A materia medica, with some specifics (prescriptions) and a calendar.

Text, decoration and certain of the hands all bear comparison with John Rylands Library MS. Ir. 35, a manuscript of Scottish provenance for which see Ingliston MS. A.i.9, number 50, and ‘The Academy’, volume 49, page 405.

The manuscript is written by the following hands:

1. Text, folios i-33, 36-39. A very fine hand bearing similarities to that of Domhnall Albanach Ó Troighthigh, British Library MS. Eg. 89, cf. Flower, ‘Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum’, volume 3, plate 6.

2. Text, folios 34-35, 40-52. Giolla Pádraig Ó Toindigh. (folio 52 recto). Broadly similar to hand 1.

3. Text, folios 34-35, 40-52. Giolla Coluim (folio 79 recto). A particularly painstaking hand with distinctively square characters, cf. hand 28 of Adv.MS.72.1.2; hand of Rylands MS. Ir. 35, folios 72 recto-79 verso and 113 recto-123 verso, bears some similarities.

4. Folio 52 recto. Domhnall mac Coinnigh (Uí Chonchubhair?), cf. Rylands MS. Ir. 35, folio 67 verso. See hand 70 of Adv.MS.72.1.2.

5. Folios 77 recto, 80 verso. Resembles hand 5 of Adv.MS.72.1.27.

6. Folios 22 recto, 60 verso, 80 verso, 83 recto, 98 recto. James Beaton. Adv.MS.72.1.2, hand 15; Adv.MS.72.1.33, hand K.

7. Folio 98 recto. Allan Stewart, son of Donnchadh Óg.

8. Folios 1 recto-78 verso passim, 80 verso, 81 verso, ?95 verso, 98 recto. The Reverend John Beaton, writing in Gaelic, English, Latin and Greek (chiefly in the appropriate character). Note similarity of his hand at 80 verso and 81 verso to hand 6.

This is the most lavishly decorated of the Library’s surviving Gaelic manuscripts. The illuminator embellished folios i-33, 36-39, 41 verso and 45-51 (i.e. the work of hand 1 and much of that of hand 2) by the addition of ornamental initials and the application of red, crimson, brown, blue and yellow. Some of the capitals provided inspiration for those in Carmichael’s ‘Carmina gadelica’. Ó Toindigh may himself have been responsible, as he writes in blue-black and yellow-brown in preference to the more usual shades of brown and black; on the other hand, his work at folios 40 recto-41 recto is very carelessly daubed in brown. Hand 1 writes in yellow-brown at folios 26 verso-28 verso, and part of this seems to have been re-inked for clarity. Giolla Coluim leaves blank spaces for capitals, according to custom, at folio 53, but inserts his own thereafter (apparently as he writes), with a little decoration but no colouring. His work is characterised by having been ruled in ink - red at folio 84 recto. Folio 1 recto is reproduced in CMJ (New Series), volume 6, following page 40, and in Comrie, ‘History of Scottish Medicine’, volume 1, page 100. Folio 19 recto is reproduced in Comrie, ‘History of Scottish Medicine’, frontispiece, in colour.

The contents are as follows:

Folio i: the recto side is stained very dark and had been pasted to the front cover of the binding arranged for by the Advocates Library. The presence of any text has not been determined. The verso contains the index to the text beginning on folio 1r.

(Hands 1-3). Materia medica. Beginning folio 1 recto, line 1 ‘Aron barba iarus pes vitullii .i. tri hanmanna in gheidhir’. Most of the sections (which are arranged alphabetically by initial letter only) are preceded by an index; that for A occupies folio i verso, headed ‘Titul ann so do reir Platiarius’. The text is complete and unbroken, but having been written in separate sections and indifferently bound, it is disarranged. The correct order is as follows: folios i-33 verso (‘aron-conium’), 35 recto-39 verso (‘conium-diptanus’), 53 recto-66 verso (‘diptanus-ipofila’), 34 recto-35 verso (‘lac-linga b(o)vina’), 40 recto-52 recto (‘lactuca-(q)uercus’), 67 recto-79 recto (‘rafonos-ziucra’). There are altogether 287 articles, and the chief authority cited is Platearius. Ends 79 recto, line 6 ‘go huilidhi sa lictubaire so’ followed by Giolla Coluim’s colophon attributing the translation to Tadhg Ó Cuinn, who dictated it to Giolla Pádraig Ó Callanáin: “Gurab aml[aidh] sin fhágbhamuid crich inmholta cumair tarbhach ar an leabarsa, [no]ch do thairrngedh a hAinntitairibh ⁊ hEisimlairibh Catrach Salernitani ⁊ dor[eir] sduider comaontaigh do dhocturibh Shleibhi Pisalain; ⁊ adubradar na maighistrecha sin, gach ni tinnscaint[er] a n-ainn Dé gurab dingmala a crichnug[ud] a n-ainm De. Gurab aml[aidh] sin do crichnuighedh an leabar so o Tadhg hUa Cuinn .i. Baisiler a bhFisigeacht, a mí Octimb[er] a sollamain Lucá is Suibhisceil, ⁊ is iad dob uimir bliadhan ó ghein Cr[ísta] conuigi sin .i. mile bl[iadhan] ⁊. iiii. céd bl[iadhan] ⁊.v. bl[iadhn]a d[eg] ní is mó; ⁊ g[a]ch neach léghfas an leabarsa tabr[adh] b[en]nacht ar anmain Taidgh Í Chuinn ⁊ Ghilla Padraic hÍ Chall[annáin], neach do ghabh hé a nGaidheilcc. Finit am[en]. Misi Gilla Col[uim]”. For other versions of text and colophon see e.g. Adv.MS.72.2.10, page 303; Edinburgh University Library MS. Mackinnon 3; National Library of Ireland MS. G 11, page 1; Rylands MS. Ir. 35, folio 1 recto. The only article unique to the present text appears to be that on ‘feibrid fucca’. It is followed at folio 60 verso by a space, signifying the end of a gathering, in which James Beaton (hand 6) notes a treatment for urinary disorders beginning ‘Labhrum anois do leigis a gallar fhual’. At folio 22 recto, apparently referring to the article on betony, he writes “a deoch so thabart ren ól [do] Catlín nin Neil b[ean] mheic Eoin”. At folio 52 recto, the last page of hand 2’s work, hand 4 writes “comhortus ann so re Gilla Padrig O Toindidh 67b17 bu”. There are also minor marginalia (‘amen’, etc.) by hands 2 (folios 3 recto, 25 recto, 33 recto) and 5 (folio 77 recto). The text as a whole is glossed and annotated in English, Latin, Greek and Gaelic by the Reverend John Beaton (hand 8). His fullest notes are at folios 55 recto, 56 verso. At 52 verso (otherwise blank save for ? ‘seeain’, hand 2, and a word in secretary hand, overwritten) he inscribes: ‘Iοαννης Bεττοννυς/εγραττ [sic] αυτοχειρ/αυτων / 1677’ (1671?) and ‘20: die Septe:’. At folio 77 verso he writes ‘τετελημενον’. (Folio i verso, line 1.)

(Hand 3). Treatments, including charms, for various conditions: cholic, wounds, burns, felon, insanity, loss of speech, lack of sleep, and after letting a vein; charm for safe childbirth; epilepsy, erysipelas, sterility; to ensure the birth of a male child; to abort a dead foetus; menstruation; to stem the flow of blood from a vein; charm against all evil, etc. Beginning ‘Ar tregaid’. Ends “⁊ ic[aid] a cédóir. Finit”. Hand 8 adds “τελος”. Folio 80 verso, upper margin: ‘amen’ (hand 5), ‘amen’ (hand ?6). (Folio 79 recto, line 17.)

(Hand 6 begins). ‘A ceann mhis domhar do chuiagh me a siunna ⁊ a ceann mhis do gheamradh do theanic me ann ⁊ da oidhce do bi mi ann ⁊ risd a ceann vi(?) seachtmhuin ⁊ iii(?) oidhce do thanigh me risd go folbh’ (Folio 80 verso, line 11.)

Charm against menstruation copied from folio 1, column l, lines 8-9. (Folio 80 verso, line 14.)

Cure for toothache. Beginning ‘Gabh pipar ⁊ pronn e’. Headed ‘Contra dedadh’. (Folio 80 verso, line 15.)

Cure for jaundice. Beginning ‘Deoch is ferr fa neimh ar uichachar’. (Folio 80 verso, line 18.)

(Hand 8 begins). Cure beginning ‘Confectio testiculorum’. See folio 81 verso, line 1. (Folio 80 verso, line 21.)

Cure for stomach flux. Beginning ‘Ventris fluxis superabundantem’. Cf. folio 81 verso, line 2. (Folio 80 verso, line 22.)

Cure for flatulence. Beginning ‘Contra ventocitatum’. Cf. folio 81 verso, line 5. Left margin: ‘ffinem composui; sit laus, et Gloria Chisto. Gloria perpetua sit tribuenda Deo. αμε ν: λεγο δυrαι’. (Folio 80 verso, line 26.)

Folio 81 recto blank.

As folio 80 verso, line 21. Headed ‘ar bod’. Beside this is ‘Jesus’. (Folio 81 verso, line 1.)

Folio 81 verso, line 22, as folio 80 verso, line 22. Cure for flatulence as at folio 80 verso, line 26. (Folio 81 verso, line 5.)

Folio 82 blank.

Folio 83 recto blank save for ‘Amen nartar(?) meisi Semus M[a]c in Oll[aimh]’ (hand 6).

Folio 83 verso blank.

(Hand 3 resumes). Calendar. Printed (exclusive of astronomical detail) in Forbes’ ‘Kalendars of Scottish saints’, page 81, with notes at page xxx. Folio 93 recto, ‘fecan’ (hand 5); Folio 95 verso, ‘2 3 4 5 6 7’ (hand ?8). (Folio 84 recto.)

Folio 96 recto blank.

Tabular concordance of astronomical and astrological information, cf. Adv.MS.72.1.33, folio 8 recto. (Folio 96 verso blank.)

Folio 97 verso blank.

Notes, as follows. At the top is ‘amen dico vobis / amen’ (hand ?2). Below this is ‘for the (?)name of Duncane Steuart’ (with some pen-trials) by hand 7, whose identity is supplied lower down by hand 6: ‘Ailian Stiuar / Ailian m[a]c Dhonnchadh oig rom [sgr]iobh so a leabar Semuis M[hi]c n Oll[aimh]’. In the middle hand 8 writes ‘Is anroghach misi an dhiu aig fuacht ⁊ aig ocris ⁊ ni dom deoin, ⁊ fost ni leginn a less. EMB 1671’. (Folio 98 recto.)

Folio 98 verso was formerly pasted to the inside back cover of the binding supplied in the late 18th century. It seems to be blank.