Medieval Welsh law book sold for $839,532

PanARMENIAN.Net - One of the first medieval manuscripts to be written in Welsh has been saved for the nation after being sold at auction for £541,250 ($839,532), BBC News said.

It is believed the 14th Century pocket book, called The Laws of Hywel Dda, was taken to America by Welsh settlers in the 1700s.

The buyer was the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The book was expected to fetch between £500,000 and £700,000 at Sotheby's.

The London auction house said it believed the book was back in Britain for the first time in at least 150 years.

It was sold by the Massachusetts Historical Society of Boston.

Tenth century Welsh ruler Hywel Dda (Hywel The Good) created the country's first uniform legal system.

A sense of fairness ran through the laws, including how they dealt with the rights of women. Dr Tim Bolton, a specialist in medieval manuscripts at Sotheby's, said the lot was the first of its kind to be auctioned for almost a century.