Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe Explained

Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe (anglicized as Cormac MacDonlevy) was an Irish physician and scribe, fl. c. 1460.^{[1] [2]} He was an influential medieval Irish physician and medical scholar of the Arabian school educated at universities on the Continent. He is famed for advancing Irish medieval medical practice by, for the first time, translating seminal Continental European medical texts from Latin to vernacular. His translations provided the, then, exclusively, Irish speaking and normally hereditarily apprenticed^[3] majority of Irish physicians with their first reference access to these texts.

Background

Cormac was descended from the Donlevy, who were the last ruling dynasty of the over-kingdom of Ulaid. They migrated to the kingdom of Tyrconnell and became hereditary chief physicians to its rulers, the Ó Domhnail clan.^{[4] [5] [6]}

He held a bachelor of physic, although the medical school or university from which he graduated is unknown.^{[7] [8]}

Works

Mac Duinnshléibhe was notable for being a prolific translator, creating and consolidating Irish medical, anatomical, pharmaceutical, and botanical terms.^[9]

In 1459, in Cloyne, Co. Cork, he translated De Dosibus Medicarum by Walter de Agilon.^[10]

In or about 1470, Cormac MacDonlevy, M.B.^[11] commenced the 12-year task of first translating the French physician Bernard of Gordon's extensive medical work, the Lilium medicine^[12] (1320), from Latin to Irish.^[13] Thereafter, as it had some 150 years earlier with the Continental European medical community, the monumental Lilium medicine or English "Lily of Medicine" achieved great popularity among the medical community of the Celtic nations. Excerpts were included in the Catalogue of the Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum by Standish Hayes O'Grady and Robin Flower.

Cormac, also, first translated Gordon's De pronosticis^[14] (c. 1295) and Gaulteris Agilon's De dosibus^[15] (c. 1250) from Latin into Irish. Gaulteris' De dosibus is a pharmaceutical tract and well used historical source, providing a concise introduction to the basic principles and operations of medieval European pharmacy. Cormac, too, first translated from Latin to Irish the French surgeon Guy de Chauliac's Chirurgia magna, a major surgical text by that French physician and surgeon^[16] (c. 1363) and, also, 5 other major Continental European medical texts in addition to those hereto cited.^[17]

Mac Duinnshléibhe also translated Gordon's De decem ingeniis curandorum morborum (1299).^{[1] [18]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: (135) - Matheson Collection > Gleanings from Irish manuscripts - Early Gaelic Book Collections - National Library of Scotland. digital.nls.uk.
2. Web site: Mac Duinnshléibhe (Cormac) • CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies. www.vanhamel.nl.
3. Susan Wilkinson, "Early Medical Education in Ireland", Irish Migration Studies in Latin America, Vol. 6, No. 3 (November 2008). See, also, A. Nic Donnchadha, "Medical Writing in Irish", in 2000 Years of Irish Medicine, J.B. Lyons, ed., Dublin, Eirinn Health Care Publications 2000, Pgs. 217-220.
4. Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 35 MacCarwell - Maltby (Sidney Lee Ed.). (1893) New York: MacMillan & Co., p. 52
5. [Annals of the Four Masters]
6. Woods . J. Oliver . September 1981 . The history of medicine in Ireland . Ulster Medical Journal . 51 . 1 . 35–45 . 2385830 . 6761926.
7. Mac Duinnshléibhe [MacDonlevy], Cormac (fl. c. 1459), physician and translator of medical texts]. 2004 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/17456. 978-0-19-861412-8 . Dhonnchadha . Aoibheann Nic .
8. Book: The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Seamus. Deane. Angela. Bourke. Andrew. Carpenter. Jonathan. Williams. 8 December 2002. NYU Press. 9780814799062. Google Books.
9. Web site: An Irish Version of Gualterus de Dosibus. celt.ucc.ie.
10. Book: Language and Chronology: Text Dating by Machine Learning. 2 September 2019. BRILL. 9789004410046. Google Books.
11. The degree is noted in British Library MS 333, fol. 113v25, 1459AD, which manuscript copy of the Irish De dosibus was later scribed than the Royal Irish Academy copy of the same appearing in reference below.
12. Dublin Royal Irish Academy, MS 443 (24 p 14), pp 1–327, undated (Cormac's translation of this work, though, was completed by 1482, which is the date appearing on a later scribed copy of the Irish Lilium, which copy is housed as Egerton MS 89, fols. 13ra1-192vb13 at the British Library.)
13. A. Nic Donnchadha, ibid, at page 218 at paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 under the subtitle "Medical texts in Irish".
14. Dublin Royal Irish Academy, MS 439 (3C19), fols. 241–288, undated
15. British Library Harley MS 546, fols. 1r-11r
16. National Library of Ireland, MSG 453, fols. 110-27, undated
17. A. Nic Donnchadha, ibid, at page 218 at paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 under the subtitle "Medical texts in Irish".
18. Web site: Medical writing in Irish, 1400-1700 – DIAS.