhibition of these ancient manuscripts, the public can also discover just what this immersive medieval theatrical tradition might have been like by watching all three plays in the Cornish Ordinalia series at St Just’s Plen-an-Gwari this September.

Seven hundred years ago, the plays would have been performed by the community for the community all over Cornwall, including in this original setting. Today, they are produced by the St Just District Trust CIO, and this festival of Cornish culture, which features the plays, promises dramatic scenes, a large community cast of over 150 volunteers, singing, music, darkness, raucousness, comedy, Cornish cultural workshops and much more. 

A short film about the exhibition is available on Kresen Kernow’s YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/ovBlIbdwg_E