Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS Adv. 72.1.13
Deborah Hayden
Figure 1: Edinburgh, NLS MS Adv. 72.1.13, fol. 33r: an Irish version of Bernard of Gordon’s De gradibus (‘Concerning degrees’), a text on the strength and properties of different medical ingredients, with a drawing of a dog in the margin of the page (image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen)
This composite vellum manuscript consists of 40 folios and two fragments, divided into six independent layers; these are difficult to date, but some may belong to as early as the fourteenth or fifteenth century. NLS Adv. 72.1.13 was named in a list of medieval Gaelic medical manuscripts belonging to Fergus Beaton of South Uist ca 1695 (Bannerman 1998: 114). Many of the texts in this collection are theoretical in nature, with an emphasis on metaphysical and astrological material; in addition to numerous aphorisms, there are short texts on topics such as the actions of simple medicines, physiology, purging and diet. The sixth layer (fols 33–40) is a complete gathering that contains texts of a more practical orientation, including chapters on wounds, the senses, hydrophobia and the properties of honey and wax. This section also includes several excerpts from the widely known Lilium medicinae of the Montpellier physician Bernard of Gordon. One of these is Bernard’s discussion of lovesickness, which circulated independently of the rest of the Lilium in several Gaelic medical manuscripts (Wulff 1932). This text draws on wider medieval conceptions of lovesickness as a disease of the head attributed to an excess of black bile. Various treatments are recommended to cure it, including travel to distant lands, distracting oneself with work, and engaging an ugly hag to insult the beloved. This theme is widely attested elsewhere in medieval Irish literature: check out our July 2024 blog to learn more!
Figure 2: Edinburgh, NLS MS Adv. 72.1.3, fol. 39r: an Irish translation of Bernard of Gordon’s chapter on lovesickness (image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen)
Further reading:
- Bannerman, John (1998), The Beatons. A Medical Kindred in the Classical Gaelic Tradition (Edinburgh: John Donald)
- Black, Ronald (2011), Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland
- Hayden, Deborah (forthcoming), ‘The Pathology of Love in Two Medieval Irish Tales’, in Emotions, Illness and Medicine in the Medieval North, ed. by Caroline R. Batten and Sif Rikhardsdottir (Cambridge: CUP)
- Mackinnon, Donald (1912), A Descriptive Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, and Elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh: William Brown), pp. 41-9
- Wack, Mary F. (1990), Lovesickness in the Middle Ages. The Viaticum and its Commentaries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press)
- Wulff, Winifred (1932), ‘De amore hereos’, Ériu 11: 174–81