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A text preserved at the
Aghmacart Medical School:
Bernard de Gordon’s De Prognosticis, Book II, 9
Beatrix Faerber
BERNARD OF GORDON, or Bernardus Gordonius (c. 1258–before 1330) who
was professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier since 1283, wrote
several medical treatises of which Irish translations, in whole or in part, are extant
in Irish, Scottish, and British Libraries.1His Lilium Medicine is the longest and
most famous of his works, but his De Prognosticis (or Prognostica)2is also well-
known.3This article presents an edition of an Irish translation of De Prognosticis,
Book II, 9, entitled ‘Capitulum quod docet pronosticare secundum naturam com-
plexionis’ (i.e. ‘a chapter which teaches prognosticating according to the nature of
the complexion’). The authoritative critical edition of this Latin treatise is that of
Alberto Alonso Guardo, which also includes a Spanish translation.4The Latin text
as a whole runs to about 3363 lines, of which Book II, 9 extends to 60, including
the heading. Within Ireland, a Latin version of the De Prognosticis (not used by
Guardo) is extant in Marsh’s Library, Dublin, MS Z 4.4.4.5
The Irish version of De Prognosticis is extant in three manuscripts, two of
which originated in the Aghmacart school.
1. MS R: RIA MS 3 C 19 (439) ff 241–88, the basis for the present edition.6
This manuscript originated in the medical school of Aghmacart, Co. Laois
1Special thanks are due to Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin, UCC, Professor Luke Demaitre, Univer-
sity of Virginia, and Professor Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies,
for reading and commenting upon a draft of this article, and to Professor Alonso Guardo, Universidad
de Valladolid, for permission to reproduce the Latin text from his edition
2His treatise is also known under the titles ‘Liber pronosticorum’, and ‘De crisi et creticis diebus’.
3For his background, work and life, full treatment of treatises ascribed or attributed to him and
a list of manuscripts, see the authoritative study by Luke E. Demaitre, Doctor Bernard de Gordon:
professor and practitioner Studies and Texts 51 (Toronto 1980).
4Alberto Alonso Guardo, Los pronósticos médicos en la medicina medieval: el Tractatus de crisi
et de diebus creticis de Bernardo de Gordonio (Valladolid 2003), the Latin text is on pp 246–51, with
a facing Spanish translation.
5First described by Vivian Nutton and Cornelius O’Boyle, ‘Montpellier medicine in the Marsh
Library Dublin: the Manuscript Z 4.4.4’, in Manuscripta: a journal for manuscript research 45–6
(2003) 109–132: 128; the tract is on ff 238ra–265vb.
6It was catalogued by Winifred Wulff in Thomas F. O’Rahilly, Kathleen Mulchrone et al., Cat-
alogue of Irish manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy I–XXVII (Dublin and London 1926–58)
pp 1167–73; that description now accompanies the digitial images of the manuscript available on the
Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) website, www.isos.dias.ie/.
Ossory, Laois and Leinster 7 (2019)
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
(formerly Queen’s County), the subject of two ground-breaking articles pub-
lished in earlier numbers of this journal by Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha7
The portion of the manuscript containing our text (ff 256vb13–257va12) was
written at Aghmacart in 1590 by Risteard Ó Conchobhair (1561–1625), a
member of this school. According to Prof. Nic Dhonnchadha, the original
translation found in MS 3 C 19 ‘had been completed by c. 1468, the date of
writing of the digest of that work found in National Library of Ireland, MS
G 11, pp 425–38’.8
2. MS P: RIA MS 24 P 15 (444) pp 131–93, written in 1583–84 by Corc Ó
Cadhla (Corc óg mac Emuind mheic Cuirc), (fl. 1577–84) at Cell Clogain
(angl. Kilcloggan), Co. Wexford; Book II, 9 is on pp 153a1–153b45; this
translation of the De Prognosticis is fragmentary, but our chapter is complete.
3. MS A: National Library of Scotland, MS Advocates 73.1.22, ff 237v10–
238r30. The manuscript was written at Aghmacart, between 1596 and 1600,
by Donnchadh Albanach Ó Conchubhair (1571–1647),9a medical scholar
from Scotland, associated with the MacDougalls of Dunollie in Argyll, with
help from others.10 The interesting notes by him and his fellow scribes have
been commented upon by Nic Dhonnchadha.11 The Prognostica was started
in Baile Cuthad (Baile Cuad, angl. Ballyquaid, par. Skirk), ten miles north-
west of Aghmacart, on 24 August and finished there on 9 October 1596.12 The
manuscript images and the recent catalogue description compiled by Ronald
Black are to be published on the ISOS website.13
Orthographical variation aside, the translation in P and A is the same as that in
R, the wording being often identical. This might be expected from R and A, but
7‘Téacs ó scoil leighis Achaidh Mhic Airt’, Ossory, Laois and Leinster 1 (2004) 50–75; ‘The
medical school of Aghmacart, Queen’s Co.’, Ossory, Laois and Leinster 2 (2006) 11–43.
8Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Mac Duinnshléibhe [MacDonlevy], Cormac (fl. c. 1459)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford 2004) s.n.
9Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical school of Aghmacart’, 29–36.
10See Brian Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish language in the early modern period’, in T. W. Moody, F. X.
Martin, F. J. Byrne (ed.), A New History of Ireland: Volume III: Early Modern Ireland 1534–1691
(Oxford 1976) 509–45: 519. On Donnchadh Albanach see also Iain Macintyre and A. Munro, ‘The
ancestors of Norman Bethune (1890–1939) traced back to the Bethunes of Skye, leading members
of the MacBeth/Beaton medical dynasty’, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
43 (2013) 262–9: 266.
11‘The medical school of Aghmacart’.
12Donnchadh was in Ballyquaid ministering to Fínghean mac Diarmaid an Bhealaigh (angl. Fynine
McDermot Evealla, OLL 4 (2010) 39, identification by P. Ó Macháin): see Nic Dhonnchadha,
‘Medical school of Aghmacart’, 33–4.
13I am greatly indebted to Dr Ulrike Hogg, National Library of Scotland, for so kindly making
available to me the catalogue description and digital manuscript images in advance.
101
BEATRIX FAERBER
is a surprise in P. However, the relationship of P with R/A, and the activities of its
scribe, might be studied separately. Here, only significant variants, or those relevant
to establishing the Latin basis of the text, are given. The Latin text is reproduced
with Professor Alonso Guardo’s kind permission.
Book II, Chapter 9, has been selected for presentation in this article as being
indicative of the work and expertise of the Aghmacart School, and of Bernard of
Gordon also of course. In addition to its historical, scientific and linguistic interest,
this chapter also presents philosophical content deserving of attention (see n. 36),
and contributing to our understanding of the intellectual interests and abilities of
the medieval Irish men of learning.
The Translator
The Irish text was translated by Cormac Ó Duinnshléibhe (fl.c. 1459), who came
from an established medical family, known by the epithet Ultach.14 These were
hereditary physicians to the Í Dhomhnaill of Tír Conaill, and were originally a
branch of the Í Néill. The Í Dhuinnshléibhe were a wealthy family, reputed for
their hospitality. The death in 1395 of one of Cormac’s forbears, Muris mac Póil
Ulltaigh, ‘ollamh leighis Chenél cConuill’ is recorded in the Annals of the Four
Masters,15 and other family members are mentioned in the years 1497, 1527 and
1586.16
Cormac Ó Duinnshléibhe translated a number of other medical tracts, such as a
section of Isaac Israeli’s17 De dietis particularibus in British Library MS Arundel
333, ff 112a–113b, written in his own hand. The colophon states he was a basillér
a fisígecht (’a bachelor in physic’),18 suggesting that he must have received his
medical training in a university in Europe, but so far no further details have been
ascertained; the colophon further records that he had translated the tract for Deinis
Ó hEachoidhern (Donnchadh Ó hEichthigern).19
14This account is indebted to Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Mac Duinnshléibhe’.
15John O’Donovan (ed.), The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters I–VII (Dublin
1856) s.a.
16Nollaig Ó Muraíle, ‘The hereditary medical families of Gaelic Ireland’, in Liam P. Ó Murchú
(ed.), Rosa Anglica:reassessments Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series 28 (London 2016) 85–113:
107.
17Alias Ya’qub Ishaq Ibn Suleiman al-Isra’ili, Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, or Isaac Israeli the
Elder (c.832–c.932). (A Latin manuscript from the second half of the 13th century is available on
http://digital.blbkarlsruhe.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:bsz:31-28295.)
18In NLI M S G 12, p. 30b, he is referred to as baisiler annsan ealadhain leighis 7annsna
healadnaibh ele (‘bachelor in art of medicine and in the other arts’).
19Standish Hayes O’Grady and Robin Flower, Catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in the British
Library I–III (London 1926, 1953) I, 231–58, especially 257–8.
102
Bernardus Gordonius, 1313
(courtesy Wellcome Collection, creative commons licence CC BY)
BEATRIX FAERBER
Cormac also translated Bernard de Gordon’s lengthy treatise Lilium
Medicine.20 This translation is undated but had been completed by 1482, the date
of writing of the earliest extant copy, British Library MS Egerton 89. Furthermore,
Cormac provided an Irish translation of Walter de Aguilon’s De Dosibus
medicinarum (in BL Harley 546, ff 1r-11r, finished by 1459 in Cork)21 and of
part of Guy de Chauliac’s Chirurgia on anatomy (TCD MS 1436, pp 17a–35a).22
His translation of a section of the Rosa Anglica has been noted by Nessa Ní
Shéaghdha.23 Of non-medical matter, he translated a tract by Thomas Aquinas,
De operationibus occultis naturae (‘On the secrets of nature’),24 and a small part
of the Lucidarius, vel, Almagest by Bertrandus de Turre (Bertrand de la Tour, c.
1262–1332).25
The Scribe
The principal scribe of RIA 3 C 19 is Risteard Ó Conchobhair (1561–1625), a
member of a medical school in Aghmacart whose kinsman Donnchadh Óg Ó
Conchubhair was chief physician to Mac Giolla Phádraig, Lord of Upper Ossory.
He wrote the manuscript for his own use.26 He copied the Prognostica partly in
Abbeyleix, Queen’s County, as he recorded in a note on f. 288r, and then finished
20RIA MS 24 P 14 (443), pp 1–327.
21Incipit: ‘[M]edicinarum / quedam sunt [omitting ‘simplices’] / quedum composite .i. ata
cuid do na leigheasaibh aenda’; explicit: ‘is lór so ar dosisibh na leigheas’. See O’Grady
and Flower, Catalogue I, 171. Digital images are available on the British Library website at
www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_546_f001r (accessed 12 Sept 2017). The tract
was edited in the form of a textus conflatus from five manuscripts by Shawn Sheahan, An Irish ver-
sion of Gualterus De Dosibus (Washington D.C. 1938). An electronic version is available on the
CELT website.
22Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair (ed.), Anathomia Gydo (Dublin 2014).
23Nessa Ní Shéaghdha, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the National Library of Ireland Fascicu-
lus I (Dublin 1967) 97; cf. Winifred Wulff (ed.), Rosa anglica sev Rosa medicina Johannis Anglici:an
early modern Irish translation of a section of the mediaeval medical text-book of John of Gaddesden
(London 1929).
24Donald Mackinnon, A descriptive catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in the Advocates’ Library,
Edinburgh, and elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh 1912) 38. This text has not been edited. See
Francis Shaw, ‘Medieval medico-philosophical treatises in the Irish language’, in John Ryan (ed.),
Féil-sgríbhinn Eoin Mhic Néill .i. Essays and studies presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill (Dublin
1940) 144–57: 150 § 10.
25Oxford, Corpus Christi College, M S 129, ff 56v14–57v2. The text is unedited.
26Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Téacs ó scoil leighis Achaidh Mhic Airt’; eadem, ‘The medical school of
Aghmacart’, 11–16. Paul Walsh, ‘Notes of two Irish medical scribes’, Irish Ecclesiastical Record
5/20 (July-December 1922) 113–22; idem, ‘Scraps from Irish scribes: Risdeard Ó Conchubhair’,
The Catholic Bulletin 19 (August 1929) 730–46.
104
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
it in Aghmacart: his colophon of 1 April 1590 has been reproduced and translated
by Nic Dhonnchadha.27
That Risteard Ó Conchubhair was a very diligent and conscientious scribe is
not only borne out by the careful execution of the text, but also by his remark on
f. 234va36–vb12:
Et gach ionad isin leabhar so ina nderrnus droch-sgr¯
ıbhne¯
oireacht (f. 234vb)
do ur¯
ıgh chumurdhachtaagus gurbh e¯
ol dama sgr¯
ıbadh n¯
ı bu fearr agus
gachionad ina nderrnus dermad agus gachionad ina nderrnus ainfhios agus
nachdo bhr¯
ıgh chumhardhachta n¯
a dermuid do r¯
onus. Iarruim ar sgothuibh
na ufealmac do sgr¯
ıbh a hionnshamhuil so do lánobhair no chuireas roime
f¯
ena dh¯
enamh agus aga ufhuil fios gachneithe do chuirfedh buaidredh
ar sgr¯
ıbhne¯
oir do beitha riachtanus gachuili cunganta mo ceartugad gan
sgannail agus bheith ar mo lethsgél do ghn¯
ath. Oir at¯
aimumhal d¯
oiph agus
gachaon d¯
a dh¯
enadh mo comairle.
And every place in this book where I have written badly due to brevity,
knowing that I could write better; and every place where I made a mistake and
in every place where I displayed ignorance, where it was not through brevity
or error that I did so; I ask the best of scholars who have written, or intend
to write, a long work like this, and who know everything that would trouble
a writer who would be in need of every assistance, to correct me without
reproach, and ever to accept my apology. For I defer to them and to everyone
who would advise me.28
As we know that Risteard made the manuscript for his own use, his remarks about
accepting criticism from others imply that he might loan his transcription to mem-
bers of his medical fraternity later. In discussing this note, Walsh drew attention to
‘the evidence of the high ideal the scribe put before him as a scholar’, and added:
‘Indeed all the indications are that the poets and other men of learning in medieval
Ireland paid a scrupulous attention to exactness.’29
After his work on the Prognostica, Risteard undertook the copying of the trans-
lation of Bernard’s lengthy treatise Lilium Medicine, from May to November 1590,
travelling throughout Kilkenny, Kildare and other counties as he did so, diligently
recording his journey, and the friends and kinspeople he stayed with, in a most
27Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical school of Aghmacart’, 14–15.
28This is part of a longer note that was translated and insightfully commented upon by Paul Walsh.
‘Notes’, 118–19. The translation is fresh and was developed with the help of Pádraig Ó Macháin.
29Walsh, ‘Notes’, 119.
105
BEATRIX FAERBER
interesting note in MS 3 C 19.30 As Walsh observed, the note ‘shows that the habits
of the Irish doctors in the practice of their profession were similar to those of the
bards. Besides being officially attached to particular families, they became itinerant
at times, and sought for patronage over wide areas.’ Risteard informs us in the same
note that he had lost his father at the age of twelve. In Kilkenny he visited Éamonn,
second Viscount Mountgarret (Edmund Butler) and his wife, Gráinne Fitzpatrick,
who had ‘for the most part provided for’ his education since then. She was the
daughter of Brían Óg Mac Giolla Phádraig (Barnaby Fitzpatrick), first Baron of
Upper Ossory, and related to Risteard on his mother’s side.31
Content and context of De Prognosticis
As regards the background and context of the treatise, Bernard de Gordon’s De
Prognosticis, which is based on Galen’s De Crisi and De Diebus Criticis, discusses
the art of medieval prognostication that was fundamental to Galenic medicine
and was integrated in the Montpellier university teaching of his day. As diagno-
sis and therapeutics improved over time, prognostication lost much of its former
importance. Various modern authors have noted the inverse relationship between
prognosis and therapy, and the better diagnosis and treatment are, the less attention
is given to prognosis. Even so, a favourable prognosis has always been a powerful
instrument to inspire confidence in a patient, having great benefits for the doctor,
too. Correct prognosis made the patient obedient, leading to the right course of
action in treatment, and increasing the doctor’s fame, and if he was teaching, the
number of his pupils.32 Often a doctor’s livelihood depended on being able to make
an accurate prognosis, and being careful to keep his good reputation, he could and
did refuse to treat patients whose condition indicated a bad prognosis. This was
not considered unethical, but was recommended by Hippocrates, and followed by
medieval practitioners such as Bernard.33
In the genre of prognostications, all external and internal circumstances that
helped the doctor arrive at his prognosis were discussed. At the base there was
a comparison of the sick and the healthy, observing their bodily functions, and
correctly interpreting bodily signs of illness, noting where the patient’s condition
30Walsh identified most of the people and places mentioned (‘Notes’, 115–17); additional details
about his travels and his relations with his patrons, especially Gráinne, are provided by Nic
Dhonnchadha, ‘Medical School’, 22–3.
31Regarding this family see David Edwards, ‘Collaboration without anglicisation: The MacGioll-
apadraig lordship and Tudor reform’, in Patrick J. Duffy, David Edwards, and Elizabeth FitzPatrick
(ed.), Gaelic Ireland, c.1250–c.1650: land, lordship and settlement (Dublin 2001) 77–96.
32See Luke E. Demaitre, ‘The art and science of prognostication in early university medicine’,
Bulletin of the History of Medicine 77/4 (Winter 2003) 765–88. Guardo, Tractatus, 33, 118–19.
33Demaitre, Bernard de Gordon, 153–4.
106
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
deviated from the healthy and balanced state, and restoring the latter. Unlike the
empiricists, who rejected any healing based on theoretical principles, the ancient
and medieval rational doctors adhered to a system based on Galen’s doctrine of the
four humours (yellow bile or choler, blood, phlegm and melancholy or black bile)
which influenced individual temperaments.
As summarized by Demaitre,34 the foundation of the Galenic system was to
be found in Aristotle’s natural philosophy which posited that everything was com-
posed of the four elements (fire, water, earth and air), and hence prone to decay. The
elements contained the four qualities of heat, cold, moistness and dryness. Heat and
cold were considered active qualities, moistness and dryness passive ones. In man,
these elements with their qualities blended to form an individual mixture. Health
was defined as an equilibrium of this mixture.
Health needed to be carefully managed and maintained in each individuum,
all the body parts, and the whole body. The distribution of these qualities varied
across individuals, but was influenced by diet, living conditions, exertion, sleep,
sexual intercourse and mental activity (the six non-naturals)35 and other factors,
such as sex and age. Bernard de Gordon stated explicitly that there were nine
complexions – that is, constitutions arising from the mixture of elements – only
one of which was balanced (temperate), whereas the remaining eight were imbal-
anced (distemperate). These comprised the simple ones where only one quality
dominated, and the compound ones, where two qualities together dominated.
A humoral imbalance, or mala complexio, could lead to disease or even death,
unless it was rectified. Each of the four humours had a characteristic mix of quali-
ties that came into play: yellow bile was regarded as hot and dry, blood as hot and
moist, phlegm as cold and moist, and black bile as cold and dry. In the present text
Bernard de Gordon succinctly presents these principles within the art of prognos-
tication. He defines the nine complexions, the temperate body, and explains how
to prognosticate based on an understanding of the relevant intrinsic and extrinsic
factors that may affect the balance.
The intellectual and medico-philosophical environment in which the Latin tract
was written, and the scholastic discussions relating to the characteristics of the ele-
ments and their implications for the physicians was the topic of a recent study on
Montpellier teaching by Michael McVaugh. As he noted, the key question arising
34Luke Demaitre, Leprosy in premodern medicine: a malady of the whole body (Baltimore 2007)
105, 114–15.
35Hippocrates, Epidemics VI, cited in Luis García-Ballester, J. Arrizabalaga, M. Cabré, L.
Cifuentes, and F. Salmón (ed.), Galen and Galenism: theory and medical practice from Antiquity
to the European Renaissance (Aldershot 2002) 108–10.
107
BEATRIX FAERBER
Colophon of Risteard Ó Conchubhair (Achadh Meic Airt 1590) to his copy of the
Prognostica (RIA MS 3 C 19, f. 282rb, reproduced by kind permission)
in this particular context was (cf. section 1 of Irish text) whether ‘when two sub-
stances are mixed together and produce a new substance, can the substantial forms
of the original ingredients persist [. . .] in the new product?’, or would the prior
forms be destroyed once a new one emerged?36 The implications directly affected
the question if compound medicines, being mixtures, would be effective or not, in
other words, if their ingredients would interact with each other to make a powerful
medicine or not. This seems a very modern question indeed.
The Irish text
The text in the Irish manuscript is a little less complete than its Latin model. This
fact sometimes distorts the original meaning, but in general it is still quite close.
36Michael McVaugh, ‘In a Montpellier classroom’, in Gideon Manning and Cynthia Klestinec
(ed.), Professors, physicians and practices in the history of medicine:Essays in honor of Nancy
Siraisi Archimedes Series 50 (New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology,
Cham 2017) 57–76: 71.
108
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
As Prof. Nic Dhonnchadha has observed, sometimes the omission of material was
deliberate, as the copyist himself affirmed, for instance in one case where his mas-
ter instructed him to leave out passages deemed not to be relevant.37 In our case,
however, the omissions are quite short. A deliberate omission seems likely in sec-
tion 7 where two examples have been left out in all three witnesses. Apart from
that the text has been very carefully copied, apart from one lacuna which can be
complemented from the two other witnesses, and the spelling is consistent, with
lenition regularly shown. The scribe often uses uinstead of bh.38
In this edition, manuscript abbreviations are expanded in italics. Unmarked his-
torically long vowels in the manuscript are indicated by macrons. Tall eis rendered
ea before a following broad vowel. Word division, hyphenation, capitalisation, and
paragraphing are editorial, though the scribe often indicates hyphenation by using
a double virgule at line end. Punctuation is editorial, each of the three witnesses
displaying its own practice is this regard; MS R in particular is liberally punctu-
ated, but this punctuation is often at odds with the sense required and might be a
topic for separate study; MS A is very sparsely punctuated. The Gaelic ampersand
(7) has been expanded agus; its use as a conjunction is nearly always indicated in
the manuscript by a dot under the cross-stroke of the abbreviation. It may be noted
that the Latin division of paragraphs often, though not always, coincides with Latin
Et written plene. This is the case at the start of paragraphs 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, while agus
appears at paragraphs 6 and 8 in all three manuscripts.
Irish translation
1.[256vb13]An .9. caibidil39 do thaisg¯
eltughadh na n-easl¯
aintedh do r¯
er n¯
ad¯
uire
na gcomplex.[C]um40 elementa confracta sint41 in mixto et minimumunius42
tangit minimumalterius .i. ¯
o taid na dúile commbr¯
uiti annsa ní chumusgtha agus
go mbeanannrand roibheag dúla dhíbh re rannroibheag na d¯
ula eile, ni bhfhuiled
ina ufoirmeanna substainteacha f¯
enann agus n¯
ır tr¯
egeadair iad go huilidhi; agus
¯
ergidh in tansin ¯
o gn¯
ıomna teasaidheachtaagus na fuaraidheachta c¯
ail ¯
egin,agus
¯
erghidh c¯
ail eile ¯
ogn¯
ıomna tirmaidheachtaagus na fliuchaidheachta, agus in ch¯
ail
37See Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ‘The Irish Rosa Anglica: manuscripts and structure’, in Ó
Murchú, Rosa Anglica: reassessments 114–97: 147.
38This usage was not followed by Giolla Pádraig mac Giolla na Naomh meic Mhuireadhaigh Í
Chonchubhair, who copied the tract De Decem Ingeniis in NLI MS G 12; an edition of this text is the
subject of the present writer’s doctoral dissertation at UCC.
39Added above line with insertion marks.
40There is a square space left out for C over three lines, which was not filled in, but indicated by a
guide letter.
41sunt L.
42unius O [=Oxford Canon Misc 455]a manuscript dated to the 15th century, described at
https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_3491 (accessed 20 November 2017).
109
BEATRIX FAERBER
¯
ergheas ¯
on rannchuidiugad sinna gc¯
aile ngn¯
ımuightheach agus43 ufuilngtheach,
is di goirter complex44 agus at¯
a in commbrisidh sinuiliomdha mas edh ata an
coimplex uilimda.45
2. Et at¯
aid 9 gcomplexa ann.i. ¯
encompleax measardha agus na complexaeile
ainmheasardha,agus in tan aderar complex measardha n¯
ı h¯
o mhedugad46
caindigheachta an adhbhuir47 aderar é, ¯
oirdo bú neamh-chumachtacha ueth
mur sin. ¯
Oir is amlaid at¯
a in tene roighn¯
ıomhuightheach agus d¯
ambedh s¯
ı
comhthrum cuandigheachta[257ra1]48 do r¯
er adhbhuir49 risna d¯
uilibh eile annsa
n¯
ı cumusgtha, do ionnt¯
ochadh na d¯
uile eile ina haigne f¯
en, agus is beag do
mairfedh dh¯
ıbh annsa cumusg n¯
o n¯
ı mhairfed aonréd. Et gidedh d¯
alabhrumdo
cuandigheacht na bríghi f¯
etur na d¯
uile do50 ueth cudruma annsa measurdhacht.
¯
Oir f¯
etur a ní cumusgtha éginrann fuar do ueth annnoch chathaighis51 a n-aghaid
ghn¯
ıomha an rainnteasaidhi, agus is mar sintuictir don fhliuchaidheacht agus
dontirmaidheacht. M¯
as edh is edh is corp measardha annin corp aga bhfhuil
aonranniomshlán tedo r¯
er ur¯
ıghi ann agus aonrannfuar,agus rann fliuch agus
[rann]52 tirim,¯
oir is ¯
ı sinin mheasardhacht d¯
ıleas.
3. Aderthar corp measardha a modeile do r¯
er53 chirt, mur at¯
a in n¯
ı is ferr
fh¯
etus na hoibrighti dlighteacha dh¯
a ghn¯
e f¯
endo dh¯
enamh agus is mur sin f¯
etur
¯
encorp measardha do tabhairt in gach uile ghn¯
e. ¯
Oir is ¯
e duine is measardha do
na daoinibh in duine is togaidhiagus is ferr n¯
ad¯
uir,agus is ro-ghlioca agus is
eagnaidhi; agus is ¯
e is ro-mheasardha a ngn¯
e na gcon in cú is ferr do-n¯
ı fiagach
agus is fearraithnighis a tigerna agus a teagh54 f¯
en; et is ¯
e coinín is measardha
43Erasure covering the space of about ten letters, but there is no text missing.
44uillimdha A add.
45L ‘ideo complexio est multiplex’: mas . . . uilimda] P, mas edh ata an coimplex uilimdha A,
om. R.
46M S mhédugad
47M S .a. with superscript ur, a contraction which is expanded adhbhur, adhbhuir. It occurs for
example in 23 N 16, also from Aghmacart, f. 72r7, and variously in Lilium Medicine II, 9, RIA 3 C
19, f. 60ra1–va11.
48Dittography in M S due to start of new page: comhthrum cuandigheachta[257ra1]comthru m
cuandigheachta.
49This corresponds to ‘quoad materiam’ in three manuscripts and corresponds to an error for
‘quoad naturam’ in the majority of the manuscripts and the critical edition. Cf. Guardo, Tractatus,
246.
50‘do’ added above line.
51P noch cathaigius R noch cathius.
52om. R, supplied from P.
53Added above line.
54P tigh, A teag.
110
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
dona coin¯
ınibh in coin¯
ın is ferr thetheas agus foilighis é f¯
en, agus mur sinda gach
uile complex do r¯
er an oibrighthi dleagur d¯
a gn¯
e f¯
en.
4. Et adermuid anois gurob fogus measardhacht in chuirp dhaonna don
mheasardhacht do r¯
er thomhais agus don réd diaghdhi uachtarach agus at¯
a in
corp daonna ro-measarda idir na substaintibh go huilidhi.55 Ionnus nachfuil ¯
enn¯
ı
fh¯
edus dul a ngaire dhon mheasardhacht sin agus d¯
a bhfhaghthar in fhoirm56 sin
anndleagur a mhaisiughadh,57 agus is neamh-chumachtacha fagh¯
ail.
5. Et at¯
aid 4 complex58 aonda ainmheasardha ann, mur at¯
a te agus fliuch, fuar agus
tirim.59 Agus at¯
aid a 4 eile60 comshuighighthi ann.i. te agus [257rb1]tirim, te agus
fliuch, fuar agus tirim, fuar agus fliuch,agus do ghebhmuid mur soin 8 gcomplexa
maille re hadhbhur61 agus a h8 eile ganadhbhur.
6.Agus adermuid gurob 5 complexa at¯
a ag na corpaibh daonna .i. ¯
encomplex
measardha –agus aithinter sin¯
ona ghníomhuibh agus ¯
ona oibrighthibh amail
adubhrumair –agus a 4 ainmheasardha. Agus at¯
a complex d¯
ıbh sin tetirim agus
is mur so aithinter é: ¯
oir b¯
ıd a chuisleanna lethan folamh agus in pulsa ro-luath
cruaidh fergach agus b¯
ıdh fionnfadach. Agus at¯
a complex eile teasaidhi fliuchaidhi
ann agus is amlaidh aitinter ¯
e .i. bíd a chuisleanna lethan lán agus b¯
ıdh maille re
m¯
or¯
an fe¯
ola agus b¯
ıdh a dhath cumuisgthi ¯
o dergi agus ¯
o ghile, agus mur sindona
neithibh eile.Agus at¯
a complex eile fuar fliuch ann62 agus is mar so aitheantur ¯
e63
.i. b¯
ıd a chuisleanna cumang l¯
an agus b¯
ıdh geal bocc méith64 maille re fionnfad
terc. Agus at¯
acomplex eile fuar tirim ann agus is mur so aithinter é .i. b¯
ıd a
55Lin universa substancia.
56P foirm, A f(h)oirm.
57a maisiugad P, a maisiuga A
58P coimplexa.
59Lcum excedunt add.
60P ní A ele.
61P annadd.
62In the Latin passage, the description of the cold and dry complexion precedes that of the cold
and moist one; in the Irish the order is reversed. See note regarding Latin text.
63Added above line.
64meith P, meit A.
111
BEATRIX FAERBER
chuisleanna cumang falamh agus b¯
ıd claochluighteach65 droch-aic¯
ıdeac66 eaglach
maille re pulsa beac, agus mar sin dona neitiph ele.
7. Et int¯
ı dharub aithne na neithe so f¯
eduidh a thaisg¯
eltughadh go ngineanngach
n¯
ı dhiph easl¯
ainti is cosmail ris f¯
endo r¯
er aoísi agus aimsire agus complexaagus a
gcosmaile. Agus d¯
a r¯
er sin d¯
a bhfhaicimfear leanna ruaidh a bhfiabhrus adermuid
gurob ¯
o lionn ruadh do-n¯
ıter,agus d¯
abhfhaicimfear fola derga [aderur]67 gurob
¯
o fuil deirg,agus mur sindona compleaxuibh eile.68
8.Agus na heasláinti do-n¯
ıter ¯
o lionn ruadh agus ¯
o fuil deirg, is gearr a
gcr¯
ıochnugadagus is guasachtacha n-aicídi; agus na heasl¯
ainti do-n¯
ıthir¯
o lionn
fionn agus ¯
o lionn dubh, is fada a gcr¯
ıochnugad69 agus is neamh-ghuasachtach
a n-aicídi, agus mur tuigter sindoncomplex tuicter mur in c¯
eadna dhonaois
agus donaimsir agus donr¯
egi¯
on agus donghn¯
athugadagus dona neitiph eile go
huilidhi.
9. Et b¯
ıth a leigheas mur so .i. gach [257va1]uile dhroch-complex do tre¯
orugad
go neamh-obannchummeasardhachta lenacontr¯
arda acht muna toirmisgidh
riachtanus a leas na beatha é. ¯
Oir is fearr dongabhuinnueth ina fear leanna finn
n¯
a corp measardha do ueth aigi do r¯
er an oibrighthi nachf¯
eadanndo seacnadh ar
son¯
egeantuis na beatha; agus is fearr doniasgaire ueithina fear leanna ruaidh
n¯
a corp measardha do uet aigi; agus mad áil linncoiméd do dh¯
enamdo rér
65Latin ‘quia sintheticus, timidus’. Claochluightheach in medical texts usually means ‘alterative,
inducing a change’ defining a medicine’s characteristic. ‘Prone to decline’ is suggested here since
it describes a person. For L sintheticus, sintecticus see DMLBS s.v. sintecticus ‘suffering from a
wasting disease’, Lewis and Short s.v. ‘ill of consumption, consumptive’; other sources explain
‘sintecticos’ by ‘macilentos’, and ‘animo deficiens vel viribus exhaustus’ (Boleslaw Erzepki (ed.),
Bartlomiej z Bydgoszczy Slownik lacinsko-polski (Poznan 1900) 145a, available at http://rcin.org.pl);
‘syntetictus de consumptione’, Plinius 22, 105; 28,88. Alonso Guardo translates ‘la persona es apoc-
ada’ (despondent, dejected). However it is possible that ‘sintecticus’ was not in the Latin version on
which this translation is based.
66DIL does not record aicídech in the sense ‘diseased’, but merely go haicídech ‘accidental’,
and ‘indirectly, artificially’; but cf. Dinneen s.v. droch-aicíd and aicídeach. Ó Donaill s.v. records
drochaicíd ‘bad, dangerous disease’, and aicídeach, ‘diseased, prone to disease’; for Scottish Gaelic,
Dwelly records acaideach ‘sickly’. Cf. Lilian Duncan, ‘A treatise on fevers’, Revue Celtique 49
(1932) 51: fedtar na drochaicidi do beith dasachtach ‘the unfavourable ailments can be violent’.
67om. RP.
68Here the Latin is rendered incompletely, omitting the last two examples. This omission does not
correspond to any of the manuscript variants cited by Guardo, and may have been the translator’s
decision.
69L erunt longe et male determinacionis; some manuscripts and the printed editions have
terminacionis. See Guardo, Tractatus, 250 n.
112
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
cosmailis dlighmuid a denam do r¯
er aimsireagus n¯
ad¯
uire,70 agus mad áil linnní
do tre¯
orugad do cumacontr¯
arda dlighmuíd a dh¯
enamgo neamh-obonn.
English translation
1. The 9th chapter on prognostication of the diseases according to the nature of
the complexions. Cum elementa confracta sint in mixto et minimum unius tangit
minimum alterius, i.e. since the elements are broken up in the mixture and a very
small part of one element affects a very small part of the other, they do not exist
in it [i.e. the mixture]in their own substantial forms and [yet] they did not com-
pletely abandon them; and at that time, from the action of the heat and the cold,
a certain quality emerges, and there emerges another quality from the action of
the dryness and the moistness, and the quality which emerges from that sharing of
the active and71 passive qualities, is called complexion, and that disintegration is
all-manifold, accordingly the complexion is all-manifold.72
2. And there are nine complexions, i.e. one temperate complexion, and the other
complexions intemperate, and when it is called a temperate complexion, it is not
from weighing73 the quantity of the matter it is so called, as it would be impos-
sible to be like that.74 For fire is very active, and if it were of equivalent quantity
regarding matter with the other elements in the mixture it would convert the other
elements into its own essence, and little or nothing of them would last in the
mixture. If, however, we speak of the quantity of the virtue, the elements can
be equivalent in temperateness. For in some certain mixture there may be a cold
portion present that combats the action of the hot part, and the same applies to
70L in specie et natura; only the printed editions used by Guardo have tempore for specie, see
Guardo, ibid.
71Ten letters are erased, but with no loss of text.
72Compare for this paragraph ideas formulated by Aristotle, De Generatione et Corruptione Book
1, chapter 10. When Bernard wrote his tract, those ideas had been the focus of scholastic debate,
such as in Thomas Aquinas’s (1225–1274), De mixtione elementorum (c. 1270–73).
73L quoad pondus, ‘in an absolute sense’. To elucidate the terms quoad pondus and quoad iusti-
ciam Guardo, 247, cites P.-G. Ottosson, Scholastic medicine and philosophy (Naples 1984) 143: ‘The
equal complexio is estimated in accordance with either of two criteria, in an absolute sense (quo ad
pondus) or in relation to justice (quo ad iustitiam), following Galen’s De complexionibus.’ Ottoson
continues: ‘If a complexio is balanced in the absolute sense the elements are supposed to be mixed
in precise, equal parts. This complexio is hardly possible in reality but is primarily a theoretical con-
struction. Admittedly a body may possibly be absolutely balanced at a transition from one complexio
to another, since every transition is supposed to go via a medium. Yet, in practice it is only possible
to find the complexio which is fairly tempered, signifying that it has the most suitable mixture of the
qualities for the fulfilment of its function.’ The interpretation of ‘quoad iustitiam’ is set out in more
detail in Joel Kaye, A history of balance, 1250–1375:the emergence of a new model of equilibrium
and its impact on thought (Cambridge 2014) 206–209.
74L hoc enim est penitus impossibile (‘for this is wholly impossible’).
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BEATRIX FAERBER
Remnants of the monastic foundation at Aghmacart
moistness and dryness. Therefore the temperate body is the body which has one
whole hot portion according to the virtue,75 and one cold portion, and a moist and
a dry portion, for that is the proper temperateness.
3. It is called a temperate body in another way according to propriety,76 that is,
that which can best fulfil the proper functions of its own species, and accordingly
one temperate body can be cited in every species. For he is the most temperate
man of all, he who is the choicest and the best as regards nature, and who is most
intelligent and wise; and that hound is the most temperate in the species of hounds
which hunts best and best recognizes its master and its own house; and the most
temperate of rabbits is that rabbit which flees and hides itself best, and so on with
every complexion according to the function proper to its own species.
75L in virtute; here and in line 1 of his Latin edition Guardo translates ‘cualitativamente’ (lacking
in the Latin version on which the Irish translation is based).
76L quoad iusticiam (‘in relation to justice’).
114
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
4. And now we say that the temperateness of the human body is close to temperate-
ness in an absolute sense77 and [this is]due to the divine heavenly cause, and the
human body is very temperate among all the substances. So that there is nothing
that can attain that temperateness, and if that form is found it ought to be honoured,
however it is impossible to be found.
5. And there exist four simple intemperate complexions, i.e. hot and moist, cold,
and dry. And there exist four other compound ones, i.e. hot and dry, hot and moist,
cold and dry, cold and moist, and we thus obtain eight complexions with matter,
and eight others without matter.78
6. And we say that it is five complexions the human bodies have, i.e. one temperate
complexion – and that is recognized by its actions and by its functions, as we
stated – and four intemperate ones; and one of those complexions is hot and dry,
and it is recognized thus: because his [sc. the patient’s] veins are dilated and empty,
and the pulse very rapid, hard, angry, and he is hairy. And another complexion is
hot and moist, and it is recognized like this, i.e. his veins are dilated and full, with
plenty of flesh, and his colouring is composite of ruddiness and paleness, and so
on with the other things. And there is another cold and moist79 complexion, and it
is recognized thus, i.e. his veins are narrow and full, and he is pale, soft and heavy,
with sparse body hair, and there is another cold dry complexion and it is recognized
thus: the veins are narrow and empty, and he is prone to decline, afflicted with a
bad disease, timid, with a small pulse and so with the other things.80
7. And he who knows these things can prognosticate that each of these things brings
about its corresponding disease, according to the age, season, complexion and sim-
ilar things. And accordingly, if we see a choleric man in a fever, we say that it is
caused by choler, and if we see a sanguine man it is said that it is from sanguine
humour, and so with the other complexions.
8. And the illnesses that are caused by choler and by sanguine humour are of short
duration, and their symptoms are dangerous; and the illnesses that are caused by
77Literally ‘according to weight’, L ad pondus. Alonso Guardo translates ‘de forma absoluta’.
78Guardo, 249, provides a parallel from Avicenna, Liber canonis medicine cum castig. A. Bell-
unensis (translatus a m. Gerardo Cremonensi, Venetiis 1527), Canon I, Fen I, Doct. cap. II, 4:
‘unaquaque autem harum octo complexionum aut est sine materia . . . aut est cum materia.’
79For the order of discussion of the complexions in the Irish and in the Latin at this point see n. 62
above.
80The Irish text confuses the description of the phlegmatic and melancholic complexion, by pro-
viding under the label of ‘cold and moist’ the description of the ‘cold and dry’, or melancholic
complexion, and leaving out the description of the ‘cold and moist’ one, which follows in the Latin.
115
BEATRIX FAERBER
phlegm and by black bile are of long duration, and their symptoms are not danger-
ous, and as that applies to the complexion so it applies to the age and the season,
region, custom, and all the other things.
9. And its cure is thus, i.e. to reduce every bad complexion slowly towards tem-
perateness with its opposite, unless the exigencies of life of life prevent it. For it
is better for a smith to be a phlegmatic man than to have a temperate body, due to
the work that he cannot avoid, due to the necessities of life; and it is better for the
fisherman to be a choleric than to have a temperate body. And if we wish to retain
[the complexion] in its appearance, we should do so with respect to season and to
nature, and if we wish to reduce something towards its opposite we ought to do it
slowly.
Latin text
The Digital Archives for Medieval Culture project81 lists the following Latin
manuscripts containing the Liber pronosticorum or Tractatus de crisi et de diebus
creticis.
Bernkastel-Kues, Bibliothek des St. Nikolaus-Hospitals, 308, ff. 117r–136v
Bernkastel-Kues, Bibliothek des St. Nikolaus-Hospitals, 309, ff. 2r–21r
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1083, ff. 285v–308r
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1098, ff. 187v–224r
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1116, ff. 88r–109v
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1174, ff. 73va–103ra
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1235, ff. 70vb–112vb
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1284, ff. 154ra–165vb,
130ra–137rb
Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1331, ff. 198ra–216vb
Dublin, Marsh’s Library, MS Z.4.4.4
Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Inc. 8° Med. pract.
80/85
Innsbruck, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol (olim Universitätsbibliothek),
455 I, ff. 70vb–87vb
Kobenhavn, Kongelige Bibliotek, GKS 1656 4°, ff. 109ra–126va
Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellonska, 818, ff. 25r–58r
Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellonska, 821, ff. 139r–166v
Luzern, Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek, P 1 2° II, ff. 108ra–121vb
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. misc. 455 (S.C. 19931), ff. 156r–181r
81www.mirabileweb.it/title/tractatus-de-crisi-et-de-diebus-criticis-title/10590 (accessed 29
January 2018).
116
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, lat. 16189, ff. 170va–195va
Seitenstetten, Stiftsbibliothek, 47, ff. 1ra–48vb
Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek (Carolina), C 662, ff. 28ra–39vb
1.[246]Capitulum 9m, quod docet pronosticare secundum naturam complexionis
Cum elementa confracta sunt in mixto et minimum in virtute82 tangit minimum
alterius, tunc elementa non sunt cum formis substancialibus nec omnino amiserunt
eas, et tunc ex mutua accione calidi cum frigido resultat quedam qualitas, et ex
accione sicci cum humido, resultat alia proporcio. Qualitas igitur que resultat ex
proporcione activarum et passivarum, vocatur complexio, et quia83 hec confraccio
est multiplex, ideo complexio est multiplex.
2. Novem igitur erunt complexiones, una temperata et sola, et alie omnes dis-
temperate. Complexio autem temperata appellatur non quoad pondus quantitatis
materie, hoc enim penitus est impossibile. Cum enim ignis maxime sit activus, si
esset in tanta quantitate quoad naturam,84 omnia ad se converteret et parum aut
nichil duraret mixtum. Si autem nos loquamur de quantitate virtutis, tunc est possi-
bile, ut in aliquo mixto possibile est, quod in virtute tantum possit resistere porcio
frigidi sicut calidi agere, et ita intelligo de sicco et humido. Illud igitur corpus est
temperatum quod habet in virtute85 unam porcionem integram calidam et aliam
frigidam et aliam siccam et aliam humidam, et tale corpus est proprie temperatum.
3. Alio modo dicitur corpus temperatum quoad iusticiam scilicet quod melius pos-
sit in operaciones que debentur speciei, et in unaquaque specie est dare unum
corpus temperatum, unde ille homo est temperatus qui est in ultimo elegancie et
bonitatis nature et est prudentissimus et sapientissimus, et ille [248]est temper-
atissimus in genere canum qui melius venatur et cognoscit dominum suum, et ille
cuniculus est melius temperatus qui melius scit fugere et se abscondere, et ita de
quolibet secundum operacionem que debetur speciei.
4. Nunc autem temperamentum corporis humani vicinatur temperamento ad pon-
dus et est ex re divina. Desuper enim corpus humanum temperatissimum est in
universa substancia, ita quod nichil est quod hoc temperamentum attingere pos-
sit. Sin enim inveniatur, eadem forma meretur decorari, hoc autem penitus est
impossibile.
82Equivalent of ‘in virtute’ is not in the Irish text.
83Equivalent of ‘quia’ is not in the Irish text.
84Guardo, Tractatus, 246 records the reading ‘quoad materiam’ in J (Kraków Jag. 818), U (Upp-
sala, University Library C 662), B (Vatican, Pal. Lat 1331) and G, which is the base for the printed
editions; these belong to the family of manuscripts Guardo calls z.
85Guardo translates this as ‘cualitativamente’.
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BEATRIX FAERBER
5. Complexiones autem distemperate sunt 4or simplices ut calidum, humidum,
frigidum et siccum cum excedunt,86 et 4or composite ut calidum et siccum, calidum
et humidum, frigidum et siccum, frigidum et humidum, et sic habemus 8 cum
materia et 8 sine materia.
6. Complexiones igitur corporis humani erunt V, una temperata, que cognoscitur
ex effectibus et operacionibus, ut dictum est; quedam calida et sicca, que cognosci-
tur quia vene late et vacue, pulsus velox et durus, pilosus, iracundus, velocissimus.
Quedam est calida et humida, que cognoscitur quia vene late, plene, multe carnis,
color mixtus ex albo et rubeo et ita de aliis; quedam frigida et sicca, que cognosc-
itur quia vene stricte et vacue, quia sintheticus, timidus, cum pulsu parvo et ita de
aliis;87 quedam frigida et humida, que cognoscitur quia vene stricte, plene et est
albus et mollis et piger cum paucitate pilorum.
7. Qui igitur ista cognoverit pronosticare poterit cum unumquodque, ut tempus,
etas, complexio et consimilia, generent egritudinem proporcionalem. Si [250]
videamus aliquem colericum febricitare, dicemus quod est ex colera, quantum
est ex hoc,88 et si calidum et humidum, quod egritudo est de sanguine, et si
frigidum et humidum, quod est de flegmate, et si frigidum et siccum, quod est de
melancolia.89
8. Egritudines igitur de colera et sanguine erunt breves cum terribilibus
accidentibus, egritudinibus igitur de flegmate et melancolia erunt longe et male90
determinacionis sine timorositate accidencium, et sicut dico de complexione
quantum est ex hoc, idem possumus intelligere de tempore, etate, regione,
consuetudine et ita de omnibus aliis.
9. Medicacio erit talis. Omnis mala complexio paulatine cum suo contrario
reducenda est ad temperamentum, nisi vite necessaria impediant, unde melius
est fabro quod sit flegmaticus quam si haberet corpus temperatum racione operis
quod non potest effugere propter vite necessaria, et melius est piscatori quod
sit colericus quam si haberet corpus temperatum. Si igitur volumus conservare,
per simile conservemus in specie91 et natura, si autem reducere, per contraria
paulatine.
86Equivalent of ‘cum excedunt’ is not in the Irish text.
87As Guardo, Tractatus, 248n. notes, the sentence from ‘quedam’ to ‘ita de aliis’ is transposed
after ‘pilorum’ in manuscripts G (Kraków, Bibl. Jagiell. 818, before 1400) and J (Kraków, Bibl.
Jagiell. 821, 1426 etc.). This agrees with the Irish translation.
88Equivalent of ‘quantum est ex hoc’ is not in the Irish text.
89Equivalent of ‘et si frigidum . . . de melancolia’ is not in the Irish text.
90Equivalent of ‘et male’ is not in the Irish text.
91Equivalent of ‘in specie’ is not in the Irish text.
118
AGH MACART MEDICAL SCHOOL
GLOSSARY
(reference is to paragraphs)
aicíd (L accidentia) ‘attack of illness, pain (hence symptom)’, dsg a n-aicídi (bis)
8; see also neamh-aicídeach
adhbhar (L materia) ‘matter’, gsg an adhbhuir 5, do rér adhbhuir 2, dsg maille re
hadhbhur 5, asg gan adhbhur 5
aigne (Old Irish aicned) (L ad se) ‘inherent quality, essence, nature’, dsg ina haigne
fen 2
ainmheasardha (L distemperatus) ‘intemperate’, npl ainmheasardha 2, 5, 6
aonda (L simplex) ‘simple’, 5
bog (L mollis) ‘soft’, nsg bocc 6
brígh (L virtus) ‘virtue’, gsg na bríghi 2, do rér uríghi (L in virtute) ‘according to
the virtue’ 2
cáil (L qualitas) ‘quality’, nsg cáil, in cháil, gpl na gcáile 1
cainnigheacht (L quantitas) ‘quantity’, gsg caindigheachta 2, cuandigheachta, dsg
do cuandigheacht 2
cathaighim (L possit resistere) ‘I combat’, rel pres. noch chathaighis ‘that
combats’ 2
ceart (L iusticia) ‘justice’, gsg do rér chirt (L quoad iusticiam) 3
claochluightheach ‘changeable, prone to decline (?)’ 6
coinín (L cuniculus) ‘rabbit’, nsg coinín 3, dpl dona coinínibh 3
combriseadh (L confraccio) ‘disintegration’, nsg commbrisidh 1
combrúite (L confracta) past part. of con-bruí, ‘broken up’, 1
comhthrom (L in tanta) ‘equivalent, equal’, comhthrum 2, npl cudruma 2
comhshuidhighthe (L compositus) ‘compounded’, comshuighighthi 5
complex, coimplex (L complexio) ‘complexion’, nsg complex 1, 6 (quadruplex),
encompleax 2, encomplex 6, gsg complexa 7, asg dhroch-complex ‘bad com-
plexion’ 9, dsg da gach uile complex 3, don complex 8, npl 9 gcomplexa 2, na
complexa 2, complex 2, 4 complex 5, 5 complexa 6, complex 6, 8 gcomplexa
5, gpl na gcomplex 1, dpl dona compleaxuibh 7
corp (L corpus) nsg corp 2, 3, 4, 8, éncorp 3, in corp 2, gsg in chuirp 4, dpl ag na
corpaibh 6
críochnughad (L terminatio) ‘course, termination’, nsg gearr a gcríochnugad (L
breves), fada a gcríochnugad (L longe) 9
cú (L canis) ‘hound’, nsg in cú 3, gpl na gcon 3
cuisle (L vena) ‘vein’, npl a chuisleanna ‘his veins’ (ter) 6
cumhang (L stricte) ‘narrow, constricted’ (bis) 6.
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cumusg (L mixtum) ‘mixture, blend’, dsg annsa cumusg 2 ní chumusgtha (L mix-
tum) ‘mixture, blend’, dsg annsa ní chumusgtha 1, annsa ní cumusgtha 2, a ní
cumusgtha egin 2
cumuisgthe (L mixtus) ‘mixed’, nsg cumuisgthi 6
diadha (L res divina) ‘divine, godly’, don réd diaghdhi uachtarach 4
díleas (L proprius) ‘proper, intrinsic’, díleas 2
dlightheach (L que debentur) ‘proper’, apl dlighteacha 3
droch-aicídeach (L sintheticus) ‘having bad symptoms, afflicted with a bad
disease’, droch-aicídeach 6
dúil (L elementum) ‘element’, npl na dúile, gsg dúla 1, na dúla 1, dpl risna dúilibh,
npl na dúile 2
eagnaidhe (L sapientissimus) ‘wise’, eagnaidhi 3
easláinte (L egritudo) ‘disease, sickness’, asg easláinti 7, npl na heasláinti 8, gpl
na n-easláintedh 1
feóil (L carnis) ‘flesh’, gsg feóla 6
fiabhras (L febricitare) ‘fever’, dsg a bhfiabhrus 7
fiadhach (L venatur) ‘hunting’, do-ni fiagach 3
fionnfadh (L pilorum) ‘body hair’, dsg maille re fionnfad terc 6
fionnfadhach (L pilosus) ‘hairy’, nsg fionnfadach 6
fliuch (L humidum) ‘moist, wet’, nsg fliuch (ter) 5, fliuch 6
fliuchaidhe (L humida) ‘moist’, fliuchaidi 6
fliuchaidheacht (L humido) ‘moistness’, gsg na fliuchaidheachta 1, dsg don
fhliuchaidheacht 2
foirm (L forma) ‘form’, nsg in fhoirm sin 4, apl for dpl ina ufoirmeanna 1
folamh (L vacue) ‘empty’ folamh, falamh 6
fuar (L frigidum) ‘cold’, nsg fuar (ter) 5, fuar (bis) 6
fuaraidheacht (L frigidum) ‘coldness’, gsg na fuaraidheachta 1
fuil dhearg (L sanguis) ‘sanguine humour’, gsg fola deirge 7, dsg ó fuil deirg 7, 8
fuilngtheach (L passivus) ‘passive’, gpl ufuilngtheach 1
gabha (L fabro) ‘smith’, dsg don gabhuinn 9
glic (L prudentissimus) ‘most intelligent’ ro-ghlioca 3
gnáthughadh (L consuetudine) dsg don ghnathugad 8
gné (L species) ‘species, kind’, dsg dha ghné 3, in gach uile ghné 3, da gné 3
gníomh (L actio) ‘action’, dsg ó gníom 1, gsg ghníomha 2, dpl óna ghníomhuibh
6
gníomhuightheach (L activus) ‘active’, gpl ngnímuightheach 1,
roighníomhuightheach 2
guasachtach (L terribilibus) ‘dangerous’, guasachtach 8, neamh-ghuasachtach
‘not dangerous’ 8
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iasgaire (L piscatori) ‘fisherman’, dsg don iasgaire 9
iomshlán (L integram) ‘whole, complete’, nsg iomshlán 2
ionntuighidh ‘turns’, 3sg cond ionntóchadh (L converteret) 2
lán (L plene) ‘full’, 6
leathan (L late) ‘dilated’ (bis) 6.
lionn dubh (L melancolia) ‘black bile’, dsg ó lionn dubh 8
lionn fionn (L flegma) ‘phlegm’, dsg ó lionn fionn 8, gsg leanna finn 9
lionn ruadh (L colera) ‘choler, yellow bile’, gsg leanna ruaidh, dsg ó lionn ruadh
7
mairidh (L duraret) impersonal verb ‘lasts, endures’, 3sg cond. do mairfedh,
mairfed 2
measardha (L temperatus) ‘temperate’, measardha, 2 (ter), 6, 9 (bis), superl.
duine is measardha dona daoinibh ‘the most temperate man of all’ 3, coinín is
measardha dona coininibh ‘the most temperate of rabbits’, ro-mheasardha 3,
ro-measarda 4
measardhacht (L temperamentum) ‘temperament, temperateness’, nsg in
mheasardhacht dileas 2, cudruma annsa measardhacht ‘equivalent in temper-
ateness’ 2, measardhacht 4, dsg don mheasardhacht 4, dhon mheasardhacht 4,
gsg chum measardhachta 9.
meadhughadh (L quoad pondus) ‘weighing’, dsg ho mhedugad 2
méith (L piger) ‘plump, fat’, nsg 6
modh (L modo) ‘manner, way’, dsg a mod eile (L alio modo) 3
nádúir f (L natura) ‘nature’, nsg nádúir 3, gsg do rér nádúire 1, do rér [. . .] nádúire
9
neamh-chumhachtach (L penitus impossibile), ‘utterly impossible/incapable’?
neamh-chumachtach 2, 4 this is usually translated ‘incapable’, but it seems to
be used in an impersonal sense here, hence ‘impossible’.
neamh-obann (L paulatine) ‘slowly’, neamh-obonn, neamh-obann, 9
noch relative particle ‘that, which’ 2
oibriughadh (L operacio, opus) ‘function, work’, apl na hoibrighti dlighteacha
dhá ghné fén ‘the proper functions’ (L operaciones que debentur speciei) 3;
gsg do rér an oibrighthi ‘according to the function’ (L secundum operacionem)
3, dpl óna oibrighthibh ‘by its functions’ (L ex operacionibus) 6; gsg do rér an
oibrighthi ‘due to the work’ (L racione operis) 9
pulsa (L pulsus) ‘pulse’, nsg in pulsa, dsg re pulsa (L cum pulsu) 6
rannchuidiughadh (L proporcio), verbal noun of rannchuidighim, ‘I share in,
share with’, usually translated ‘participation’, although this does not reflect
the Latin meaning; dsg ón rannchuidiugad ‘from the participation’ 1; see DIL
R 12.43–50; used with preposition re in ‘rannchuidid ris in samradh’ (H.
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BEATRIX FAERBER
Cameron Gillies, Regimen Sanitatis, 25); and ‘mur is follus annsna rédaib
rannchuididius re teas eachtrannach’ (Carney, Regimen na Sláinte I, 5, lines
119–20).
réad (L res) ‘thing’, dsg don réd diaghdi 4, aonréd ‘anything’2
réigión (L regio) ‘region’, dsg don régión 9
ro- ‘very’ roi-bheag (L minimum) 1 (bis), ro-luath 6; see also glic, measardha,
gníomhuightheach
substaint ‘substance’ (L substancia), dpl idir na substaintibh go huilidhi (L in
universa substancia) ‘among all the substances’ 4
substainteach (L substancialis) ‘substantial’, dpl ina ufoirmeanna substainteacha
1 (L substancialibus)
taisgéaltughadh (verb-noun of do-scélai; see DIL s.v. taiscélad (c) ‘Med., gener-
ally in pl. prognostics’) (L prognosticare) ‘prognostication’, do thaisgéltughadh
1, a thaisgéltughadh 7
te (L calidum) ‘hot, warm’, nsg te, (ter) 5, te 6
teach (L domum) ‘house’, asg a teagh 3
tearc (L paucitate) ‘sparse’, dsg maille re fionnfad terc 6
teasaidhe (L calidus) ‘warm, hot’, gsg an rainn teasaidhi 2, nsgf complex eile
teasaidhi 6
teasaidheacht (L calidus) ‘warmth, heat,’ gsg na teasaidheachta 1
tighearna (L dominum) ‘master’ asg tigerna 3
tirim (L siccum) ‘dry’, nsg tirim (ter) 5, tirim (bis) 6
tiormaidheacht (L siccus) ‘dryness’, gsg na tirmaidheachta 1, dsg don
tirmaidheacht 2
tomhas ‘act of weighing’ do rér thomhais (L ad pondus) 4. See note 73.
toghaidhe ‘chosen, elect’, in duine is togaidhi ‘the choicest man’3
tréigidh ‘abandons’, nír trégeadair ‘they did not abandon’ 1
treórughadh (L reducere) ‘reducing’ (med.) of a complexion, dhroch-complex do
treórugad . . . ní do treórugad 9
uiliomdha (L multiplex) ‘all-manifold’, uiliomdha 1
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