Stunned researchers have found one of the UK 's most important manuscripts is full of ghosts . Dating from 1250 , The Black Book of Carmarthen is the earliest surviving medieval manuscript written solely in Welsh , and contains some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin . Now , researchers have found a series of hidden faces and message in it . The Black Book of Carmarthen is the earliest surviving medieval manuscript written solely in Welsh , and contains some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin . Using a combination of ultraviolet light and photo editing software , the images were recovered . Dating from 1250 , The Black Book of Carmarthen is the earliest surviving medieval manuscript written solely in Welsh , and contains some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin . The book is a collection of 9th-12th century poetry along both religious and secular lines , and draws on the traditions of the Welsh folk-heroes and legends of the Dark Ages . 'It 's easy to think we know all we can know about a manuscript like the Black Book but to see these ghosts from the past brought back to life in front of our eyes has been incredibly exciting , ' said Myriah Williams of Cambridge 's Department of Anglo-Saxon , Norse and Celtic . The book is a collection of 9th-12th century poetry along both religious and secular lines , and draws on the traditions of the Welsh folk-heroes and legends of the Dark Ages . Williams and Professor Paul Russell from Cambridge 's Department of Anglo-Saxon , Norse and Celtic ( ASNC ) , believe that a 16th century owner of the book , probably a man named Jaspar Gryffyth , erased centuries ' worth of additional verse , doodles and marginalia which had been added to the manuscript as it changed hands throughout the years . Using a combination of ultraviolet light and photo editing software , the 16th century owner 's penchant for erasure has been partly reversed to reveal snatches of poetry . Currently , the texts are very fragmentary and in need of much more analysis , although they researchers say they seem to be the continuation of a poem on the preceding page with a new poem added at the foot of the page . 'The drawings and verse that we 're in the process of recovering demonstrate the value of giving these books another look , ' Williams said . 'The margins of manuscripts often contain medieval and early modern reactions to the text , and these can cast light on what our ancestors thought about what they were reading . 'The Black Book was particularly heavily annotated before the end of the 16th century , and the recovery of erasure has much to tell us about what was already there and can change our understanding of it . ' The faces are only visible under UV light - and are invisible to the naked eye . Williams and Russell will present a lecture at The National Library of Wales today , part of a larger exhibition on the life and work of Sir John Price , one-time owner of the Black Book . There , they will detail some of their findings , stressing the importance of continued research on the manuscript . 'What we have discovered may only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be discovered as imaging techniques are enhanced , ' said Russell . 'The manuscript is extremely valuable and incredibly important – yet there may still be so much we do n't know about it . ' Despite its value today , the Black Book of Carmarthen ( so called because of the colour of its binding ) was not an elaborate production , but rather the work of a single scribe who was probably collecting and recording over a long period of his life . This is readily visible on the manuscript pages themselves ; the first pages feature a large textura script copied on alternating ruled lines , while in other parts of the manuscript – perhaps when vellum was scarce – the hand is very much smaller and the lines per page tight and many . Measuring approximately only 17cm by 12.5 cm , the book is made up of 54 pages of vellum ( animal hide ) and came to the National Library of Wales in 1904 after being bought , alongside other manuscripts , by the Library 's founder , Sir John Williams . An example of the latter is the earliest poem concerning the adventures of the legendary Arthur , which sees the famed hero seeking entrance to an unidentified court and expounding the virtues of his men in order to gain admittance . Other heroes are praised and lamented in a lengthy text known as Englynion y Beddau , the Stanzas of the Graves , in which a narrator presents geographic lore by claiming to know the burial places of upwards of eighty warriors . Arthur makes an appearance here as well , but only insofar as to say that he can not be found : anoeth bid bet y arthur , 'the grave of Arthur is a wonder ' . Other famous figures also appear throughout , including Myrddin , perhaps more familiarly known by the English 'Merlin ' . There are two prophetic poems attributed to him during his 'wild man ' phase located in the middle of the manuscript , but additionally the very first poem of the book is presented as a dialogue between him and the celebrated Welsh poet Taliesin . Since the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae in the 12th century there has been a connection between Carmarthen and Merlin , and it may be no accident that the Black Book opens with this text .
Black Book of Carmarthen is the earliest surviving Welsh manuscript . It contains some of the earliest references to Arthur and Jaspar Gryffyth . Believed 'ghost ' images were in the original , but erased by a 16th century owner of the book , probably a man named Merlin .