Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 72.1.4
Siobhán Barrett
Fig. 1: The cover of Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 72.1.4 (image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen)
This is an exceptionally small and chunky vellum manuscript of 204 pages, measuring only 6cm by 4½cm and known as ‘Neil MacBeath’s Psalter’. Straps of skin and a coin are attached to the cover for the purpose of securely closing the manuscript, which could also be attached to a belt. Due to its tiny size, each page only holds in the region of 60 words. The owner of the manuscript signs himself as ‘Neill Óg’. The first quarter of the manuscript contains Psalm 118 in Latin, which was written and signed by Niall Mac Beathadh, the father of Neill Óg.
Fig. 2: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS 72.1.4, fol. 25r: the owner’s signature in Irish and Latin, reading Iste liber pertine / Is se so lebar Nel Oig / Hic est liber unius scolaris qui vocatur Negelus (Image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen)
The second text, which takes up the greater part of the manuscript, is a compendium of definitions and aphorisms from medical and philosophical writings. These definitions are given in Latin, followed by an Irish translation. They are drawn from many sources with diverse subject matter; a small sample of the authorities cited include Galen, Avicenna, Taddeo Alderotti and Gilbertus Anglicus. According to a colophon on the final page, Máel Eachlainn mac Illainn Mhic in Leagha Ruaid was the scribe of this collection of definitions. This scribe also wrote Dublin, Kings’ Inns Library MS 15 (see our Manuscript of the Month entry for October 2024), and copies of at least two of these definitions are also found in that manuscript (for more on this, see Thanisch 2025).
NLS Adv. MS 72.1.4 was written by and for Beatons, practising physicians from the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. John Bannerman has suggested that Neill Mac Beathadh probably transcribed Psalm 118 into this very distinctive manuscript before presenting it to Neill Óg, his son, who was travelling to study with his kinsmen, the Mac an Leagha family of medical practitioners based in Co. Sligo in the west of Ireland. It is possible that while Neill Óg was studying medicine in Ireland, his mentor, Máel Eachlainn Mac an Leagha, copied the definitions into the manuscript before signing his name on the final page and adding that he has written this for mo sesi (my companion) Niall mac Neill Meigbetadh (Bannerman, 2015, 44–5).
Further reading:
- Bannerman, John (2015), The Beatons: A Medical Kindred in the Classical Gaelic Tradition, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: J. Donald)
- MacKinnon, Donald (1912), A Descriptive Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, and Elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh: W. Brown), pp. 23–6
- Thanisch, Eystein (2025), ‘Knowing through Defining: Collections of Scientific Definitions in Gaelic Medical Manuscripts’, in Medicine in the Medieval North Atlantic World: Vernacular Texts and Traditions, ed. by Deborah Hayden and Sarah Baccianti (Turnhout: Brepols), pp. 337–64
LEIGHEAS Manuscripts of the Month featuring other Beaton manuscripts:
September 2024: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 72.1.2