The main text, the ‘Lilium medicinae’, was written about October 1621 (folio 102 verso) at Duart (34 verso, 39 recto) for ‘Eoin’ (39 verso), presumably by John Beaton of the Pennycross family (1594-1657), father of the Reverend John. Also in this manuscript is the only extant piece of sustained medical writing in the Reverend John’s hand.

The manuscript is written in five different hands:

1. Chief text-hand. Appears to identify itself so ‘Ed: Bar’ (folio 2 recto), ‘E:B:’ (folio 41 recto). A good functional hand, well-rounded when formal, becoming smaller with use, always distinguishable by its ‘g’, generally cites Latin in an accomplished italic script. Strong similarities to chief hand of British Library manuscript Harley 4347 (Brian).

2. Text, folios 13-33. A dashing, angular version of the chief hand of MS.2076. Its main characteristic here is its angular ‘g’, which is like James Beaton’s and is an occasional feature in MS.2076 also. The two styles intermix in Royal Irish Academy MS. 23 G 14 (441). All three manuscripts contain the ‘Lilium Medicinae’.

3. Relieves hand 1 temporarily at folios 10 verso, 17, 58, 95-96, 99, 102, 128 and 132. Contains features of hands 1 and 5, with a barbarous ‘g’.

4. Text, folio 73 verso a (part). Hand of MS.2076, folio 201 etc. A rough hand similar to that of Niall Mac Iomhair, Adv.MS.73.1.22.

5. Notes, folios 25 recto, 27 recto & verso, 67 recto, 68 recto & verso, 81 recto, 91 verso, 92 recto & verso, 108 verso, 109 recto, 117 verso; text, folios 107 verso b-204 recto. Reverend John Beaton (circa 1640-1715). As frequently elsewhere, he uses his Gaelic script for English, Latin and Gaelic alike. It is crude and laboured, with a distinctive tall ‘s’, and unruled.

The contents are as follows.

(Hands 1-4). Bernard of Gordon’s, ‘Lilium medicinae’ parts 2-7. Beginning “Tionnsgantar in .2. p[air]t[igeal] ann so neoch tráchtus d’ uile easl[aint]iph na hincinni conuige na suile”. Lacuna in part 3 due to excision of folios 43-45. Ends (folio 137 verso) “ar ttús na ar a n-adhaigh. Finis. Finit”. Cf. MS.2076. Notes and marginalia by hand 1: ‘Ed: Bar’ (2 recto); ‘S.G.’ (folios 9 verso, 47 recto, 118 recto); “A Dhé foir orm” (folio 11 recto); ‘nf bec sin anocht a nDuphard’ (folio 34 verso); “Fúar anocht Dupháird” (folio 39 recto); “gurab slan d’fer an lephuir so .i. Eói” (folio 39 verso, last line); ‘E.B.’ (folio 41 recto); ?’that’ (folio 47 recto); ‘IHS MAIRIA’ (folio 55 verso); “Sum tuirseach ar da cúis” (folio 65 recto); “ní bec sin anocht” (folio 72 recto); ‘ata sin mar sin’ (folio 82 recto); ‘Jesus Maria Deo’ (folio 83 verso, column a, line z); ‘Jesus’ (folio 85 recto); “misi mé féin” (folio 87 verso); ‘therfore to’ (folio 89 recto); “olc a fulang a mhná” (folio 91 recto); “Tairnig ann sin an .5. [p]air[t]igeal mail[e re] gras[aibh] Dé & tinnsgantar an 6. [p]air[t]igeal. 1621 xx6. octobris 1621” (folio 102 verso); ‘Sum currtha’ (folio 105 verso); “A mhic mhoir mhiorbhuiligh Mhuire dén trocaire orum” (folio 135 recto, column a, last line); ‘Sum tuirseach anocht’ (folio 136 verso, column b, last line). There are also numerous marginal notes by hands 1 and 5 relating more closely to the text (“ní tuigi”, 10 recto, hand 1). At folio 102 verso hand 5 writes ‘26 octob. 1621’. Folios 120 verso, 138-139 blank. (Folio 1 recto, column a, line 1.)

(Hand 1). On Aphorisms of Hippocrates, cf. Adv.MS.72.1.10, folio 1 recto column a, line 37. Beginning ‘Utero gerentes sunt medicande & ca. .i. o do labhair Ip[ocras]’. Last section begins (folio 170 verso, column a, line 6) ‘Sia fibre habito tumour non existente’. Ends “as mar sin leighestar an escoid darap ainm sginanncia maille re grádhsaibh Dé & na healadhna. Finis. Finit. Amen. Finit” (= Adv.MS.72.1.11, folio 4 recto, column a, line 34). Represents book 4, number 1 - book 7, number 60. Also covered by Adv.MS.72.2.10, pages 1-56 (abridged version) and in parts by Adv.MS.72.1.21 and 72.1.11. Marginalia by hand 1: ?’then’ (folio 144 recto); ‘S.G.’ (folio 148 verso, 153 verso, 159 recto); ‘Emanuel’ (folio 159 verso). (Folio 140 recto, column a, line 1.)

(Hand 5 begins). Treatment for sterility, in Latin. Beginning ‘Magna e[st] uxoratis p[er]turbatio’. Headed ‘Contra Sterilitatem’. Ends ‘ex Democrito’. Rest of column blank. There follows a series of cures for various conditions, including sterility, with the method of frightening wolves (“A chur aegil ar na Madruib alligh .i. ealdib no fíaghánta”, folio 171 verso, line 6). The first cure is headed ‘Diamharacht no secret a leighiseas atta’. Those at folio 171 recto (page 171) are in Gaelic, those at folio 171 verso (page 172) mostly in Latin. Folio 171 verso is badly soiled, indicating that it was once an outside leaf. Questions of conception and sterility are taken up exclusively from the bottom of folio 171 verso in Latin only. From folio 174 recto (page 178) there is a running title ‘Contra Sterilitatem. Cap. 1’, indicating that at some point a treatise on obstetrics is considered to have begun. This has sixteen chapters, of which numbers 4-6 are in English and the rest in Latin, as below. It is full of receipts and practical remedies, and is the work of a practising physician probably the Reverend John Beaton himself, for among the innumerable authorities of all periods cited, with references, is his contemporary Harvey (folio 190). Cf. Adv.MS.72.1.2, folio 145 verso (Folio 170 verso, column b, line 1.)

26 Cap. 2. ‘De Suppressionem Mensium’. (Folio 179 recto (page 188).)

4 Cap. 3. ‘De immoderato Fluxu Menstruum’. (Folio 181 verso (page 193).)

38 Cap. 4. ‘Contra inordinate Flouing of te Munths’ (Folio 183 verso (page 197).)

38 Cap. 5. ‘Ane parlouser method serving for the cure of the suppression of the Moneths’. (Folio 184 verso (page 199).)

22 Cap. 6. ‘Suffocatio. Contra Stopping of the Matrix or Mother’. (Folio 185 verso (page 201).)

25 Cap. 7. ‘De Morbis acutis chronicis Praegnantium’. (Folio 187 recto (page 204).)

3 Cap. 9. ‘De Torminibus a Partu .i. ar gharrach & ar dhochoruibh eile a ndiaigh seola’. (Folio 189 recto (page 208).)

3 Cap. 9. “De Morbis acutis Puerperarum: easlaintin gáera na mban saeola”. (Folio 190 recto (page 110).)

19 Cap. 10. ‘Abortu’. (Folio 191 verso (page 113).)

26 Cap. 11. ‘De Suppressione Lochiorum’. (Folio 194 recto (page 118).)

3 Cap. 12. ‘De Fluore Muliebri’. (Folio 195 recto (page 120).)

13 Cap. 13. ‘De Furore Uterino’. (Folio 197 recto (page 123).)

18 Cap. 14. “De Histerica Passione no do thecht a mach na Macluigh, néaltin & paissionnigh”. (Folio 198 recto (page 123).)

21 Cap. 15. ‘De Uteri Inflamatione’. (Folio 210 verso (page 21).)

39 Cap. 16. ‘De Ulcere Uteri’. (Folio 202 verso (page 134), 204 verso blank.)

The manuscript contains ‘Pot’ watermark (two varieties).