¹ Lydon, James, The lordship of Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin, 2003), p. 156Google Scholar.

² ‘The state of Ireland and plan for its reformation’, 1515 (S.P. Hen. VIII, ii, 2).

³ Ibid., ii, 6.

⁴ Breen, Colin, ‘Scottish, Irish or other? Negotiating identity in late medieval north Ulster’ in Campbell, Eve, Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth and Horning, Audrey (eds), Becoming and belonging in Ireland, AD c.1200–1600: essays in identity and cultural practice (Cork, 2018), pp 129–47Google Scholar.

⁵ McLeod, Wilson, Divided Gaels: Gaelic cultural identities in Scotland and Ireland c.1200–c.1650 (Oxford, 2004), pp 14–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ellis, S. G., ‘The collapse of the Gaelic world, 1450–1650’ in I.H.S., xxxi, no. 124 (Nov. 1999), pp 449–69Google Scholar.

⁶ Nicholls, K. W., Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the middle ages (2nd ed., Dublin, 2003), p. 9Google Scholar.

⁷ Ware, James, Inquiries concerning Ireland and its antiquities (Dublin, 1705), p. 22Google Scholar.

⁸ The oldest extant Irish medical manuscript, dated to 1352, is R.I.A., MS 23 F 19; Bannerman, John, The Beatons, a medical kindred in the classical Gaelic tradition (Edinburgh, 2015), p. 122Google Scholar.

⁹ Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Clavis litterarum Hibernensium: medieval Irish books & texts (c.400–c.1600) (3 vols, Turnhout, 2017), iii, 1707–14.

¹⁰ Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical writing in Irish’ in Irish Journal of Medical Science, clxix, no. 3 (2000), pp 217–20.

¹¹ For lists of the manuscripts and their current whereabouts see: Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha ‘Early modern Irish medical writings’ in Scéala Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh: Newsletter of the School of Celtic Studies, iv (1990), pp 35–9; ‘List of unpublished medical manuscripts in Irish libraries’ in CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts (hereafter CELT) (https://celt.ucc.ie/mslist_wulff.html) (13 Mar. 2019); Ronald Black, ‘Catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland’ (https://www.nls.uk/collections/manuscripts/collections/gaelic-manuscripts) (1 Aug. 2018).

¹² See: Beatrix Färber, ‘Medical texts of Ireland, 1350–1600’ in CELT (https://celt.ucc.ie/medical.html) (13 Mar. 2019); Irish Script on Screen (hereafter I.S.O.S.) (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (11 July 2018); ‘Early manuscripts at Oxford University’ in Oxford Digital Library (http://image.ox.ac.uk/) (17 July 2018).

¹³ Norman Moore, The history of the study of medicine in the British Isles (Oxford, 1908), pp 138–52.

¹⁴ C. P. Meehan, P. W. Joyce, R. Marlay Blake and Michael Moloney identified many of the hereditary Irish medical families in their respective works: C. P. Meehan, The rise and fall of the Irish Franciscan monasteries and memoirs of the Irish hierarchy (5th ed., Dublin, 1877), pp 447–8; P. W. Joyce, A social history of ancient Ireland (London, 1903), pp 597–625; R. Marlay Blake, ‘Folk lore, with some account of the ancient Gaelic leeches and the state of the art of medicine in ancient Erin’ in Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, iv, no. 3 (1918), pp 217–25; M. F. Moloney, Irish ethno-botany (Dublin, 1919), pp 51–72.

¹⁵ Winifred Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica seu Rosa medicinae Johannis Anglici: an early modern Irish translation of a section of the mediaeval medical text-book of John of Gaddesden (Irish Texts Society, xxv, London, 1929), pp xiv–xix.

¹⁶ Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha,‘The Irish Rosa Anglica, manuscripts and structure’ in L. P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments (Irish Texts Society, subsidary series, xxviii, Dublin, 2016), pp 114–97.

¹⁷ Winifred Wulff, ‘Tract on the plague’ in Ériu, x (1928), pp 143–54.

¹⁸ Winifred Wulff, ‘De amore hereos’ in Ériu, xi (1932), pp 174–81.

¹⁹ Winifred Wulff, ‘A mediaeval handbook of gynaecology […]’, ed. Beatrix Färber, in CELT (https://celt.ucc.ie//published/G600011/index.html) (18 July 2019).

²⁰ J. F. Fleetwood, The history of medicine in Ireland (Dublin, 1983), pp 20–31; Francis Shaw, ‘Medicine in Ireland in medieval times’ in William Doolin and Oliver Fitzgerald (eds), What's past is prologue: a retrospect of Irish medicine (Dublin, 1952), pp 10–14; Francis Shaw, ‘Irish medical men and philosophers’ in Brian Ó Cuív (ed.), Seven centuries of Irish learning (2nd ed., Cork, 1971), pp 75–86; M. Dunlevy, ‘The medical families of medieval Ireland’ in Doolin & Fitzgerald (eds), What's past is prologue, pp 15–22; Richard Hayes, ‘Irish medical links with the continent’ in ibid., pp 23–8; Nicholls, Gaelic & Gaelicised Ireland, p. 92; Brian Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish language in the early modern period’ in T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin and F. J. Byrne (eds), A new history of Ireland, iii: Early modern Ireland, 1534–1691 (Oxford, 1976), pp 518–20.

²¹ Nollaig Ó Muraíle, ‘The hereditary medical families of Gaelic Ireland’ in Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, pp 57–84.

²² Charlie Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’ in James Kelly and Fiona Clark (eds), Ireland and medicine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Farnham, 2010), pp 32–52.

²³ M. Á. Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine: the literate professionals in autonomous Gaelic Ireland, c.1250–c.1630’ (Ph.D. thesis, University College Cork, 2016); Áine Sheehan, ‘Locating the Gaelic medical families in Elizabethan Ireland’ in John Cunningham (ed.), Early modern Ireland and the world of medicine (Manchester, 2019), pp 20–38.

²⁴ Paul Walsh discussed two transcriptions by Risteard Ó Conchubhair (R.I.A., MS 3 C 19) and Corc Óg Ó Cadhle (R.I.A., MS 24 P 14) of an Irish translation of Bernard of Gordon's (c.1258–1320) Lilium medicinae: Paul Walsh, Gleanings from Irish manuscripts (2nd ed., Dublin, 1933), pp 123–81.

²⁵ Shawn Sheahan (ed.), An Irish version of Gualterus de Dosibus (Washington D.C., 1938).

²⁶ Séamus Ó Ceithearniagh, Regimen na sláinte: Regimen sanitatis Magnini Mediolanensis (3 vols, Dublin, 1942–4). The Regimen sanitatis (c.1330) of Magnius of Milan appears in a number of Irish manuscripts (R.I.A., MS 24 P 26; R.I.A., MS 12 Q 4; T.C.D., MS H 2 13).

²⁷ Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha is the acknowledged expert on the surviving Irish medical texts. See: Nic Dhonnchadha ‘Early Modern Irish medical writings’, pp 35–9; eadem, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’ in Angela Bourke et al. (eds), The Field Day anthology of Irish writing, iv: Irish women's writing and traditions (Cork, 2002), pp 341–57; eadem, ‘Medical writing in Irish’ in J. B. Lyons (ed.), 2000 years of Irish medicine (Dublin, 2000), pp 21–6; eadem, ‘Téacs ó scoil leighis Achaidh Mhic Airt’ in Ossory, Laois and Leinster, i (2004), pp 50–75; eadem, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart, Queen's County’ in Ossory, Laois and Leinster, ii (2006), pp 11–43; eadem, ‘On stretching and yawning’ in Ossory, Laois and Leinster, iii (2008), pp 237–49; eadem, ‘The “Book of the O'Lees” and other medical manuscripts and astronomical tracts’ in Bernadette Cunningham, Siobhán Fitzpatrick and Petra Schnabel (eds), Treasures of the Royal Irish Academy Library (Dublin, 2009), pp 81–91; eadem,‘The Irish Rosa Anglica’, pp 114–97.

²⁸ Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair (ed.), Anathomia Gydo (London, 2014).

²⁹ Deborah Hayden, ‘Observations on the “doors of death” in a medieval Irish catechism’ in Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, pp 26–56.

³⁰ Ibid.; Jason Harris, ‘Latin learning and Irish physicians, c.1350–c.1610’ in Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, pp 1–25.

³¹ Nessa Ní Shéaghdha, ‘Translations and adaptions into Irish’ in Celtica, xvi (1984), pp 107–24.

³² Whitley Stokes, ‘Three Irish medical glossaries’ in Archiv für celtische Lexikographie, i (1900), pp 325–47; Lilian Duncan, ‘A treatise on fevers’ in Revue Celtique, xlix (1932), pp 1–90; Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, p. xiii.

³³ Liam MacMathúna, ‘Terminology in Rosa Anglica’ in idem (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, pp 57–86.

³⁴ Ní Shéaghdha, ‘Translations and adaptions into Irish’, pp 107–24; Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 32–52.

³⁵ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 97.

³⁶ Harris, ‘Latin learning and Irish physicians’, pp 1–25.

³⁷ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 91.

³⁸ Samuel Johnson, A journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, a new edition (London, 1791), p. 260.

³⁹ H. C. Gillies, Regimen sanitatis, the rule of health: a Gaelic medical manuscript of the early sixteenth century or perhaps older (Glasgow, 1911), p. 6.

⁴⁰ The late-medieval Gaelic world extended in an arc from the south-western tip of Ireland through the Western Isles into Scotland above the Highland line. Independent clan-based lordships shared a common language, law and culture. See: Christopher Maginn, ‘Gaelic Ireland's English frontiers in the late middle ages’ in Proc. R.I.A., sect. c, cx (2010), pp 73–190.

⁴¹ George MacKay, ‘Ancient Gaelic medical manuscripts’ in Caledonian Medical Journal, ii (1904), pp 34–44; MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 5–71; O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 262–3; J. D. Comrie, History of Scottish medicine to 1860 (London, 1927), pp 22–5; Gillies, Regimen sanitatis, pp 1–16.

⁴² D. S. Thompson, ‘Gaelic learned orders and literati in medieval Scotland’ in Scottish Studies, xii (1968), pp 57–78

⁴³ Bannerman, The Beatons.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 83.

⁴⁵ Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 39–52; Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, ‘Gaelic service kindreds and the landscape identity of lucht tighe’ in Campbell, Fitzpatrick & Horning (eds), Becoming and belonging in Ireland, pp 167–88.

⁴⁶ A merkland was valued at one merk (mark), an old Scots coin worth 13s. 4d. A ploughland, carucate or ploughgate, was the area ploughed by an eight-oxen plough team in a year, anything from 60 to 180 acres. In Scotland a ploughgate, approximately 104 acres, was valued at 40s.; thus, a merkland was 35 acres. See: ‘Scots phrases’ in 2012 act registration manual (https://rosdev.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/2ARM/pages/58690463/Scots+Phrases) (22 July 2018); Thompson, ‘Gaelic learned orders and literati in medieval Scotland’, p. 65; Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland, territorial, political and economic divisions (Dublin, 2008), p. 25.

⁴⁷ Joyce, A social history of ancient Ireland, pp 601–2; Brian Ó Dálaigh, ‘Doctors Donnell and James Neylon and the O'Briens of Thomond, 1530–1599’ in The Other Clare, xv (1991), pp 15–19; ‘Farrancassidy’ in Placenames Database of Ireland (https://www.logainm.ie/en/60527) (22 July 2018).

⁴⁸ Other professionals holding lands from MacCarthy Mór in 1600 were: ‘Hagens (brehons), 3 ploughlands’ (380 acres), ‘O dallies (rimors), 2 ploughlands’ (240 acres) and ‘O donins (croniclers), ½ ploughland’ (60 acres) (W. F. Butler, Gleanings from Irish history (London, 1925), p. 117).

⁴⁹ David Edwards, ‘The MacGiollaPhádraigs of Upper Ossory, 1532–1641’ in P. G. Lane and William Nolan (eds), Laois: history and society (Dublin, 1999), pp 327–75.

⁵⁰ Thompson, ‘Gaelic learned orders and literati in medieval Scotland’, pp 57–78.

⁵¹ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 86.

⁵² Walsh, Gleanings from Irish manuscripts, p. 139.

⁵³ Johann Baptista van Helmont, ‘Confessio authoris’ in idem, Opera omnia (Frankfurt, 1682), p. 13; Jason Harris, ‘Latin learning and Irish physicians’, pp 1–25.

⁵⁴ Ó Muraíle, ‘The hereditary medical families of Gaelic Ireland’, pp 85–113.

⁵⁵ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, p. 34.

⁵⁶ Gregory Toner, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf and Dagmar Wodtko (eds), eDIL: Electronic dictionary of the Irish language (hereafter eDIL), s.v., líaigh (http://www.dil.ie/30125) (22 June 2017); s.v., íccaid (http://www.dil.ie/27151) (22 June 2017); s.v., betha (http://www.dil.ie/5779) (22 June 2017); Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 39–52; Nicholls, Gaelic & Gaelicised Ireland, p. 92.

⁵⁷ Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine’, p. 161.

⁵⁸ Bannerman, The Beatons, pp 7–80.

⁵⁹ Thompson, ‘Gaelic learned orders and literati in medieval Scotland’, pp 57–78; Bannerman, The Beatons, p 82.

⁶⁰ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 82.

⁶¹ David Hamilton, The healers, a history of medicine in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 23.

⁶² ‘Besides many crafts and sciences, which they have translated into their own tongue, they profess most the science of medicine, and are right excellent in it’: John Bellenden (trans.), The history and chronicles of Scotland written in Latin by Hector Boece (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1821), i, p. lix.

⁶³ Katherine Simms, ‘Gaelic culture and society’ in Brendan Smith (ed.), The Cambridge history of Ireland, i: 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018), pp 415–40.

⁶⁴ Shaw, ‘Medicine in Ireland in medieval times’, p. 11.

⁶⁵ In a colophon Tadhg Ó Cuinn stated that his Materia medica (T.C.D., MS 1343) derived from the ‘united studium of the doctors of Montpellier’, indicating that his degree may have been from Montpellier (Tadhg Ó Cuinn, ‘An Irish materia medica’, ed. Beatrix Färber, in CELT (https://celt.ucc.ie//published/G600006/index.html) (2 July 2019)).

⁶⁶ A.F.M., v, 1388–9.

⁶⁷ Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish language in the early modern period’, p. 519; Ó Dálaigh, ‘Doctors Donnell and James Neylon and the O'Briens of Thomond, 1530–1599’, pp 15–19; Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, p. xlvii.

⁶⁸ eDIL, s.v., ollam (dil.ie/33808) (26 July 2018).

⁶⁹ Paul Walsh, ‘An Irish medical family – Mac an Leagha’ in Colm Ó Lochlainn (ed.), Irish men of learning: studies by Father Paul Walsh (Dublin, 1947), p. 210.

⁷⁰ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, p. 342.

⁷¹ Bannerman, The Beatons, pp 2, 84.

⁷² Sheehan, ‘Locating the Gaelic medical families in Elizabethan Ireland’, pp 20–38.

⁷³ Cal. pat. rolls, 1340–43, pp 84–5; Shaw, ‘Medicine in Ireland in medieval times’, p. 12.

⁷⁴ J. T. Gilbert (ed.), Calendar of ancient records of Dublin (19 vols, Dublin, 1889–1944), ii, 102.

⁷⁵ Ibid., ii, 146–7.

⁷⁶ Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Eliz., ii, 122.

⁷⁷ Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine’, pp 165–8; J. B. Lyons, Brief lives of Irish doctors (Dublin, 1978), p. 36.

⁷⁸ ‘Observations made by Sir John Davys, attorney of Ireland, after a journey made by him in Munster’, [4 May 1606] (Cal. S.P., Ire., 1603–06, p. 476).

⁷⁹ See: Ní Shéaghdha, ‘Translations and adaptions into Irish’, pp 107–24.

⁸⁰ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical writing in Irish’, pp 21–6; eadem, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, pp 341–57.

⁸¹ Faith Wallis, Medieval medicine: a reader (Toronto, 2010), p. xxii; N. G. Siraisi, Medieval and early Renaissance medicine: an introduction to knowledge and practice (Chicago, 1990), pp 14–15.

⁸² Bannerman, The Beatons, pp 90–3.

⁸³ Ní Shéaghdha, ‘Translations and adaptions into Irish’, pp 107–24.

⁸⁴ D. A. Binchy, ‘Bretha crólige’ in Ériu, xii (1938), pp 1–77.

⁸⁵ MacMathúna, ‘Terminology in Rosa Anglica’, pp 57–86.

⁸⁶ Bernard of Gordon (c.1258–1320), a practising physician at Montpellier, published his most influential work Practica, seu Lilium medicinae in 1305 (Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600, p. 356).

⁸⁷ Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 39–52; Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, pp 356–7.

⁸⁸ Donnachadh (Duncan) Albanach Ó Conchubhair had studied at Aghmacart before returning to Scotland in 1600 as physician to the MacDougal of Dunollie (Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart’, p. 29).

⁸⁹ Bannerman, The Beatons, pp 98–9; MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 64–5.

⁹⁰ ‘Ocus mice Donnchadh do sgríb so ocus a dtig Eoin albanach atú fein ocus Domnall ó Leiginn.’ (‘And it is I, Donnchadh, that have written this; and in Scottish John's house I am, myself and Domnall Ó Leiginn.’) O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 238.

⁹¹ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart’, pp 11–43.

⁹² Ibid., p. 16.

⁹³ Ibid., pp 11–43.

⁹⁴ Examples include: John MacBeath's manuscript (B.L., Add. MS 15,582); University of Edinburgh, MS La. III 21; the Book of the O'Sheils (R.I.A., MS 23 K 42); and the Book of the O'Lees (R.I.A., MS 23 P 10 (ii)).

⁹⁵ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart’, pp 11–43.

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ Edward Campion, Two bokes of the histories of Ireland, ed. A. F. Vossen (Assen, 1963), pp 25–6.

⁹⁸ Harris, ‘Latin learning and Irish physicians’, pp 1–25.

⁹⁹ Great deeds in Ireland: Richard Stanihurst's De rebus in Hiberniae gestis, eds and trans. John Barry and Hiram Morgan (Cork, 2013), p. 127.

¹⁰⁰ Martin Martin, A description of the Western Islands of Scotland (London, 1716), p. 197.

¹⁰¹ Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, p. lvi.

¹⁰² O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 171, 175.

¹⁰³ Shaw, ‘Irish medical men and philosophers’, p. 78.

¹⁰⁴ A prosimetrum is a text written in prose and verse (Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘An Irish medical treatsise on vellum and paper from the 16^th century’ in Pádraig Ó Macháin (ed.), Paper and the paper manuscript (Cork, 2019), pp 111–25).

¹⁰⁵ Deborah Hayden, ‘Attribution and authority in a medieval Irish medical compendium’ in Studia Hib., xlv (2019), pp 19–51.

¹⁰⁶ Ó Cuinn, ‘An Irish materia medica’, ed. Färber.

¹⁰⁷ MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 64–5.

¹⁰⁸ O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 262–80; Gillies, Regimen sanitatis, p. 8.

¹⁰⁹ MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 283–6.

¹¹⁰ Royal Irish Academy, ‘Gaelic medical manuscripts from the academy collections’ (https://www.ria.ie/gaelic-medical-manuscripts-academy-collections) (29 July 2018).

¹¹¹ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The Book of the O'Lees’, pp 81–91.

¹¹² The Book of the O'Lees was a translation of the Latin text Tacuini aegritudinum et morborum ferme omnium corporis humani cum curis eorundem, itself a translation of Taqwim al-Abdan fi Dadbir al-Insan, an Arab text written by Ibn Jazlah of Baghdad (d. 1100) (Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The Book of the O'Lees’, pp 81–91; Tomás Ó Con Cheanainn, ‘Scríobhaí “Leabhar mhuintir Laidhe” agus “Rosa Anglica”’ in Éigse, xxxvii (2010), pp 112–18).

¹¹³ Other works he translated included: Bernard of Gordon's Liber prognosticorum and De decem ingeniis curandorum morborum, the first part of Guy de Chauliac's (1298–1368) Churgia magna (De anathomia), Gualterus (Walter) of Agilon's (fl. 1250) De dosibus medicinarum, and Thomas Aquinas's (1225–74) On the secrets of nature (Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical writing in Irish’, pp 217–20; eadem, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, p. 356).

¹¹⁴ O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 202.

¹¹⁵ These are: Almusór based on Geraldus de Solo's (c.1335–60) Practica super nono Almansoris; Materia medica derived mostly from the Circa instans of Mathaeus Platearius (fl. c.1150); and Colliget, based on the Compendium medicine of Gilbertus Anglicus (1180–1250) (Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, pp 356–7).

¹¹⁶ Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, p. xxxiv. C. P. Meehan in 1877 was the first person to state that it was O'Hickey, but provided no evidence to support this claim (Meehan, The rise and fall of the Franciscan monasteries, pp 446–63).

¹¹⁷ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical writing in Irish’, pp 21–6.

¹¹⁸ ‘Diversion’ was a technique believed to redirect the flow of humours from the deeper to the more superficial parts of the body, facilitating their expulsion (Wallis, Medieval medicine, p. 294; Hannah Newton, ‘“Nature Concocts & Expels”: the agents and processes of recovery from disease in early modern England’ in Social History of Medicine, xxviii, no. 3 (Aug. 2015), pp 465–86; Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart’, pp 11–43; Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘On stretching & yawning’, pp 237–49).

¹¹⁹ Harris ‘Latin learning and Irish physicians’, pp 1–25.

¹²⁰ Ní Ghallchobhair, ‘Anthomia Gydo’, pp 1–3.

¹²¹ Following the decree of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II (1194–1250), permitting human dissection, Mondino de Liuzzi (c.1270–1326), professor of surgery at Bologna, was the first to perform a public dissection on an executed criminal in 1315 (Susan Strandring, ‘A brief history of topographical anatomy’ in Journal of Anatomy, ccxxix, no. 1 (July 2016), pp 32–62.

¹²² Andrew Cunningham, The anatomical renaissance (Aldershot, 1997), p. 47; Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘On stretching & yawning’, pp 240–41, note 5.

¹²³ Guido Lanfranchi (Lanfranc) (c.1250–1306) was a prominent teacher of surgery in Paris where he wrote his book, Chirurgia magna: Harold Ellis, The Cambridge illustrated history of surgery (2nd ed., Cambridge, 2009), p. 28.

¹²⁴ Nic Dhonnchadha ‘Early modern Irish medical writings’, pp 35–9.

¹²⁵ Winifred Wulff, ‘Contra incantationes’ in Ériu, xii (1938), pp 250–3.

¹²⁶ Siraisi, Medieval and early Renaissance medicine, pp 133–40; Adrienne Albright, ‘Heavenly bodies: astrological medicine in Wellcome manuscript MS.40’ (http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/08/heavenly-bodies-astrological-medicine-in-wellcome-manuscript-ms-40/) (18 July 2019).

¹²⁷ Three medico-astronomical texts (R.I.A., MS B ii 1, R.I.A., MS 23 F 13 and Marsh's Library, Z 2 2 1) are very similar, but only R.I.A., MS B ii 1 (p. 2) contains a volvelle. See: I.S.O.S. (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (25 June 2020). Two other very impressive volvelles are in an Irish manuscript in Corpus Christi College, Oxford (Corpus Christi College, MS 129, ff 11r–11v); R. M. Thompson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (Oxford, 2011), pp 62–3.

¹²⁸ Albright, ‘Heavenly bodies’.

¹²⁹ Siraisi, Medieval and early Renaissance medicine, p. 140.

¹³⁰ O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 275.

¹³¹ Michael Stolberg, ‘The decline of uroscopy in early modern learned medicine (1500–1650)’ in Early Science and Medicine, xii, no. 3 (2007), pp 313–36.

¹³² University of Edinburgh, MS La. III. 21 is a small book, dated 1587, containing a calendar and astrological tables with advice on diet, uroscopy, and bloodletting. The book was owned by members of the MacBeath (Beaton) family and was probably used a handbook when seeing patients: MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 283–6.

¹³³ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Early modern Irish medical writings’, pp 35–9; Physician's folding almanac, c.1406 (B.L., Harley MS 5311), available online at: (http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_5311) (18 July 2019).

¹³⁴ T.C.D., MS 1435, p. 260, available online at I.S.O.S. (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (1 Aug. 2017).

¹³⁵ Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Excerpt from an Irish surgical treatise’ in Translation Ireland, i (2000/1), pp 3–4.

¹³⁶ Timothy O Neill, The Irish hand (Cork, 2014), pp 1–10.

¹³⁷ Most likely written by Domhnall Albanach Ó Troighthigh (O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 220–1).

¹³⁸ MacKinnon, A descriptive catalogue, pp 298–301.

¹³⁹ Ibid., p. 298; Bannerman, The Beatons, pp 109–10.

¹⁴⁰ O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts, i, 231.

¹⁴¹ Luke Demaitre, Medieval medicine: the art of healing from head to toe (Santa Barbara, 2013), p. 15.

¹⁴² Wallis, Medieval medicine, p. 6; Paul Strathern, Medicine, from Hippocrates to gene therapy (London, 2005), pp 8–11; M. R. McVaugh, ‘Medicine in the Latin middle ages’ in Irvine Loudon (ed.), Western medicine: an illustrated history (Oxford, 1997) pp 34–6.

¹⁴³ Demaitre, Medieval Medicine, pp 16–18.

¹⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 22.

¹⁴⁵ Strathern, Medicine, pp 8–11; McVaugh, ‘Medicine in the Latin middle ages’, pp 54–65.

¹⁴⁶ Ó Cuinn, ‘An Irish materia medica’, ed. Färber.

¹⁴⁷ R.I.A., MS 23 O 6, pp 34–5, available online at I.S.O.S. (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (26 June 2020).

¹⁴⁸ Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, pp 35–7.

¹⁴⁹ A. S. Rahmani, ‘Cassia fistula Linn: potential candidate in the health management’ in Pharmacognosy Research, vii, no. 3 (Jul.–Sept. 2017), pp 217–24.

¹⁵⁰ ‘Roots of fennel and iris, endive, maidenhair, liverwort, wood sage, red and white sanders, cinnamon, spikenard, wormwood, anise and andiva seeds, and sugar’ (Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, pp 299–301).

¹⁵¹ Demaitre, Medieval medicine, p. 59.

¹⁵² Roy Porter, The greatest benefit to mankind: a medical history of humanity from antiquity to the present (London, 1997), pp 73–7.

¹⁵³ This is possibly the first historical reference to the practice of bloodletting in Ireland (A.L.C., i, 275).

¹⁵⁴ Ware, Inquiries concerning Ireland and its antiquities, p. 22.

¹⁵⁵ In R.I.A., MS 23 F 19 and T.C.D., MS 1436 there are sections on the treatment of wounds. See also: Demaitre, Medieval medicine, p. 26.

¹⁵⁶ ‘The patient lies supine with hips high and head low and (the doctor) puts the guts up very gently with his finger, until they go in by degrees to their own place’ (Wulff (ed.), Rosa Anglica, p. 245).

¹⁵⁷ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 79.

¹⁵⁸ Martin, A description of the western islands, p. 198.

¹⁵⁹ Barra Ó Donnabháin, ‘A cut above: cranial surgery in medieval Dublin’ in Séan Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin II (Dublin, 2001), pp 216–32. A trephined skull from the eighth century was found at Ballyhanna, Co. Donegal (see: C. J. McKenzie and E. M. Murphy, Life and death in medieval Gaelic Ireland (Dublin, 2018), pp 379–81).

¹⁶⁰ H. F. Berry, ‘The Ancient Corporation of Barber-Surgeons, or the Guild of St. Mary Magdalene, Dublin’ in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, xxxiii (1903), pp 217–38.

¹⁶¹ Wulff, ‘Contra incantationes’, pp 250–3.

¹⁶² Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, The sacred isle: belief and religion in pre-Christian Ireland (Woodbridge, 1999), p. 78; James and Maura Carney, ‘A collection of Irish charms’ in Saga och Sed (1960), pp 144–52; P. F. Wallace, Viking Dublin: the Wood Quay excavations (Sallins, 2016), p. 410. For recent scholarship on Irish charms, see: John Carey, ‘Téacsanna draíochta in Éirinn sa mheánaois luath’ in Ruairí Ó hUiginn (ed.), Breis faoinár ndúchas spioradálta: Léachtaí Cholm Cille, 30 (Maynooth, 2000), pp 98–117; Jacqueline Borsje, ‘Medieval Irish spells: “words of power” as performance’ in Ernst Van den Hemel and Asja Szafraniec (eds), Words: religious language matters (New York, 2016), pp 35–53; Ilona Tuomi, John Carey, Barbara Hillers and Ciarán Ó Gealbháin, (eds), Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland (Cardiff, 2019).

¹⁶³ Wallace, Viking Dublin, pp 410–14; Vesterhavsøyenes runer, Runeinnskrifter fra Irland (http://www.arild-hauge.com/vesterhavsruner.htm#IRLAND) (26 June 2020).

¹⁶⁴ Howard Meroney, ‘Irish in the Old English charms’ in Speculum, xx (1945), pp 172–82; Charles Plummer, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford, 1910), p. clx (note 1).

¹⁶⁵ In Scotland, Alexander Carmichael produced three volumes of folk poetry in Irish collected from the Western Isles, many of which contain charms and incantations against various illnesses: Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (3 vols, Edinburgh, 1900, 1940), ii, 2–159.

¹⁶⁶ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘An Irish medical treatsise’, pp 11–25.

¹⁶⁷ Carney, ‘A collection of Irish charms’, pp 144–52.

¹⁶⁸ ‘For the prevention of every flow of blood. Egor egor memor memor tap tap cep cep, Set it thrice on the thumb and plunge it thrice against it, and it checks [it]’. Carney, ‘A collection of Irish charms’, pp 144–52. See R.I.A., MS 24 B 3, p. 55, lines 18–20 for the original text, available on I.S.O.S. (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (26 June 2020). I am indebted to Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha for this reference.

¹⁶⁹ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The medical school of Aghmacart’, pp 33–4.

¹⁷⁰ Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Irish medical writing, 1400–1600’, p. 342.

¹⁷¹ R.I.A., MS 23 N 29, available online at I.S.O.S. (https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html) (26 June 2020); Nic Dhonnchadha ‘Medical writing in Irish’, pp 21–6.

¹⁷² A.U., iii, 439.

¹⁷³ C. Innes, The book of the Thanes of Cawdor: a series of papers selected from the charter room at Cawdor, 1236–1742 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 303.

¹⁷⁴ Ibid. In 1707 twelve pounds Scots was equal to one pound sterling, so perhaps the fees were not as extreme as they first appear.

¹⁷⁵ James Hunter, Last of the free: a history of the Highlands and islands of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2000) p. 175.

¹⁷⁶ Ellis, ‘The collapse of the Gaelic world, 1450–1650’, pp 449–69; Jonathan Bardon, A narrrow sea: the Irish-Scottish connection in 120 episodes (Dublin, 2018), pp 69–77.

¹⁷⁷ Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine’, p. 133.

¹⁷⁸ Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 39–52; Kelly, A guide to early Irish law, p. 260; Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine’, p. 133.

¹⁷⁹ Members of the Ó Siadhail, Ó Caiside, Ó Maol Tuile and Mac an Beatha medical kindreds received estates of fifty to 300 acres in Counties Tyrone, Fermanagh and Cavan (Sheehan, ‘Law, poetry and medicine’, p. 192).

¹⁸⁰ Dillon, ‘Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland’, pp 32–52.

¹⁸¹ The Irish physicians were Dermot O'Meara, Christopher Talbot and John Verdon while the New English doctors were James Metcalfe and Paul Delaune. Other prominent Irish physicians at the time include Thomas Arthur and Gerald Fennell, both of whom graduated from Reims. See: M. A. Lyons, ‘The role of graduate physicians in professionalising medical practice in Ireland, c.1619–54’ in Kelly & Clark (eds), Ireland and medicine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pp 17–37.

¹⁸² Ibid.; Alf McCreary, Healing touch: an illustrated history of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (Dublin, 2015), p. 17; M. H. Kaufman, ‘Early history of the Royal College of Physician of Edinburgh’ in Res Medica, cclxviii (2005), pp 49–53.

¹⁸³ Barnard, Toby, A new anatomy of Ireland: the Irish Protestants, 1649–1770 (New Haven, 2003), p. 128Google Scholar; Hayton, D. W., ‘The emergence of a Protestant society, 1691–1730’ in Jane Ohlmeyer (ed.), The Cambridge history of Ireland, ii: 1550–1730 (Cambridge, 2018), p. 147Google Scholar.

¹⁸⁴ Duff, H. R., The Culloden papers, comprising an extensive and interesting correspondence from 1625 to 1748 (London, 1815), p. 301Google Scholar.

¹⁸⁵ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 121.

¹⁸⁶ Ibid., pp 121–2.

¹⁸⁷ Chapman, Allan, Physicians, plagues and progress: the history of western medicine from antiquity to antibiotics (Oxford, 2016), pp 181–9Google Scholar, 192–5, 206–12.

¹⁸⁸ Porter, The greatest benefit to mankind, pp 302–3.

¹⁸⁹ Bannerman, The Beatons, p. 125.

¹⁹⁰ Lyons, ‘The role of graduate physicians in professionalising medical practice in Ireland’, pp 17–37.

¹⁹¹ Simms, Samuel, ‘Nial O'Glacan of Donegal’ in Ulster Medical Journal, iv, (1935), pp 186–9Google Scholar; van den Tweel, Jan G. and Taylor, Clive R., ‘A brief history of pathology: preface to a forthcoming series that highlights milestones in the evolution of pathology as a discipline’ in Virchows Archives, cdlvii, no. 1 (2010), pp 3–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I would like to thank Dr Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha for her advice on earlier drafts of this article.