Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Griffith
ROBERTS, GRIFFITH (fl. 1570), Welsh grammarian, was educated at the university of Siena, where he graduated M.D. In 1567 he published at Milan a Welsh treatise on grammar (in three parts) of about three hundred pages. Only two copies are now extant—one in the British Museum, the other at Peniarth. It was reprinted, with some omissions, at Carmarthen in 1857, and in its entirety as a supplement to the ‘Revue Celtique.’ In 1585 he published at Rouen a catholic religious manual, entitled ‘Y Drych Christianogawl’ (‘The Christian Mirror’). A tract entitled ‘The English Roman Life,’ printed in London in 1590, shows us ‘Dr. Robert Griffin’ as at that time confessor to Cardinal (Federigo) Borromeo (Harleian Miscellany, vii. 132). His friend Dr. Rosser Smith speaks of him in the preface to a Welsh work published in 1611 as ‘theological canon of the mother church of Milan.’
[Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, by Gweirydd ap Rhys; Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 635; Williams's Eminent Welshmen.]