Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)

subsection 18

RIA MS 448 (3 A 36):

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A transcript of the Book of the O'Shiels, RIA MS 447, made by Joseph and Micheál Ó Longáin in 1870.

An English translation of the Materia medica, made by Joseph Ó Longáin in 1870 and based on the copies in the O'Shiel MS (RIA 447) and RIA 462, is contained in RIA MS 463 (24 M 28). This may be of interest for the names of the plants.

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The doctors and the apothecaries

Ireland was not alone in suffering a state of conflict and hostility between its two communities, Gaelic and Anglo-Irish, each side regarding the other as savage predators, and not without reason. In Asia, the Mongol hegemony was breaking up, so that the land routes from India were impassible. Christian and Muslim glared at one another across the Mediterranean, while, closer to home, the English and the French were at one another's throats in the hundred years' war. It is surely a tribute to the resilience and adaptability of human beings that, in spite of all this, life went on.In Ireland, the two communities, for all their mutual hostility, found it possible to deal with one another in various ways. The Anglo-Irish towns all had their Irishtown suburbs, where people from the Gaelic areas came to settle and to work in the towns. Some Anglo-Irish communities outside the towns adopted the Irish way of life in many of its aspects. Military alliances between groups on the two sides were not uncommon; their alliance with their neighbours, the Clann Aodha Buidhe, enabled the Savages of the Ards peninsula to maintain their position and their prosperity throughout the later Middle Ages. Even the Government sometimes employed Gaelic troops.The professions that were recognised in Gaelic society included poets, historians, musicians, lawyers, ecclesiastics, and, of course,

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the physicians, who traced their art and its practice back to prehistoric times.There appears to have been an unsystematised form of primary education, which provided the basics for children destined for the professions, for the children of the upper classes, and for others. From there, the professional students went on to the specialised schools which the professional families ran to train the next generation. In addition, the medical families sent some of their young hopefuls to the great medical schools, particularly, it appears, Montpellier, that had developed over the previous two or three centuries on the Continent. The medical courses of the time were quite long, beginning with general subjects, and continuing with study of the principal medical texts, such as Avicenna's Canon of medicine, Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicinae, and the writings of Arnaldus de Villa Nova.When the students qualified, they came home and went into the practice of the profession, including teaching in the Irish medical schools. For the purposes of the local schools, they translated some of the texts they had studied abroad into Irish, and a considerable body of manuscript translations of Latin medical texts, made at this time, has survived to preserve their memory. Our present text is one of these, and the number of copies of it which we still have indicates that it was widely used in the schools and by the physicians.When the new science was adopted in Ireland, many of the medical texts current in Latin were translated into Irish, but the Bible of the Irish doctors was the Lilium Medicinae of Bernard of Gordon. This

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man was Master of the Medical University of Montpellier. A number of writings are attributed to him, produced between 1294 and 1308, but his greatest work, published in July, 1305, in the twentieth year of his service in Montpellier, was the Lilium. This is a comprehensive textbook of the medicine of the time, making quite a tome. In the middle of the 15th century, it was translated into Irish as Lile na heladhan leighis by Cormac mac Duinn Shléibhe. A beautiful copy of this translation, made by Domhnall Albanach Ó Troighthigh in 1482 (it was sold for 20 cows in 1500) is preserved in the British Library as MS Egerton 89. Other copies are in the Royal Irish Academy, 3 C 19, and Trinity College MS 1341 (H. 3.20). The Gaelic Lilium Medicinae in MS 2076 of the National Library of Scotland (this copy cost 60 milk cows) was the "physical pandect" of Fearchard Mac Bethadh, Farquhar Beaton, physician to the Lord of the Isles, in the early 17th century. It is of interest that the Irish took to the pragmatic Bernard rather than to intellectuals like Avicenna, Averrhoes and Arnald of Villanova. C. H. Talbot (1978) p. 419 refers to the Montpellier school as being ‘more concerned with sick people than with theories of sickness.’Some Irish versions of medical texts that have been published in modern editions are Regimen Sanitatis, follamhnughadh na sláinte (Gillies, 1911), John of Gaddesden's Rosa Anglica (Wulff, 1929), A Treatise on Fevers (Duncan, 1932), "Trotula's" Muliebrium Liber (Wulff, 1934), the De Dosibus of Gaulterus (Sheahan, 1938), Regimen na Sláinte, a version of the Regimen Sanitatis of Magninus of Milan (Ó Ceithearnaigh, 1942). Some shorter texts have been published by Winifred Wulff, e. g. De amore hereos, Ériu xi 174; Pestilentia, Ériu

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x; De chirurgia, Lia Fáil i 126–9; sections of a copy of our text in Lia Fáil i. Further information about the medical men and their writings is given by Meehan (1872, 373–390), Moore (1908), Shaw (1939, 1952, 1966), Walsh (1947), Binchy (1952), Dunlevy (1952), Ní Shéaghdha (1984), and also by the Gaelic Manuscript Catalogues of the various libraries, mainly the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, King's Inns, National Library, National Library of Scotland, and the British Library.Every chieftaincy had a physician as one of its ollamhain or professional functionaries. The post was usually a hereditary one, descending in the same family for many generations, and it was remunerated with a holding of land. The physician was well-off enough and of sufficient status to enable him, apparently as part of his function, to maintain a guest house (teach aided coitchend) providing hospitality for the general public: Simms (1978) p. 71. The Annals of Connaught (Freeman, 1944) record, in the year 1527, the death of the wealthy Dr. Dunlevy, who kept a guesthouse: he was of the family who were physicians to the O'Donnells of Donegal:
‘An Docduir [Donnchad] mac Eogain h. Duinnhslébi, sai re leighus & annsna healadnaibh ele d'urmor & fer conaigh moir et tighi oiged, do dul d'ecc an tres la ria féil San Proinséis.’Other physicians who were deemed worthy of having their deaths recorded in the same annals were ‘Muris mac Donnchada h. Beigléighinn, sai re leighus (1528),’ ‘O Siaghail, ollam leighis Innse hEogain (1531)’ and ‘Illann Buide mac Maoilsechlainn meic Illainn Meic an Legha, sai re

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leigius (1531).’ As regards Dr. Dunlevy, the title ‘docduir’ indicates a University training, made possible, no doubt by the family's wealth. Tadhg Ó Cuinn and Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe also had degrees. It is clear, however, that University training was not considered essential. One of his pupils said of Donnchadh Óg Ó Conchubhair, physician to Mac Giolla Padraig of Ossory, that he was ‘rogha legha Érenn ina aimsir fen (tuig riot gan dul a hÉrinn do dhénamh foghluma).’ He had, however, made a copy of the Irish version of the Lilium medicine himself, and he gave it to his pupils to copy: RIA Cat. p. 1172; MacKinnon p. 275.The Anglo-Irish towns existed for the purpose of trade, and they could not have survived without their trade with their Gaelic neighbours. From time to time, officialdom issued edicts forbidding any intercourse with the "Irish enemies", but the need for trade forced the authorities to withdraw their restrictions whenever things were on a fairly even keel. Waterford in 1345, Cork in 1382, Limerick in 1391, Kinsale in 1400, and New Ross in 1402, were all permitted to make peace with the Irish and to trade with them (Mac Niocaill, 1964, II 394). The story Harrison discusses (1986), where a whiskey maker sent a school-boy ("memorise this as you do your lessons") to town, on his own, to buy pepper and anise for the whiskey, shows that the Gaelic people had ready access to the towns and the shops, at least as individuals.It is not difficult to accept, then, that the physicians operating in the Gaelic areas had a fair degree of contact with their colleagues in the towns, at least with the apothecaries. The reader will notice in Ó Cuinn's work that some of the Irish names of plants

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and materials are derived from the French and English languages, but it will also be noticed that a great many exotic materials are mentioned with an air of familiarity which indicates that the author knew about them and used them, and he could not have obtained them without the services of the apothecaries in the towns.There is a reference to apothecaries in the Irish translation (c.1450) of Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicine (MS Egerton 89, written in 1482, fo. 32va) ‘diaquilon .i. treta bis ac na poiticairibh’. In the 1551 edition of the Latin text, the substance referred to is diachylon, but there is no reference to apothecaries. It is likely that there were apothecaries in the Irish towns as there were in the towns of England and the Continent. Rudolf Schmitz (1961) has established firmly that there were apothecaries, in the sense of pharmaceutical retailers, in the German towns from about the year 1300 at least. There are references to apothecaries in Circa Instans: e. g. the version of the chapter on ‘Margarita’ in the Erlangen copy states ‘Alie non sunt perforata et peiores quas ponunt apothecarii in medicinis’. Trease (1964) shows that, certainly by the time of our text, the apothecary was a familiar figure in England. In his paper of 1959, p. 19–20, he states:
‘In England some trade in spicery had long existed, but evidence from many sources indicates that in the thirteenth century it had assumed considerable proportions . . . The spicers were primarily retail traders, although some were engaged in overseas trade and even owned ships . . . By the fourteenth century spicers were found in most large

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provincial towns and some were obviously men of substance. The term apotheca, meaning originally a store-place, particularly for wine, gradually came to mean a store-place for spicery and eventually a pharmacy. In England the name apothecarius became common in the latter half of the thirteenth century. It was applied to a spicer who tended to specialise in pharmacy.’ In the Liber primus Kilkenniensis (McNeill, 1931), Johannes Spicer appears as a juror in 1344; Adam Spicer appears as a burgess in 1383–4 (p. 69) and he is mentioned again in 1391–2 (p. 46). English surnames often indicated the trade of the bearer of the name.Writing in 1965, Trease and Hodson print an inventory of the stock-in-trade of John Hexham, an apothecary of London, which was made in 1415, the same year that our Tadhg Ó Cuinn wrote his book. Hexham was hanged for coining false money, and the inventory was taken in the course of the legal proceedings relating to the charge against him. The inventory, with the notes supplied by Trease and Hodson, is as follows ( AN and PA indicate a preparation in the Antidotarium Nicolai (Nicolaus Salernitanus, 1484–85) or Pharmacopoeia Augustana):
InventoryNotes
1. Agret 2 oz. pretii 1 d.1. probably agresta or unfermented grape juice;
2. Azarum 2 oz. 2 d.2. azarum or asarabacha;
3. Lignum aloes 1 lb. 20 d.3. aloes wood;
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4. Cardamome & oz. 20 d.4. cardamom fruits or seeds;
5. Ireus 2 oz. 1 d.5. orris root;
6. Gensyan 2 oz. 3 d.6. gentian root;
7. Gomeder 1 qr. 2 d.7. probably a gum;
Os de cost' cervi 2 pecie 2d.8. ... it seems probable that os de cornu cervi is intended. This could be the ordinary horn of the animal or the so-called hart's heart bone which Renodaeus ... describes as ‘that ossicle which adheres to the basis of an old hart's heart ... from its figure, much resembling a cross, hunters call it Hart's cross;’
9. Rubarbe 3 oz. 2 d.9. rhubarb;
10. Spykenard 2 oz. 5 d.10. true or Indian spike (compare items 13 and 18);
11. Aloes citrini 1 oz. 2 d.11. a variety of Socotrine aloes;
12. Sene 1 qr. 1 d.12. senna leaves or pods (compare items 70 and 75);
13. Spica selteca 2 oz. 2 d.13. Celtic nard or spike root (compare item 10);
14. Trussa dyani 3 oz. 3 d.14, 15, and 16 contain the word "Trussa" ...
15. Trussa dyarodian 2 oz. 2which if regarded as equivalent to "Trochisci" then has corresponding preparations in the pharmocopoeias, ...
16. Trussa mirre 3 oz. 6 d.namely Trocisci Diani AN, Trocisci Diarodon AN and Trochisci de Myrrha PA;
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17. Bayes 3 lb. 3 d.17. bay-laurel berries;
18. Spic' cetica ½ lb 4 d.18. as item 13;
19. Calamus aromaticus ½ lb 2 d.19. acorus or sweet-flag root;
20. Lytarg' aur' 6 lb. 12 d.20. golden litharge or lead oxide;
21. Bys 1 oz. 8 d.21. these berries are too expensive to be the same as item 17 and we suggest the mediaeval dye stuff and drug, kermes;
22. Dyasaturian ½ qr. 2 d.22. Diasaterion AN;
23 Trifa sarazonica 3 qr. 12 d.23. Tri[f]era Sarracenica AN;
24. Yera pigra galiene 2 oz. 4 d.24. Yera Pigra Galieni AN;
25. Dyaffenicon 1 lb. 2 s.25. Diapenidion Magna AN;
26. Conserva violate 1 qr. 4 d.26. conserve of violets;
27. Pulpa casalophistula 3 d.27. pulp of cassia fistula fruit;
28. Potus antiogie 3 lb. 2 s.28. unidentified;2
29. Ciripis sitomor' 6 oz. 5 d.29. possibly a syrup of citrus or lemon
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30. Surip' spig'enell 4 oz. 4 d.30. possibly syrup of spikenard;
31. Surip' capill' veneris 2 lb. 2 s.31. syrup of maidenhair, Syrupus Capillorum Veneris PA;
32.Axsedule ½ lb. 6 d.32. probably axungia or lard;
Surip' andyne 3 qr. 6 d.33. sedative syrup;
34. Surip' boragin' ½ lb. 6 d.34. syrup of borage;
35. Surip' eupatorie 2 lb. 1 qr. 2 s.35. Syrupus de Eupatoria PA;
36. Surip' fum'terre 2 lb. 1 qr. 36. Syrupus de Fumoterrae PA;
37. Sur' ictericie ½ lb. 6 d.37. hardly legible but ictericus means "against jaundice".
38. Sur' prassii 1 lb. 16 d.38. syrup of horehound, Syrupus de Prassio PA;
39. Sur' oximeldoratik 2 lb. 1 qr. 16 d.39. a syrup of diuretic oxmel, Oxymel Diureticum PA;
40. Sur' ros' 1 lb. 8 d. 40. Siropi Rosacei AN;
41. Sur' scabiose 2 ½ lb. 2 s.41. Syrupus de Scabiosa PA;
42. Unguentum agrippa 2 lb. 12 d.42. Unguentum Agrippe AN;
43. Unguentum geneste 6 lb. 18 d.43. ointment of genista or broom;
44. Unguentum aur' 8 lb. 2 s. 8 d.44. golden ointment, Unguentum Aureum PA;
45. Unguentum marciatum 5 lb. 20 d.45. Unguentum Marciaton AN;
46. Unguentum Aragonium 3 lb. 12 d.46. Unguentum Arrogon AN;
47. Oleum laurium 3 lb. 12 d.47. oil of laurel berries;
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48. Unguentum nervale 5 lb. 20 d.48. doubtful but possibly Unguentum Nihili PA;
49. Pepllion' vetus 2 ½ lb. 12 d.49. poplar buds used for making Unguentum Popleon AN;
50. Dialtia 6 ½ lb. 12 d.50. marshmallow, either root or ointment;
51. Salie vetus 2 lb. 8 d.51. possibly Salvia vitae, which in Gerard of Cremona's herbal is given as a synonym for Ruta muraria, or Wall rue;
52. Oleum mastic' 1 lb. 8 d.52. an oil containing mastic, Oleum Mastichinum, Mesue PA;
53. Oleum exetr' 1 lb. 6 d.53. doubtful, but possibly the Exeter Oil, Oleum Excestrense mentioned by Quincy;
54. Oleum new faris 2 lb. 8 d.54. presumably similar to Oleum Nenupharinum of the 1618 London Pharmacopoeia;
55. Oleum croci 1 lb. 16 d.55. oil of saffron, Oleum ex Croco, Mesue PA;
56. Oleum costinum ½ lb. 2 d.56. Oleum Costinum, Mesue PA;
57. Oleum juni' 1 qr. 1 d.57. Oleum Juniperi PA;
58. Oleum castorii 1 lb. 8 d.58. an oil containing castoreum, Oleum Castorei PA;
59. Oleum wulpinus 3 lb. 2 s.59. Oleum Vulpinum, Mesue PA;
60. Oleum benedictum 2 ½ lb. 2 s. 6 d.60. Oleum Benedicte was prescribed for Edward I when he was dying and the remedy may be the Oleum Nardinum Benedictum referred to by Arnold of Villanova ...
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61. Oleum absinthii ½ lb. 1 d.61. Oleum Absinthii PA;
62. Oleum mastic' 3 qr. 6 d.62, same as 52;
63. Oleum castorii ½ lb. 2 d.63. same as 58;
64. Oleum nuniferis 3 qr. 3 d.64. same as 54;
65. Oleum sambuci 1 qr. 1 d.65. Oleum Sambucinum PA;
66. 20 nova viol' et 80 glass' cum diversis aquis 10 s.66. Twenty new vials and eighty glass bottles with various waters;
67. 1 latyse 4 d.67. probably lattice, or screen for window;
68. Piliaur' et gerepegra ½ lb. 16 d.68. Pylulae Aurae Nicolai PA and Pylulae de Hiera PA (formulae attributed to both Galen and Nicolaus);
69. divers' (?pro) letewar 5 lb. 16 s. 8 d.69. probably, various drugs for making electuaries;
70. Pulvis ceni ½ lb. 2 d.70. powdered senna;
71. Emplastrum restrativum 1 lb. 8 d.71. probably the Electuarium resumptionem sive ad restaurandum humiditatem of the Dispensarium Nicolai Praepositi, which ... was supplied to Henry III in 1265 ...
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72. Emplastrum de granis laurei' 6 oz. 4 d.72. Emplastrum de Baccis Lauri, Mesue PA;
73. Dya palma 5 oz. 2 d.73. a preparation of palma, a drug we have failed to identify; Thorndike in Herbal of Rufinus, p. 292, quotes Synonima ‘spaltea, id est palma’;
74. Gra' dei minor 2 oz. 1 d.74. Gratia Dei or Herb Robert;
75. Seny 12 lb. 2 s.75. senna;
76. Papaveris alb' 2 lb. 4 d.76. white poppy, presumably capsules;
77. Saxifrage 1 lb. 1 d.77. saxifrage herb;
78. Letuse 2 lb. 4 d.78. lettuce, presumably seeds;
79. Semen carkamy ½ lb. 2 d.79. bastard-saffron seeds, carthamum;
80. 1 firepanne cum les tonges 3 s. 4 d.80. firebasket and tongs;
81. Candelstikkes 4 pecie 16 d.81. candlesticks;
82. 1 hamperium cum tribus cooperculis 4 d.82. hamper with three covers;
83. 2 lanterne 2 d.83. two lanterns;
84. candelstikk 3 pecie 6 d.84. candlestick;
85. 1 par de gobardes 20 d.85. a pair of cobbards or cob- irons;
86. 2 disci picti 2 d.86. possibly, "ditto" and like No. 85;
87. 2 girdyrenes 2 trevetes et 1 fryingpanne87. two gridirons, two trivets (tripod or bracket) and one frylng-pan;
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88. 1 watertankard 8 d.88. water-tankard;
89. 1 musterdpot 2 d.89. mustard-pot;
90. celura cum 4 curtinis 6 s. 4 d.90. ceiling or panelling with four curtains;
91. 1 cooperlectulum cum tester de worsted 3 s. 4 d.91. bed cover with a testa or bed-canopy of worsted;
92. 1 stillatorium 2 s. 4 d.92. a still.
It will be seen that there are very few items in that inventory that are not reflected in our text.Trease (1959) prints a number of statements of account for drugs and related commodities supplied by various apothecaries to the English royal household in the period 1252–1313. As he says, ‘they show drugs actually used and not merely those represented in formularies’, though it must be noted that this was a century before the time of our text. The materials mentioned in the statements are as follows, the relative entry (where there is one) in our Glossary being added in brackets:
  1. Aloe and aloe cicotino (aloes),
  2. ambra (ambra),
  3. ambre orientale,
  4. antimoni,
  5. aqua vite; "Probably one of the earliest references to it in British records",
  6. argentum puro (airgead),

    7. p.33

  7. auro (or),
  8. boile armeniche (uir sleibhe Armeinia),
  9. cadmeauri (slaidteach),
  10. calamenti (cailimint),
  11. camamille (camamilla),
  12. candi (siucra),
  13. casafistul' (casia fistula),
  14. castor (castorium),
  15. ceüe (?)(mong mer),
  16. cere (ceir),
  17. ceruge (blath in luaidhe),
  18. cinimat' Alex' (cainel),
  19. cironis fundatis de gummis,
  20. claretum (claired),
  21. curalio (cruel),
  22. diantos (diantos),
  23. diaciminum (diasiminum),
  24. diacitoniton,
  25. diadragant'
  26. diamargariton (diamargaireton),
  27. diapenidion (diapinidi),
  28. diaquilon
  29. diaroddon abbatis (diaradon),
  30. diazinziberios,
  31. dyacameron,
  32. dyagalanga (diagalanga),
  33. dragees,

    34. p.34

  34. electuar' ad restaur'
  35. electuario confortativo,
  36. ensens (olibanum),
  37. fleur de fewes (ponaire),
  38. fleur de orge (eorna),
  39. fleurs de violés (sail cuach),
  40. gariof' (clobus),
  41. giginbres,
  42. grane,
  43. guimmauves (leamhach),
  44. guminis (gum),
  45. iacintar',
  46. ladano (laudanum),
  47. let de femmes (bainne),
  48. liquirice (licoiris),
  49. litarge (slaidteach),
  50. mac' (mas),
  51. margarit' (nemann),
  52. mastiz (maisdix),
  53. mauves (leamhach maighe),
  54. mel (mil),
  55. merre (mirr),
  56. milelott (eachseamar),
  57. musco (muscus),
  58. olle rosat (ola),
  59. oil rosat et violet et camamill',
  60. oleo benedicto,

    61. p.35

  61. oleo de terebinthino distillate,
  62. oleo de tritico,
  63. oleum fraxini,
  64. oleum laurino (ola),
  65. penides,
  66. pewleus (poiliol ruibel),
  67. pinguedine castor,
  68. pione,
  69. polii mianti (puliol montanum),
  70. pomis granatis (ubull),
  71. resumptioni,
  72. reubarb' (reubarbrum),
  73. reysins (risine),
  74. rosat novelle,
  75. roses (rós),
  76. roses, felé de,
  77. saturie (tulcan),
  78. sauge (saidsi),
  79. seminis,
  80. sire verge,
  81. stomatici confortationi,
  82. tamarinde (tamuirindi),
  83. terra sigilata (talam selaithi),
  84. triasandali (sandaili),
  85. tustie (tuisia),
  86. unguento cum aloe cicotino et cadmeauri
  87. unguenti cum balsamo et aloen cicotino,

    88. p.36

  88. vino malorum garnatorum,
  89. volveus,
  90. zeodar,
  91. zucar (siucra),
  92. zucar' rosat' (siucra),
  93. zucar violat (siucra).
Trease (1964) states that Dioscorides' book on Materia Medica, which was written in Greek in the first century A. D., and was translated into Latin in the sixth century, remained the basis of all books on Materia Medica until the seventeenth century (p. 9). He adds the following opinion (p. 15), based, apparently, on the Corpus of Simples which was written by Ibn al Baitar (1197–1248) of Malaga (the relative headings in our Glossary are given in brackets):Whilst it is virtually impossible to say that a particular drug had not been used previously in Egypt or Mesopotamia, most of the following do appear to be Arab introductions from India or the Far East
  1. musk (muscus),
  2. cloves (clobus),
  3. dragon's blood (fuil dreagain),
  4. galanga root (gailingan),
  5. betel nut,
  6. sandalwood (sandaili),
  7. rhubarb (reubarbrum),
  8. nutmeg (nutamicc),

    9. p.37

  9. tamarind (tamuirindi),
  10. cassia bark (cainel),
  11. croton oil,
  12. nux vomica.
The use of sugar (siucra) is characteristic of Arab pharmacy. From India cultivation of the sugar cane spread to Persia and was later introduced by the Arabs into Cyprus, Sicily and Spain.

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Examples may be given of some scattered references which indicate that the exotic materials discussed by Ó Cuinn were readily available in the towns. In 1306 the Nicholas of Down was wrecked on Portmarnock strand, and the cargo she had been carrying included spices in barrels ‘of great value’ (de Courcy Ireland, 1986, 78). An account of the exports from Bristol to Ireland in 1479–80 includes 1 1/4 lb. of saffron (Mac Niocaill, 1964, II 516). James Mills, in editing the Account roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, 1337–1346, which lists the expenditure of the Priory, says:
‘Among groceries and foreign produce (which were in proportion much higher in price than the home-grown articles) are olive oil (6d. a quart), almonds, walnuts, rice (usually in conjunction with almonds), salt, white salt (the best qualities, the cheaper salts being very impure), pepper (20d. a lb.), verjuice, figs (2d. a lb. ), mustard, saffron, spices.’In addition, we find, in the roll itself, references to the purchase of rose-water and sugar for 14d, ginger and mustard for ½ d, sulphur for 3d (for treating oxen and farm horses), and on page 92 we find 2d being paid ‘cuidam garcioni eunti apud Kyldar pro oleo & crismate ibidem petendis’.

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In 1250, permission was given to levy tolls at Dublin on certain goods, including woad, salt and spice, and in 1336 a somewhat similar permission included customs on dates: Gilbert (1889) i 9, 14.Imported plant materials are referred to in the Ormond deeds, e.g. ginger root (1286), figs, raisins and spices (1287), cummin (1290), almonds and pepper (about 1400): Curtis, 1932.A grant of murage by the king to the city of Cork in 1284 discusses the import of wax, pepper, almonds, rice, cumin, alum and woad. ‘The trade in these was probably in the hands of the merchant companies, the Ricardi of Lucca, the Friscobaldi etc., whose European connections gave them more facilities for dealing in them.’: O'Sullivan, 1937, pp. 38, 287. The same grant mentions a trade in ‘common cinders’, which probably indicates one of the products the Gaelic people traded for the imported goods they bought in the towns. These cinders were the ashes of their wood fires, and they were in great demand in England because they were used in the manufacture of soap and glass. The bulk of what the Gaelic people traded consisted of hides, skins, wool and wool fells.As to where the apothecaries obtained their supplies, there is little difficulty as far as the common wild plants of the country-side were concerned. These were gathered by the country-women, and it is likely that the children had a hand in the work. John Keogh has this to say:
‘You will gain great advantage by having the name of the herb in Irish, for in case you did not know it or where you might find it, only repeat the name in Irish to one

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of your little botanists, and he will fetch it to you presently.’Although, like John Keogh, he was writing in the eighteenth century, long after our period, it is interesting to see Caleb Threlkeld's references to the Herb Women who sell bugle by the name of wood betony, the Herb Folks who sell wood sage in the city, the duilleasg which is hawked about the streets by the cry of dullisk, and which is ‘sold near the gate of the Fifth Market on the Fingallian side of Dublin’; if his taste deceive him not, the fruit of the black bullace-tree are sold about the streets by hawkers for damsons; the poor women gather the fraghans in Autumn, and cry them about the streets of Dublin.Ó Cuinn discusses many plants which are rare, or which do not grow naturally in Ireland, and, although some of these may have been imported in dry form, it would appear that most of them were grown in gardens in Ireland. There is abundant evidence, summarised in the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary, for the existence of the lubgort, or herb garden, in Ireland in early times. In a law tract dated to the eighth century, it is stated ‘Ni dlig nach otrus tarsunn la Féne acht lus lubgoirt, air is airi derónta lubgort ar forchill notrusa.’ (i.e. ‘No person on sick maintenance is entitled in Irish law to any condiment except garden herbs, for it is for this purpose that gardens have been made, viz. for care of the sick.’: Binchy, 1934-38, pp. 22 and 23. The Benedictines introduced their own version of the herb garden to Northern Europe and the Cistercians brought it to Ireland in the twelfth century.

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A plan has survived from the year 820 of the herb garden of the monastery of St. Gall, with a note of the plants which were grown there. More interesting, perhaps, is the poem by Walafrid Strabo (printed by Choulant, 1832) about his ‘Little Garden’, the Hortulus

, in which he extols the benefits of gardening (for one thing, it takes your mind off sex) and the virtues of the plants he grew himself, much the same plants that they had in St. Gall. He was abbot of the monastery of Reichenau, on a beautiful island in Lake Constance, in the North East of Switzerland, not far from St. Gall. The herb garden was a very conservative institution, as was the tradition relating to the medicinal uses of herbs, and it is not at all unlikely that the herb gardens that existed in Ireland in Ó Cuinn's time were similar to Strabo's garden of the ninth century. Nearly all the plants grown by Strabo are discussed by Ó Cuinn, and he gives them all Irish names, even those which do not grow naturally here. Strabo's plants, and Ó Cuinn's Irish names for them, are set out now. The identification of the plants in modern terms is that provided by Fischer (1929, p. 138–9). The items marked with an asterisk (*) are included by Webb as occurring naturally in Ireland.
  1. Abrotanum: southernwood, suramunt. Artemisia abrotanum.
  2. Absinthium: wormwood, uormont. Artemisia absinthium*.
  3. Agrimonia: agrimony, marbhdroighin. Agrimonia eupatoria*.
  4. Ambrosia: tansy, lus na bhFranc. Tanacetum vulgare*.
  5. Apium wild celery, meirse. Apium graveolens*.

    6. p.42

  6. Betonica: betony, biotoine. Stachys officinalis*.
  7. Cerefolium: chervil, comann gall. Anthriscus cerefolium
  8. Cucurbita: gourd or pumpkin, cucuirbita. Cucurbita lagenaria.
  9. Feniculum: fennel, feinéal. Foeniculum vulgare*.
  10. Gladiola: iris, soileasdar. Iris pseudacorus*.
  11. Libysticum: lovage, lubháiste. Levisticum officinale.
  12. Lilium: Madonna lily, lilidh. Lilium candidum.
  13. Marrubium: horehound, orofunt. Marrubium vulgare*.
  14. Mentha: peppermint, mionntas. Mentha piperita*.
  15. Nepeta: catmint, neift. Nepeta cataria*.
  16. Papaver: poppy, poipin. Papaver spec.*.
  17. Pepones: melon, mealón. Cucumis melo.
  18. Pulegium: pennyroyal, poiliol rulbhéal. Mentha pulegium*.
  19. Raphanus: radish, Raphanus sativus; in our text, the term is applied to the horse-radish — see the Glossary s.v. racam.
  20. Rosa: rose, rós. Rosa spec.
  21. Ruta: rue, ruibh. Ruta graveolens.
  22. Salvia: sage, sáitse. Salvia officinalis.
  23. Sclarea: clary, caince choille. Salvia sclarea.
Ó Cuinn himself refers on several occasions to gardens, and he describes a number of plants as garden species: persilli gharrdha

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(Petroselinum crispum), praiseach gharrdha (Brassica oleracea), unneamhain gharrdha (Allium cepa), meirse gharrdha (Apium graveolens), sidubal garrdha (Valeriana pyrenaica), isoip gharrdha (Hyssopus officinalis)An entry in the Liber primus Kilkenniensis (McNeill, 1931, p. 112–3) illustrates a number of aspects of the life of the time. It may be paraphrased as follows:

‘The 16th of May, 1500. There was a ‘variance’ between Piers Archer, merchant of Kilkenny, and Muiris Ryan, inhabitant of the same, touching a garden which the said Muiris held from year to year for rent of the prior and convent of the hospital house of Saint John the Evangelist beside Kilkenny, in which he had made madder (madra in Glossary, Rubia tinctorum). It fortuned after, that a farm (a superior title) was given to the said Piers by the said prior and convent. The following Easter, Piers attempted to compel Muiris to take with him his madder out of the said garden, without giving him due notice. [To regulate similar situations for the future, it was] enacted that a tenant holding a garden or any other land for rent from year to year, not in way of farm, shall not be compelled by the lord of the garden or land to dig out his madder until it be two years old; and after the year, the said tennant shall have half a year more to take his madder with him for his profit.’

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The same record book reports (p. 109), for 1498–9, an enactment dealing with the case where a labourer digs out madder before it is mature.The story of how spices and other goods made their way to the remote corners of Ireland from the Middle East, India, and the Far East, is an amazing one, given the circumstances prevailing. The land routes from India, which had been used from time immemorial, were impassible at this time, apparently, and the trade was almost entirely sea-borne, This trade was conducted by the Arabs, mostly by the Jews who lived among them, and the Jewish side of the story has been told by S. D. Goitein. They had established trading posts on the West coast of India, where goods were brought from all over the sub-Continent, and from other places there were brought such items as rhubarb from Tibet and camphor and cloves from Indonesia. The goods were brought by sea from India to the East coast of Africa, and carried overland from there to Alexandria. A sufficient partial truce was arranged between the Christians and the Muslims to enable merchants from Venice to come to Alexandria to buy the goods from the East, and the Venetians then organised the distribution of these goods throughout Europe. Rawdon Brown (1864) tells of the convoy of ‘Flanders galleys’ that sailed once every year since about 1317 from Venice all the way to the South coast of England, and then on to Flanders. Wholesalers bought the goods from them in the Southern English ports, and then resold them to apothecaries all over England, and presumably sent them also to Ireland. Brown prints the following tables of the goods the Venetians brought with them. These tables are reproduced on pp 45–48 from Rawdon Brown, Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 1, 1202-1509, p. cxxxvi–cxxxix. See the online edition at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol1/cxxxv-cxxxix.

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Even in the obscure times before the changes that were begun in Salerno, something of the influence of the civilization of the Eastern Roman Empire percolated through to Western Europe. The recipe literature of the West in those times was based largely on the writings of Byzantines like Alexander of Tralles and Paul of Aegina. Through the Empire, many Eastern drugs became known and used, including some that were introduced to Europe by the Arabs, such as camphor, galingale and zedoary: Riddle (1965). However remote Ireland was from Byzantium, it is clear, from the Irish Art of Françoise Henry, for instance, that this country, also, was influenced by the Eastern Empire. It is hard to believe that some of the knowledge of Eastern drugs and Byzantine medicine that is apparent in the surviving writings of the Anglo-Saxons was not shared by the Irish. It would be of interest in relation to the history of medicine in Ireland to investigate whether the 9th century antidotary, St. Gall MS 44, ff. 228–255, referred to by Riddle (1965), has any Irish connections.

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The medicinal substances

The subjects discussed in the 292 chapters of the text may be classified as follows:
  1. plant simples :    208
  2. plant products :    29
  3. animal products :    17
  4. mineral substances :    24
  5. compound medicines :    3
  6. general topics :    11
  7. :    292
The animal products discussed are (with the Chapter numbers): ambergris (26), butter (67), stagshorn (76), bile (134), milk (160), the hare (170), marrow (184), honey (186), pearls (187), musk (197), mummy (198), eggs (214), bone of deer's heart (215), fat (227), spodium (250), spider's web (269), worms (283).The mineral substances discussed are quicklime (20), alum (25), orpiment (37), mercury (39), gold (49), bolus armenicus (60), borax (61),

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ceruse (82), sulphur (86 and 248), copperas (109), burnt copper (120), haematite (121), iron (124), an iron deposit (125), lapis lazuli (164), magnetite (165), agate (171), litharge (175), lead (229), salt (239), terra sigillata (264), glass (278), water (289).Some ten oils are mentioned in the text, for particulars of which see the Glossary s.v. ola. Only two distilled ‘waters’ are referred to, rose water (s.v. uisce, and, in Chapter 73, a water of setwall, Valeriana pyrenaica.