This remarkably small, chubby manuscript, ‘Neil MacBeath’s Psalter’, is described by David McRoberts in ‘Two Hebridean liturgical items’, page 171, with a plate showing its external appearance. ‘Cleric and physician’, he concludes, ‘he . . . had in his vade-mecum, which he would fasten to his belt, all the literature he required (his substitute for the Divine Office and his medical notes) when he set out to attend to the souls and bodies of his parishioners’. The ‘Divine Office’ is Psalm 118, the ‘medical notes’ a compendium of basic definitions.

The manuscript is written in the following hands.

1. Text, folios 1-23 recto. Niall Mac Beathadh (folios 23 recto, 100 recto). A standard formal hand, rubricated in red.

2. Text, folios 24 recto; 25 recto, lines 6-10; 82 verso. Hand 5 of Adv. MS 72.1.27.

3. Folios 25 recto, lines 1-5; 25 verso, lines 6-9. Niall Óg mac Néill Mhic Beathadh (folio 25, 100 recto). A rounded hand, less careful than hand 1 (his father’s?). The main text was written for him as ‘mo sesi’ by hand 4 (folio 100 recto).

4. Text, folios 25 verso, lines 1-100 recto. Maol-Sheachlainn mac Iollainn Mhic an Leagha Ruaidh. A small hand akin to that of Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe. Maol-Sheachlainn is also the chief scribe of King’s Inns Library MS 15, a medical manuscript written in counties Sligo and Kildare in 1512. Sliocht an Leagha Ruaidh were Beatons, according to Christopher Beaton in Edinburgh University Library MS Laing III 21 (CMJ, 2nd Series, volume 5, page 142), and an Iollann Maigbhetha appears in County Kilkenny in 1596 (Adv. MS 73.1.22, folios 122 recto, 185 verso, 257 verso). See Walsh, ‘Irish men of learning’, page 206.

5. Text, folios 81 recto-82 recto. Hand 1 of Adv. MS 72.1.2.

6. Folios 100 recto, lines 7-8. An Giolla Dubh Ó Siaghail? Cf. Adv. MS 72.1.27, folio 3 verso.

7. Text, folio iv.

8. Text, folios 23 verso, 24 verso.

9. Folio 100 recto, lines 9-10. An Ó Siaghail?

The contents (text) are as follows.

(i) Folio i apparently blank.

(ii) Hand 7. Prayer in Latin: St Sebastian mentioned. (?). (Folio i verso.)

(iii) Hand 1. Psalm 118. Beginning ‘Beati immaculati in via qui ambulant in leghe Domini’. Ends: ‘Finit. Mise Niall do graibne an b[e]c sin’. (Folio 1 recto, line 1.)Hand 8. Prayer beginning ‘Ave corpus Iesu Christi’. (Folio 23 verso, line 1.)

(iv) Hand 2. Definitions pertaining to ‘reason’ and ‘nature’. The first, badly obscured by ?erasure, is: ‘Re sine r.....la est .i. an raed bis gan resun is......ni is cuis a c....’ The other beginning folio 24 recto, line 5, ‘Natura est’. (Folio 24 recto, line 1.)

(v) Hand 8. Prayer beginning ‘A[n]i[m]a Christ[i] sanctifica me’. (Folio 24 verso, line 1.)

(vi) Hand 3. ‘Iste liber pertine / Is se so lebar Nel Oig / Hic est liber unius scolaris qui vocatur Negelus’. (Folio 25 recto, line 1.)

(vii) Hand 2. Definition beginning ‘Medicinalis speculacio’. Constantinus cited. Also at folio 51 verso, line 4. (Folio 25 recto, line 6.)

(viii) Hand 4. ‘Longa solent sp[er]ni gaudent brevitate mod[er]ni .i. cleachtar na raite faide do taircasniug[ud] ⁊ f[or]bhailtigit lucht na haimsire nuaidhe roim incumaireacht in cait nuasin’. (Folio 25 verso, line 1.)

(ix) Hand 3. ‘Se so leb[ar] Nel Oig’ followed by definition beginning ‘Si ne ponadir’. (Folio 25 verso, line 6.)

(x) Hand 4. Compendium of definitions. Beginning “Quem sci[enti]a vivificat non moritur, Galienus dicit in septimo de Ingenio S[cientiae] .i. adeir G[alien] in [septim]o de Ing[enio] S[cientiae] ga[ch] nech aithbeod[uigh]es an eal[ad]ha ni marb he. Gurab uime sin dob áil lim in comp[e]ndium so ar difinic[i]on gach aon neith da ficfither dúin do scrib[adh], uair is tre dif[inici]on na neithed ticmait doch[u]m an aithne ⁊ a t[ui]csina; ⁊ ose Dia is cruth[aigh]oir duin, is dó is coir duin labairt ar tús”. The definitions are linked with discursive matter, and are cited in full in Latin and Gaelic. The tract is described in Shaw’s ‘Medieval medico-philosophical treatises in the Irish language’, page 156. It was written for a physician. The introductory section is cosmological, beginning with definitions of God, firmament and sky, moving on to astrology and its importance to the physician (folio 27 verso, 2nd last line), then the elements (folio 28 verso, line 1), matter, substance and form (folio 30 verso, line 10), philosophy and science (folio 34 verso, line 5), the soul and the body. Its conclusion is crushed in inelegantly before the start of the main section. Authorities cited: ?Nestrolanus (folio 26 verso, line 2), Iohannes de Sacro Bosco (folio 26 verso, line 8), Aristotle, Theodosius (folio 29 verso, line 4), Thaddeus (folio 30 recto, line 2), Avicenna (folio 34 verso, line 11), Boethius (folio 34 verso, 2nd last line), Almogestus (folio 35 recto, last line), Arnaldus (folio 36 verso, 3rd last line). Main section beginning folio 37 verso, line 5, ‘Do b[er]ar in dif[inici]on so o S[an]c[tu]s Tomas de Aquino a ngl[uais] Boesius air’. After a theological preamble on the soul it moves on to a wide range of medical definitions, both theoretical and practical. Continues folio 83 recto, line 1. Authorities cited: St Thomas Aquinus, Boethius, Iohannes Damascenus (folio 37 verso, last line), Aristotle, St Augustine, Regnidus (folio 40 recto, line 9), Guido, Alibertus (folio 43 verso, line 10), Thaddeus (passim, folios 44 recto-57 recto), Plato (folio 44), Constantinus, Franciscus de Pedemonsium (folio 47 recto, line1), Galen, Isaac, Avicenna, John of Gaddesden (folio 58 verso, line 6), Petrus, Geraldus (passim, folio 61 recto-86 verso), Averroes, Gilbertinus, Bernard of Gordon, Petrus Hispanus (folio 71 recto, line 5), Rhazes, Hippocrates, Iohanisius, ‘commentator’, Hugo (folio 91 verso). At folio 93 recto, line 1, is a section on logic (subject, form, accident, object, man, etc.), beginning ‘Subiectum est illud quod’. Authorities cited: Constantinus, Avicenna, Iohannes. Scribal entries: ‘Misi m[a]c Illainn mec in Lega qui’ (folio 38 verso); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn]’ (folio 40 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c m[ai]th Ill[ainn]’ (folio 41 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn]’ (folio 41 verso); ‘Misi m[a]c Illaind’ (folio 63 verso); ‘Misi m[a]c m[ai]th Ill[ainn] qui’ (folio 68 recto); ‘Misi M.’ (folio 69 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn] M[hi]c in Lega’ (folio 77 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn]’ (folio 83 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn] do Niall’ (folio 88 recto); ‘Misi m[a]c Ill[ainn]’ (folio 96 recto). The tract ends: ‘.i. Ainmniug[ud] diles ⁊rl-. Misi Mailechl[ainn] m[a]c Illainn M[h]ic in Lega Ruaid do scrib sin do Niall m[a]c Neill Meigbetadh .i. mo sesi’. The sole marginalium is ‘beat’, folio 69 verso (also hand ?4). (Folio 26 recto, line 1.)

(xi) Hand 5. Definitions of ‘angel’. Beginning ‘Angelus [est] s[u]bstanc[i]a inc[or]puralis intellectualis’. (Folio 81 recto, line 1.)

(xii) Hand 2 resumes. Definition pertaining to the lungs. Beginning ‘Pulmo semp[er]’. Below a modern hand has written ‘25’. (Folio 82 verso, line 1.)

(xiii) Brief definitions of ‘Fantastica’, ‘Longastica’, ‘Memorialis’. (Folio 82 verso, line 6.)

(xiv) Folio 83 recto, line 1, see folio 26 recto, line 1.

(xv) Hand 6. ‘Misi an Gilla Dubh O Si676gȧil(?)’. (Folio 100 recto, line 7.)

(xvi) Hand 9. “ᴐc63gxs ps sibg6sil bmf3 b3fib” (?). (Folio 100 recto, line 9.)

(xvii) Folio 100 verso blank.