1. In Dublin, Trinity College, Library

In all there are 29 Medical manuscripts in TCD. The following are the more important of these:

2. In the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin

1. The RIA has a large number of medical manuscripts. Amongst these are the following:
2. 3. B. 15: Materia Medica.
3. 23 F 19. This is described by Wulff as 'a scrapbook of Irish medical tracts Irish medical tracts from Latin sources' and 'written on beautiful vellum, richly illuminated, with good ink which has scarcely faded, except a few pages which were probably exposed to the weather. The capitals are rubricated. Some are green, which is most unusual in Irish MSS. The scribe's name and the translator's name are lost. The date given is 1352, which, if correct, would establish it as the oldest Irish medical tracts Irish medical manuscript.' It was at one time in the possession of the Ó Céirín family of Co. Clare. Wulff used this manuscript, as well as RIA MS 23 M 36 and TCD MS E 4.1 (1436) for her edition of A Mediaeval Handbook of Gynaecology, for the text On Wounds (Irish Texts 5, London 1934), and for De Amore Hereos, Ériu 11 (1932) 174–181.
4. 23. N. 16: (Cat. 1488), Containing theAphorisms of Hippocrates, sections on acute diseases, medicines, diet, fevers, opening chapters of Lanfrank's Science of Cirurgie (Lanfrank, Chirurgia Magna, Venice 1490).
5. 23. P. 10: (P1): Book of the O'Lees. Cf. supra. (See W. Wulff, An liaigh in Eirinn a n-allod, Lia Fáil 3 and 4.)
6. 23. P. 20 (P.): Present text.
7. 23. O. 23: containing Materia Medica, among it Tadhg Ó Cuinn's Herbal, used by M. Ó Conchubhair in his unpublished edition.
8. 23. Q. 5: containing Materia Medica.
9. 23. I. 40: contains a Medical poem by Eochaidh O'Hussey to a friend suffering from the effects of high living.
10. 23. K. 42: Book of the O'Shiels, containing Aphorisms of Hippocrates, de urinis, Materia Medica. Cf. supra, XLVI. (See W. Wulff, An liaigh in Eirinn a n-allod, Lia Fáil 2.)

3. In the King's Inns Library, Dublin

The King's Inns Library contains several medical manuscripts, including the important MS 15, one of the finest Irish medical manuscripts in existence. It has 125 folios. The greater part of it was written by Mailsheachlann Mac an Leagha, hereditary physician to the Mac Donnchaidhs in co. Sligo (see ISOS catalog entry), in 1512 (See W. Wulff, An liaigh in Eirinn a n-allod, Lia Fáil 1.) It contains De Chirurgia by Petrus de Argellata; and compilations derived from Gerardus de Solo, John of Gaddensden's Rosa Anglica and Bernard de Gordon's Lilium Medicinae, on the following topics: Ulcers, wounds, cancer, tertian, quotidian and quartan fevers; sinocus, ephemera, baldness, greyness, itch, frenitis, hemicrania, madness, lethargy, apoplexia, stupor, spasmus, epilencia (sic), tears, deafness, eyes, nose, noli me tangere, teeth, throat, pleurisy, peripneumony, continual fever, phthisis, tremor cordis, stomach, hiccup, liver.

In the portion on Quotidiana (fol. 80r) John of Gaddesden is quoted; and there is frequent reference to Gerard de Sabloneta, along with the usual list of mediaeval doctors.

1. MS 16 contains chapters on leprosy, sweat, lientery, dysentery.
2. MS 17 is interesting. O'Reilly says that it was written at least as early as the 12th or 13th century (?). Drawings of figures of peasants, etc., on pp. 1 and 5, in the costume of that period, tend to confirm this opinion. It contains sections from Galen and Hippocrates, a chapter on gonorrhaea from Constantinus, diabetes, etc.
3. MS 18 is similar in contents, in various hands.

4. In the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh (Advocates' Library)

A considerable number of Gaelic manuscripts in this Library are taken up with medical matter. (See George Mackay, Ancient Gaelic medical manuscripts, The Caledonian Medical Journal: new series, 6/2, October 1904, 34-45 (with plates).

Of these MS 2 contains various MSS of different sizes bound together evidently by someone who did not understand the contents. Vellum pages at the beginning contain treatises on blood, fevers, bone, herbological and philosophical subjects. On paper there are treatises on secretion, sediments, fever, veins, diseases of different parts of the ear, philosophy, pregnancy, astronomy, medical terms, gout, prescriptions, etc. Also a tract on the virtues of aqua vitae, one on diseases of the eyes, teeth, and heart; and a panegyric on Hippocrates. (Variants from this MS are used in Wulff's edition of De Amore Hereos, Ériu 11 (1932) 174–181.)

NLS Gaelic MS III, fo.1–80, 15th century, contains 286 articles of Tadhg Ó Cuinn's Herbal. It was written by a scribe 'Gilla Colum' and later in possession of John Beaton who signed his name on folio 53b in 1671 (Ó Conchubhair p. 12) and cf. Bannerman, p. 38.

1. MS 3: a treatise on botany and herbology, a materia medica in alphabetical order.
2. MS 4: a tiny MS, vellum, 99 leaves, 2 1/2" x 1 3/4"; a collection of definitions and technical terms, chiefly in medicine, by the great authorities. On fol. 56b. 'Gadisten' explains Apostema .i. nescoid.
3. MS 10: (Kilbridge Collection, No. 6) is well written on ten large leaves; a treatise on fevers, diet, etc., compiled from Hippocrates, Galen, Rhases, Isidurus, Isaac, Averroes, Serapion, John of Damascus, Aristotle and the Commentators.
4. MS 12: (K. C. no. 8) contains 21 large leaves, consisting of anatomy, the Calendar, Natural Philosophy, physiology, etc.
5. MS 13: (K. C. no. 9) contains a treatise on medicine, especially the use of medicine for different temperaments, chronic diseases, convalescence, climate and paralysis, etc. (Variants from this MS are used in Wulff's edition of De Amore Hereos, Ériu 11 (1932) 174–181.)
6. MS 20: (K. C. no. 16) on different kinds of fevers from red blood and from impure blood, etica, diabetes, on the breast, its diseases and other cures. cf. supra.
7. MS 21: (K. C. no. 17) A treatise on gynaecological subjects and sundry disorders, translated from Hippocrates.
8. MS 33: (K. C. no. 19) Highland Society, Kilbride no. 2, contains a Calendar on vellum, with notes on the diet for the various months. The rest is on paper, very worn and ragged, consisting of a tract on anatomy from Galen, treating of the brain, heart, liver, testes; a physiological treatise on the brain, the senses, the nerves, etc.; spells, medical aphorisms and a tract on urine. The transcriber of the last is Donald mac an Olla, at that time in Donegal. On the first page in Latin is written John Macbeth is this book's possessor; Culrathine 22 April 1700; on the last page is Leabhair Giolla Choluim Macbeathadh, the books of Gille-Colum (Malcolm) Macbeth.
9. MS 60: (Miscellaneous no. 3) partly Latin, partly Gaelic. A compendious treatise on medicine, 476 pages, probably for the most part taken from Galen. A list of diseases with glosses in Gaelic; a copy of Schola Salernitana, written to the King of England; anatomy, materia medica, etc.; treatise on urine, written by Angus O Concuber.
10. MSS 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 27, and half of 26, all belonging to the Kilbride Collection, are medical.
11. MSS 33 and 60 of the Highland and Agricultural Society are almost exclusively medical, and No. 41 is bound in a piece of medical MS.

5. SOCIETY OF SCOTTISH ANTIQUARIES
Since 1934 deposited in the National Library of Scotland, MS 2076

Translation of Lilium Medicinae of Bernard of Gordon (Bernardus Gordonius), and De Decem Ingeniis curandi morbos. 714 pages. One of the longest Gaelic manuscripts which are extant. It belonged to the (Husabost) Beatons of Skye; and was presented to the Antiquaries' Society in 1784 by Rev. Donald Macqueen, of Kilmuir, in Skye. See also John Bannerman, The Beatons. A medical Kindred in the Classical Gaelic Tradition. [Paperback] (Edinburgh 1998).

6. EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.

1. MS I, in Laing Collection, contains a history of the Macbeths of Beatons; also medical matters, fevers chiefly.

7. BRITISH MUSEUM

(cf. O'Gr. op. cit. and Flower, op. cit. p. 629.)

Harl. 546, dated 1459, translated by Cormac Mac Duinntshléibhe and written by two unnamed scribes, contains the following

Additional 15, 582, ff. 8-69: Medical tracts and excerpts from various sources:

1. Tract derived from a portion of John of Gaddesden's Rosa Anglicana (sic): De passionibus Stomachi.
2. Collection of recipes against various diseases.
3. Tracts on Materia Medica, etc.; Portion on Lithotomy, translation of Gaddesden's , De operacione cum ferro in lapide . Cf. supra, YBL, p. 352.

Egerton 159, paper, 1592:
Medical tracts, a compilation from various sources.

HERBALS

Mention must also be made of the large number of herbals in manuscript, which contain for the most part explanations of the Latin Materia Medica. Many of these are quaintly ingenuous and fantastic, cf. the remark that rhubarb is a tree that grows in India, etc. Among these I have made special use of RIA. 3. B. 15 in the vocabulary. This MS bears the following interesting title page:

An luibheadoir iar na chuma a Salmanca sa Spainn le Villiam O Hiceadha liaig san mbliaghain daois ar tTighearna 1132 (!) — iar na sgriobhu chuim usaide 7 caitheamh aimsire Hannraoi Joseph Heard dochtuir diadhachta a ccorca le Michael O Longain isan mbliaghuin 1829.

Several of these herbals have been published by Whitley Stokes.

Additions: National Library of Ireland

There are various manuscripts in the NLI Wulff did not mention.