Bibliography
Sciences and learning
grammar
Hiberno-LatinIrish: Auraicept, bardic grammatical tracts, early modern, FranciscanWelsh, Brittoniccomputistics and astronomy
computisticsastronomyHealth and medicine
IrelandScotlandWalesBrittanyMagico-medical learning (properly belongs to some other list)
medical charmsprognosticationsHealth and medicine in Ireland
Results (151)
Vries, Ranke de, “Medieval medicine and the healing of Caílte in Acallam na senórach”, North American Journal of Celtic Studies 5:1 (Spring, 2021): 49–82.
abstract:
This article examines the healing of Caílte in the late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century text Acallam na senórach from a medieval medical perspective. According to the text, Caílte suffers from long-lasting injuries, particularly from mobility issues caused by a poisoned spear. The healing itself, performed mainly by Bé Binn, a female member of the Túatha Dé Danann, takes place in three stages: (1) healing through vomiting; (2) curing Caílte's head afflictions with a head rinse; and (3) extracting the poison and other gore from his legs. After this, as a parting gift, Bé Binn provides Caílte with a potion that restores his memory. This article argues that the healing sequence shows familiarity with medieval medical practice derived from European and Arabic medical sources up to two centuries before the appearance of the earliest medical manuscripts.
Hayden, Deborah, “Medieval Irish medical verse in the nineteenth century: some evidence from material culture”, Irish Historical Studies 45:168 (November, 2021): 159–177.
abstract:
This article presents an edition and translation of an Irish didactic poem found in a large compilation of remedies, charms and prayers that was written in the early sixteenth century by the Roscommon medical scribe Conla Mac an Leagha. The contents of this poem, and of the treatise in which it occurs more generally, are of inherent interest for our understanding of the history of medical learning in medieval Ireland. However, the poem is also of particular significance due to the fact that its penultimate stanza, which invokes the authority of one ‘Colmán mac Oililla’, is attested in two much later sources that provide insight into the transmission and reception of medieval Irish medical texts in the early nineteenth century, as well as into the relationship between manuscript, print and material culture during that period. The two sources in question, one of which is a previously unprovenanced signboard now kept in the Wellcome Collection in London, can both be connected with the work of the Munster ‘herb doctor’ Michael Casey (1752?–1830/31), who in 1825 advertised the publication of a new herbal containing cures derived from much earlier Irish-language medical manuscripts.
Hoyne, Mícheál, “The assassination of Mág Raghnaill and the capture of his ship in 1502”, Studia Hibernica 46 (2020): 53–66.
abstract:
This article presents an edition and translation of a short memorandum found in RIA MS 23 N 29 (Cat. 467). The text records the assassination of Mág Raghnaill, chief of Muintear Eólais, by rival members of his family on Easter Sunday 1502, and describes the assassins’ journey from Lough Ree to Lough Key with the slain chief’s ship.
Grace, Pierce A., “Medicine in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, c.1350–c.1750”, Irish Historical Studies 44:166 (November, 2020): 201–223.
abstract:
Between c.1350 and c.1750 a small group of professional hereditary physicians served the Gaelic communities of Ireland and Scotland. Over fifty medical kindreds provided advice regarding health maintenance and treatment with herbs and surgery. Their medical knowledge was derived from Gaelic translations of medieval European Latin medical texts grounded in the classical works of Hippocrates and Galen, and the Arab world. Students studied in medical schools where they copied and compiled medical texts in Irish, some for use as handbooks. Over 100 texts are extant. Political upheaval and scientific advances led to the eclipse of this medical world. Through examination of the Gaelic medical manuscripts and other sources this article provides an assessment of medicine in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries.
Cunningham, John, “Sickness, disease and medical practitioners in 1640s Ireland”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 61–83.
abstract:
This chapter explores the medical environment of 1640s Ireland, particularly during the 1641 Rebellion. It uses the 1641 Depositions to explore how people understood reported sickness and disease. It also traces the experiences of a broad range of medics during a period of warfare and significant social and political upheaval. In doing so, it enables an important new perspective on medicine in Early Modern Ireland.
Vries, Ranke de, “A short tract on medicinal uses for animal dung”, North American Journal of Celtic Studies 3:2 (2019): 111–136.
abstract:
This article contains a semi-diplomatic edition of a short, hitherto unedited, Early Modern Irish text which can be found in the fifteenth-century manuscript TCD 1343, pp. 113–114. The text in question provides recipes for simple medicines containing the dung of a variety of animals: goats, sheep, dogs, cows, bulls, mice, ducks, swallows, doves, and chickens. It is found roughly seven pages after Tadhg Ó Cuinn's An Irish materia medica, edited by Micheál P. S. Ó Conchubhair, and contains references to the second book of Avicenna's Canon of medicine. The two most pertinent capita from (a Latin version of) Avicenna have been transcribed and translated in an appendix.
Hayden, Deborah, “Attribution and authority in a medieval Irish medical compendium”, Studia Hibernica 45 (2019): 19–51.
abstract:
This contribution will examine some aspects of an unpublished Irish medical compendium that consists mainly of herbal prescriptions for various ailments, broadly arranged in the a capite ad calcem order typical of medical treatises from both the early and later medieval periods. The collection in question is remarkable for the fact that it includes several recipes cast in verse form, as well as a number of charms, the latter of which have received the bulk of the very limited scholarly attention that has thus far been devoted to the text. An equally noteworthy aspect of this compendium is that it contains a relative paucity of references to the standard medical authorities of the university curriculum, a feature that sets it apart from many other medieval Irish translations of, or commentaries on, Latin medical texts. Particularly striking is the fact that, of the comparatively small number of references to medical authorities that do occur in the compendium, the majority invoke the Irish healer Dían Cécht and other figures of the mythological race known as the Túatha Dé Danann, whose activities are well attested in a range of other medieval Irish textual sources. The following discussion aims to shed light not only on the nature of this compendium as a whole but also on that of vernacular Irish medical writing more widely, by examining the use and context of authoritative citations within the work.
Elmer, Peter, “Promoting medical change in Restoration Ireland: the chemical revolution and the patronage of James Butler, duke of Ormond (1610–88)”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 84–101.
Tait, Clodagh, “Causes of death and cultures of care in County Cork, 1660–1720: the evidence of the Youghal parish registers”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 123–146.
abstract:
Very few parish registers survive from Early Modern Ireland, and those that do have rarely been systematically exploited by scholars. This chapter addresses this lacuna in the historiography of Early Modern Ireland by paying close attention to the Church of Ireland registers from Youghal, Co. Cork in the period 1660–1720. It sets out what the registers can tell us about births and deaths in the town, as well as the apparent impact of disease and epidemics in an urban setting. The chapter explores causes of death and also offers a case study of birth patterns in one family.
Cunningham, John (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Social Histories of Medicine, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019.
Hayden, Deborah, “The lexicon of pulmonary ailment in some medieval Irish medical texts”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 66 (2019): 105–130.
abstract:
Le terme loch tuile ne se trouve pas dans les sources lexicographiques qui ont été publiées jusqu’à présent pour les langues gaéliques. Il est utilisé, cependant, pour faire référence à la maladie pulmonaire dans des manuscrits médicaux irlandais copiés pendant les quinzième et seizième siècles, dans un cas comme glose interlinéaire sur le texte juridique en vieil-irlandais connu sous le nom de Bretha Déin Chécht (‘Les jugements [du médecin mythologique] Dían Cécht’). Il s’agit dans cet article d’examiner quelques attestations de ce terme et de ses dérivés, en faisant appel à textes qui se trouvent dans quatre manuscrits différents. La discussion vise alors à élucider quelques aspects de la terminologie médicale gaélique pendant l’époque médiévale, et aussi à faire des observations préliminaires sur les liens qui auraient existé entre les manuscrits en question.
Ó Conchubhair, Micheál P. S., “An Irish materia medica”, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, Online: University College Cork, 2019–. URL: <https://celt.ucc.ie//published/G600006>
abstract:
TEI XML text of an Irish materia medica still (work in progress as of early 2019) in Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1343. The published text is based on the work of Micheál P. S. Ó Conchubhair (d. 1993), whose edition and translation remained unpublished.
Sheehan, Áine, “Locating the Gaelic medical families in Elizabethan Ireland”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 20–38.
abstract:
This chapter sheds new light on an important group of practitioners in Tudor Ireland: the Gaelic families who practised hereditary medicine across much of the island. It seeks to locate key families geographically and discusses the importance of patronage and travel for individual practitioners. The chapter also explores the significance of warfare and other factors in influencing the work of these medics.
Hazard, Benjamin, “Early modern medical practitioners and military hospital systems in Flanders and the south-west of Ireland”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 39–60.
abstract:
This chapter is concerned with the relationship between large-scale warfare and the establishment of military hospitals in Flanders and Ireland in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It reflects on the work of Irish medics in the employment of Spain before focusing particular attention on the military hospital at Mechelen. The significance of the field hospital set up by the Spanish at Castlehaven on the southern coast of Ireland is also assessed.
Grace, Pierce A., “From blefed to scamach: pestilence in early medieval Ireland”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 118 C (2018): 67–93.
abstract:
Between A.D. 540 and 795 a series of major epidemics occurred in Ireland. Recorded in the Irish annals, each outbreak was given a name in Latin or Irish, but without clinical details the identity of specific diseases is speculative. Tentative diagnoses are: bubonic plague (blefed, second buide chonnail, mortalitas puerorum), relapsing fever or infectious hepatitis (first buide chonnail), Hansesn's disease or any scaly skin disorder (samthrosc, lepra), smallpox (bolgach), dysentery (riuth fola), lameness from polio or a cattle zoonosis (baccach) and pneumonia (scamach). Through examination of the annals and their interpretation by medical and other historians, this article provides an overview of the diseases in Ireland during the early medieval period and offers novel suggestions as to the identity of some of the disorders described.
Ó Murchú, Liam P. (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016.
Harris, Jason, “Latin learning and Irish physicians, c. 1350–c. 1610”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016. 1–25.
Hayden, Deborah, “Observations on the ‘doors of death’ in a medieval Irish medical catechism”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016. 26–56.
Ó Muraíle, Nollaig, “The hereditary medical families of Gaelic Ireland”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016. 85–113.
Mac Mathúna, Liam, “Terminology in Rosa Anglica”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016. 57–84.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “The Irish Rosa Anglica: manuscripts and structure”, in: Liam P. Ó Murchú (ed.), Rosa Anglica: reassessments, 28, London: Irish Texts Society, 2016. 114–197.
Simms, Katharine, “O’Friel’s ghost”, in: John Carey, Kevin Murray, and Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (eds), Sacred histories: a Festschrift for Máire Herbert, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015. 401–408.
Hayden, Deborah, “On the meaning of two medieval Irish medical terms: derg dásachtach and rúad (fh)rasach”, Ériu 64 (2014): 1–21.
Johnson, Máire, “Medicine and miracle: law enforcement in the Lives of Irish saints”, in: Wendy Turner, and Sara Butler (eds), Medicine and the law in the middle ages, 17, Leiden: Brill, 2014. 288–316.
abstract:
The nexus of law, medicine, and miracle lies at the heart of and serves to underline issues of status in the Lives of Ireland's saints. The Irish society visible in the vernacular law tracts of the seventh and eighth centuries is heavily stratified. One of the signal elements of status about which the Lives offer a merging of medicine, law, and miracle involves the expectations placed on women. Sovereignty is an issue on which the saints' acts frequently offer a miraculous and medical commentary. The saints of Ireland's medieval vitae and bethada move through a hagiographical society in which the tenets of vernacular law figure prominently. The present analysis has explored numerous cases in which saints inflicted medical miracles upon members of their community in the service of upholding and defining the laws of early Ireland, with particular emphasis on the proper recognition of the saint's position.
Ní Ghallchobhair, Eithne [ed. and tr.], Anathomia Gydo, Irish Texts Society, 66, London: Irish Texts Society, 2014.
abstract:
Anathomia Gydo is the only surviving medieval surgical text to have been translated into Early Modern Irish. The work consists of thirteen chapters and it follows the order of the original Latin text written by the famous French doctor, Guy de Chauliac (c. 1295-1368). Its modern significance, however, lies more in the socio-historical and lexical information it provides that in its medical content. This is the first time that this work has been edited and made available with an English translation.
Fitzpatrick, Siobhán, “The heavens, earth and imagined islands: an introduction to the medieval medical and astronomical resources of the Royal Irish Academy Library”, in: Mary Kelly, and Charles Doherty (eds), Music and the stars: mathematics in medieval Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013. 159–195.
Wulff, Winifred, “On wounds [previously unpublished translation]”, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, Online: University College Cork, 2013–. URL: <https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T600012>
abstract:
This edition is based on unpublished galley proofs of a book intended to be published by the ITS before Wulff died (1946). It was to comprise a medical tract, entitled Hortus Sanitatis, and English translations of various shorter texts published elsewhere, such as this, and a fragment on the Grades (RIA 23 F 19). The Irish texts on Wounds and on the Grades were published by Wulff in 1934 and are available online at CELT (G600012 and G600011). CELT is indebted to the Council of the ITS who kindly gave their permission to make this translation available online. The galley proofs have not been edited at CELT (except for resolving some queries) but have been arranged in numbered paragraphs to line with the arrangement in Wulff's 1934 edition. Unfortunately, one page of proofs was missing. The text in question (last sentence of para.1; and 2) was kindly translated by Alan mac an Bhaird.
Crawford, Ciara, “Disease and illness in medieval Ireland”, PhD thesis, National University of Ireland: Maynooth, 2011.
NUI Maynooth – eprint: <link>
abstract:
This thesis explores various aspects of the medical system, and illness/disease for the medieval period (5th-12th centuries) in Ireland. On examining three archival source-types (hagiographical material, annals, medico-legal law texts), it became clear that there were different perspectives on health and healing for this period. Two distinguishing models came to light, a ‘Christian (religious) explanatory model’ and a ‘Naturalistic Model’. The former model centered mainly on the hagiographical material and elements related to Christian doctrine; however, aspects of this model were found in the annals also. The latter model was to be found in the annals and medico-legal law texts; both sources provided naturalistic aspects in relation to cause, cure/treatment and the legalities of illness and injury. The anthropological literature acted as a valuable interpretative tool when addressing these models and the processes of healing which took place. For example, the hagiographical material contained much religious symbolism in relation to illness causation and healing; the annals displayed symptomatic, prophylactic and naturalistic elements related to cause of illness; the medico-legal texts contained naturalistic aspects also; however, they came from a different perspective, they centred on the legalities of the medical system and took an empirical approach to cure. This thesis aims to convey how these two models, which were composed of three perspectives, when combined provided a picture of the health care system in medieval Ireland. These sources individually outline a range of illnesses, injuries and plagues; they also demonstrate the existence of healers. The anthropological literature has enabled this system to be placed in a particular cultural context; it has allowed us to see a medical system which was composed of different parts, yet function and act as one system. A second and no less important element of this thesis is the connect ion that is conveyed between the medical system and other institutions in society; the medical system acted as a window into the entire order of society.
Woods, David, “Adomnán, plague and the Easter controversy”, Anglo-Saxon England 40 (2011): 1–13.
abstract:
Adomnán's description (Vita Columbae II.46) of how the intercession of St. Columba preserved the Picts and the Irish in Britain alone among the peoples of western Europe against two great epidemics of bubonic plague is a coded defence of their use of the traditional Irish 84-year Easter table against the Dionysian Easter table as used throughout the rest of western Europe. His implication is that God sent the plagues to punish those who used the Dionysian table. Hence Adomnán still adhered to the 84-year table by the time that he composed the Vita Columbae c. 697. It probably took a third epidemic 700–c. 702 to persuade Adomnán that his interpretation of the earlier epidemics was incorrect, so that Bede (HE V.15) is correct to date his conversion to the Dionysian table to a third visit to Northumbria c. 702.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “[Various catalogue descriptions]”, Anne-Marie OʼBrien, and Pádraig Ó Macháin, Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) – Meamrám Páipéar Ríomhaire, Online: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2010–. URL: <https://www.isos.dias.ie>
Ó Con Cheanainn, Tomás, “Scríobhaí ‘Leabhar Mhuintir Laidhe’ agus ‘Rosa Anglica’”, Éigse 37 (2010): 112–118.
Kelly, James, and Fiona Clark (eds), Ireland and medicine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, The History of Medicine in Context, London: Ashgate, 2010.
abstract:
The story of early modern medicine, with its extremes of scientific brilliance and barbaric practice, has long held a fascination for scholars. The great discoveries of Harvey and Jenner sit incongruously with the persistence of Galenic theory, superstition and blood-letting. Yet despite continued research into the period as a whole, most work has focussed on the metropolitan centres of England, Scotland and France, ignoring the huge range of national and regional practice. This collection aims to go some way to rectifying this situation, providing an exploration of the changes and developments in medicine as practised in Ireland and by Irish physicians studying and working abroad during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Bringing together research undertaken into the neglected area of Irish medical and social history across a variety of disciplines, including history of medicine, Colonial Latin American history, Irish, and French history, it builds upon ground-breaking work recently published by several of the contributors, thereby augmenting our understanding of the role of medicine within early modern Irish society and its broader scientific and intellectual networks. By addressing fundamental issues that reach beyond the medical institutions, the collection expands our understanding of Irish medicine and throws new light on medical practices and the broader cultural and social issues of early modern Ireland, Europe, and Latin America. Taking a variety of approaches and sources, ranging from the use of eplistolary exchange to the study of medical receipt books, legislative practice to belief in miracles, local professionalization to international networks, each essay offers a fascinating insight into a still largely neglected area. Furthermore, the collection argues for the importance of widening current research to consider the importance and impact of early Irish medical traditions, networks, and practices, and their interaction with related issues, such as politics, gender, economic demand, and religious belief.
Dillon, Charlie, “Medical practice and Gaelic Ireland”, in: James Kelly, and Fiona Clark (eds), Ireland and medicine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, London: Ashgate, 2010. 39–52.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “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: Royal Irish Academy, 2009. 81–91.
McLeod, Neil, “Crólige mbáis”, Ériu 59 (2009): 25–36.
abstract:
D.A. Binchy believed that a crólige mbáis was an injury that had been diagnosed as fatal. He considered that the only compensation payable for such an injury was the payment provided for in Bretha Crólige §2. He stated that the law had changed significantly by the time of the later legal commentaries. These commentaries suggest (a) that a crólige báis was merely an injury that put the victim in danger of death, and (b) that the payment in Bretha Crólige §2 substituted only for the provision of sick-maintenance. The present article argues that the law in the commentaries on these two matters held good for the earlier period as well.
McLaughlin, Roisin, “Fénius Farsaid and the alphabets”, Ériu 59 (2009): 1–24.
abstract:
This paper examines evidence for the existence of an alternative tradition to that found in Auraicept na nÉces concerning the role played by Fénius Farsaid in the invention of the alphabet of Irish and those of the three sacred languages—Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The sources to be considered are Auraicept na nÉces, In Lebor Ollaman, a Middle Irish text in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud 610, glosses on the copy of Auraicept na nÉces in TCD MS E 3.3 (1432) and the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville.
Kelly, James, “‘Drinking the waters’: balneotherapeutic medicine in Ireland, 1660-1850”, Studia Hibernica 35 (2008–2009): 99–146.
Sharpe, Richard, “In quest of Pictish manuscripts”, The Innes Review 59:2 (Autumn, 2008): 145–167.
abstract:
In 1698 Humfrey Wanley examined a manuscript at Gresham College, which had been described as a history of Pictland in the Pictish language. The book (now British Library, MS Arundel 333) contains titles to this effect added in the late sixteenth century, but, as Wanley realised, its texts are Irish medical translations from Latin, made at the beginning of the sixteenth century. A longer note about Pictish provinces, added by the same hand, and the identity of the writer are investigated; the hand is that of the owner of the book, Lord William Howard, rather than the historian William Camden as was thought in the past. Wanley’s correction appears in William Nicolson’s Scottish Historical Library in 1702 and in correspondence between himself and Edward Lhuyd in the same year. In 1702 Lhuyd discovered the englynion in the Cambridge copy of Juvencus, exchanging views with Wanley and others on this and further manuscripts containing early Brittonic words. Between 1702 and 1707 Lhuyd developed a theory that the Juvencus manuscript was written in the land of the Picts and that its Welsh verses, the oldest monuments of Hen Brythoneg, were in the Pictish language. He saw himself as uncovering both linguistic and manuscript evidence for British writing across the full range of British territory from south to north, Brittany to Caledonia. Lhuyd’s idea that Pictish was similar to British was followed by Innes, but modern Pictish scholarship has not recognised that the idea goes back so early.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “The medical school of Aghmacart, Queen's County”, Ossory, Laois and Leinster 2 (2006): 11–43.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “Winifred Wulff (1895–1946): beatha agus saothar”, Léachtaí Cholm Cille 35 (2005): 191–250.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “Eagarthóir, téacs agus lámhscríbhinní: Winifred Wulff agus an Rosa Anglica”, in: Ruairí Ó hUiginn (ed.), Oidhreacht na lámhscríbhinní, 34, Maynooth: An Sagart, 2004. 105–147.
Woods, David, “Note: Acorns, the plague, and the ‘Iona Chronicle’”, Peritia 17–18 (2003–2004): 495–502.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann [ed.], “Irish medical writing, 1400–1600”, in: Angela Bourke, Siobhán Kilfeather, and Maria Luddy [et al.] (eds), The Field Day anthology of Irish writing, vol. IV: Irish women's writing and traditions, Cork: Cork University Press, 2002. 341–355.
Williams, John Alfred, “The Irish astronomical tract: a case study of scientific terminology in 14th century Irish”, unpublished M. Phil. thesis, University of Sydney, Department for Celtic Studies, 2002.
: <link>
abstract:
Included in this work, is a general historical overview of the development of astronomical knowledge in the West from the realms of Greek scholarship in classical times through to the Renaissance and the threshold of modern physics. The subject matter of both the Irish Tract and this review extends beyond the strict confines of astronomy, encompassing the physical sciences in general. The extent of astronomical knowledge in medieval Ireland is given specific attention with a review of scholarly works in Latin since the seventh century. This includes a number of specialist studies on astronomical topics and related cosmographical fields. Also included are numerous incidental references to astronomical matters from both Irish and Latin literature during the Middle Ages. Attention is devoted to the surviving manuscript copies of the Tract and the question of its sources, origin and purpose. A possible Dominican context for the compilation and dissemination of the Tract is considered. A detailed commentary of the technical content of each chapter is presented, together with reference to contemporary developments in the West and to the occasional clues as to the institutional, geographical and chronological origins of the Tract. A study of the technical terminology used by the Irish compiler is presented in detail. Reference is made both to earlier Irish terminology where appropriate, as well as to the limitations imposed by the fact that many of the scientific concepts were yet to attain clarity that came with the advent of Newtonian physics, Copernican astronomy and post-Colombian geography. The data entries on ms Stowe B are evaluated and compared with computer generated data of astronomical movements in the 14th and 15th centuries with a view to ascertaining the time of compilation of the Tract and its working life. A A revised English translation of the Tract is included in the appendices together with Maxwell Close's unpublished commentary to relevant portions. An Irish edition, closely following the ITS edition of 1914 is also included. Corruptions to the text are footnoted together with the likely run of the original text.
Nic Dhonnchadha, Aoibheann, “Medical writing in Irish”, Irish Journal of Medical Science 169:3 (2000): 217–220.
McLeod, Neil, “The not-so-exotic law of Dian Cécht”, in: Geraint Evans, Bernard Martin, and Jonathan M. Wooding (eds), Origins and revivals: proceedings of the First Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, 3, Sydney: Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Sydney, 2000. 381–393.
“Royal Irish Academy”, Anne-Marie OʼBrien, and Pádraig Ó Macháin, Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) – Meamrám Páipéar Ríomhaire, Online: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1999–present. URL: <https://www.isos.dias.ie/collection/ria.html>
