Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe (

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as Cormac MacDonlevy) was an Irish

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

, fl. c. 1460. 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 majority of Irish physicians with their first reference access to these texts.

Background

Cormac was descended from the

Donlevy Donlevy is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic 'son/descendant of Donn Sléibhe'; a given name meaning 'Donn of the mountain', i.e. 'dark mountain'. The MacDonlevys were the hereditary rulers of Dál Fiatach and styled as the Kings of Ulai ...

, who were the last ruling dynasty of the over-kingdom of

Ulaid (Old Irish, ) or (Irish language, Modern Irish, ) was a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic Provinces of Ireland, over-kingdom in north-eastern Ireland during the Middle Ages made up of a confederation of dynastic groups. Alternative names include , which ...

. They migrated to the kingdom of

Tyrconnell Tyrconnell (), also spelled Tirconnell and Tirconaill, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland. It is associated geographically with present-day County Donegal, which was officially named ''County Tirconaill'' between 1922 and 1927. At times it also i ...

and became hereditary chief physicians to its rulers, the

Ó Domhnail The O'Donnell dynasty ( or ''Ó Domhnaill,'' ''Ó Doṁnaill'' ''or Ua Domaill;'' meaning "descendant of Dónal") were the dominant Irish clan of the kingdom of Tyrconnell in Ulster in the north of History of Ireland (1169–1536), medieval an ...

clan. He held a '' bachelor of physic'', although the medical school or university from which he graduated is unknown.

Works

Mac Duinnshléibhe was notable for being a prolific translator, creating and consolidating Irish medical, anatomical, pharmaceutical, and botanical terms. In 1459, in Cloyne, Co. Cork, he translated ''De Dosibus Medicarum'' by Walter de Agilon. In or about 1470, Cormac MacDonlevy, M.B. commenced the 12-year task of first translating the French physician Bernard of Gordon's extensive medical work, the ''Lilium medicine'' (1320), from Latin to Irish. 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 The Celtic nations or Celtic countries are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived. The term ''nation'' is used in its original sense to mean a ...

. Excerpts were included in the ''Catalogue of the Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum'' by

Standish Hayes O'Grady Standish Hayes O'Grady (; 19 May 1832 – 16 October 1915) was an Irish antiquarian. Early and education He was born at Erinagh House, Castleconnell, County Limerick, the son of Admiral Hayes O'Grady. He was a cousin of the writer Standish ...

and

Robin Flower Robin Ernest William Flower (16 October 1881 – 16 January 1946) was an English poet and scholar, a Celticist, Anglo-Saxonist and translator from the Irish language. He is commonly known in Ireland as "Bláithín" (Little Flower). Life He w ...

. Cormac, also, first translated Gordon's ''De pronosticis'' (c. 1295) and Gaulteris Agilon's ''De dosibus'' (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 Guy de Chauliac (), also called Guido or Guigo de Cauliaco ( – 25 July 1368), was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin, titled '' Chirurgia Magna''. It was translated into many other la ...

's Chirurgia magna, a major surgical text by that French physician and surgeon (c. 1363) and, also, 5 other major Continental European medical texts in addition to those hereto cited.A. Nic Donnchadha, ibid, at page 218 at paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 under the subtitle "Medical texts in Irish". Mac Duinnshléibhe also translated Gordon's ''De decem ingeniis curandorum morborum'' (1299).

References

15th-century Irish writers Irish scribes 15th-century Irish medical doctors 15th-century translators Irish translators Technical translators Translators from Latin Translators to Irish {{Ireland-bio-stub