The Book of Hy-Brasil: A “Magical” Manuscript’s Journey from Baghdad to Ireland

A mysterious medical manuscript was said to have come from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil—but its history tells an equally remarkable story. Karin Murray-Bergquist traces the text’s journey from medieval Baghdad to Ireland, revealing how medical scholarship became an enchanted family treasure. By Karin Murray-Bergquist A medical manuscript said to have come from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil became the strange treasure of Morogh O’Lee. In a version of the tale recorded by James Hardiman in 1846, the book contained Irish and Latin texts describing cures and medical treatments, written in red and black ink and arranged in neat but unusual tables. Its distinctive appearance was taken as evidence of its enchanted origins. Several elements of the story were true. The book was certainly unusual, and the O’Lees had served as physicians to the O’Flaherty family for generations. Yet the manuscript’s history, perhaps unknown to those who recorded the legend, was just as fascinating as a voyage to Hy-Brasil. Research by Dr. Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha has revealed a background rooted in medical scholarship rather than magic. From Baghdad to Sicily: A Medical Text on the Move The text originated in eleventh-century Baghdad, where the physician Ibn Jazlah wrote Takwīm al-abdān fī tadbīr al-insān (The Almanac of Bodily Parts for the Treatment of People). A convert to Islam, Ibn Jazlah wrote on medicine during the latter part of the century. His other major medical work brought together information on food, drugs, and the preparation of medicinal ingredients, interspersed with recipes. Both works were dedicated to Caliph al-Muqtadī. It was Takwīm al-abdān, however, that would begin the journey behind the Hy-Brasil legend. The text reached Sicily, where the prominent Jewish-Sicilian physician Faraj ben Salim translated it into Latin in the late thirteenth century. It became known as Tacuini ægritudinum. Faraj ben Salim’s work as a medical translator also included De Medicinis Expertis, attributed to Galen, and al-Razi’s medical encyclopedia, which he translated under the title Continens. He worked for Charles of Anjou and appears alongside the king in an illustration in a manuscript of the latter work. Medicine in Squares: The Book’s Unusual Design The medical information is organized into forty-four square tables, each divided into twelve columns. Arranged according to the diseases discussed, the compartments combine horizontal, vertical, and diagonal writing, making the pages challenging for an unfamiliar reader to decipher. The format imitates astronomical charts. As an early example of a tabulated medical manual, the work was designed to simplify the physician’s task by presenting information clearly and concisely. What might look mysterious to an untrained observer was therefore a practical arrangement. The tables allowed physicians to locate information quickly and could also be used to teach medicine. Into Irish Hands: The O’Lee Family’s Manuscript The manuscript owned by the O’Lee family dates to the fifteenth century, judging by the year 1434 written on one of its pages. Faraj ben Salim’s Latin translation was subsequently translated into German and printed in 1532, but the text had evidently circulated in manuscript form long before then. The identities of the translators and scribes responsible for the Irish version remain unknown. How the manuscript reached Morogh O’Lee is also uncertain, although its acquisition was likely connected to his family’s medical profession. The nineteenth-century historian Eugene O’Curry suggested that O’Lee had invented the story of the book’s mystical origins to advance his own interests. Presenting the manuscript as an otherworldly treasure, he argued, offered a way to enhance its owner’s reputation. In the centuries that followed, the book passed from the family’s possession into the collections of the Royal Irish Academy, where its origins were traced. Seven Years Unopened: How Scholarship Became Legend Two accounts of O’Lee’s acquisition of the manuscript state that he was forbidden to open it for seven years. His obedience to this instruction added another layer of mystery to the story. Perhaps he really had left it unopened for that long, but for a more ordinary reason: he may not initially have thought it would be useful. This remains a possibility rather than an established explanation. As with other treasured objects, including the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan Castle in Scotland, the origins of a family heirloom could become obscured by stories of supernatural encounters. Yet the history of this medieval medical treatise hardly needs embellishment. Its passage from Baghdad through Sicily to Ireland reveals a journey of medical knowledge across languages, cultures, and centuries—as remarkable in its own way as a voyage to Hy-Brasil. Karin Murray-Bergquist is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, Viking and Medieval Norse Studies. Follow her on Instagram @galloussophisticate A mysterious medical manuscript was said to have come from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil—but its history tells an equally remarkable story. Karin Murray-Bergquist traces the text’s journey from medieval Baghdad to Ireland, revealing how medical scholarship became an enchanted family treasure. By Karin Murray-Bergquist A medical manuscript said to have come from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil became the strange treasure of Morogh O’Lee. In a version of the tale recorded by James Hardiman in 1846, the book contained Irish and Latin texts describing cures and medical treatments, written in red and black ink and arranged in neat but unusual tables. Its distinctive appearance was taken as evidence of its enchanted origins. Several elements of the story were true. The book was certainly unusual, and the O’Lees had served as physicians to the O’Flaherty family for generations. Yet the manuscript’s history, perhaps unknown to those who recorded the legend, was just as fascinating as a voyage to Hy-Brasil. Research by Dr. Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha has revealed a background rooted in medical scholarship rather than magic. From Baghdad to Sicily: A Medical Text on the Move The text originated in eleventh-century Baghdad, where the physician Ibn Jazlah wrote Takwīm al-abdān fī tadbīr al-insān (The Almanac of Bodily Parts for the Treatment of People). A convert to Islam, Ibn Jazlah wrote on medicine during the latter part of the century. His other major medical work brought together information on food, drugs, and the preparation of medicinal ingredients, interspersed with recipes. Both works were dedicated to Caliph al-Muqtadī. It was Takwīm al-abdān, however, that would begin the journey behind the Hy-Brasil legend. The text reached Sicily, where the prominent Jewish-Sicilian physician Faraj ben Salim translated it into Latin in the late thirteenth century. It became known as Tacuini ægritudinum. Faraj ben Salim’s work as a medical translator also included De Medicinis Expertis, attributed to Galen, and al-Razi’s medical encyclopedia, which he translated under the title Continens. He worked for Charles of Anjou and appears alongside the king in an illustration in a manuscript of the latter work. Medicine in Squares: The Book’s Unusual Design The medical information is organized into forty-four square tables, each divided into twelve columns. Arranged according to the diseases discussed, the compartments combine horizontal, vertical, and diagonal writing, making the pages challenging for an unfamiliar reader to decipher. The format imitates astronomical charts. As an early example of a tabulated medical manual, the work was designed to simplify the physician’s task by presenting information clearly and concisely. What might look mysterious to an untrained observer was therefore a practical arrangement. The tables allowed physicians to locate information quickly and could also be used to teach medicine. Into Irish Hands: The O’Lee Family’s Manuscript The manuscript owned by the O’Lee family dates to the fifteenth century, judging by the year 1434 written on one of its pages. Faraj ben Salim’s Latin translation was subsequently translated into German and printed in 1532, but the text had evidently circulated in manuscript form long before then. The identities of the translators and scribes responsible for the Irish version remain unknown. How the manuscript reached Morogh O’Lee is also uncertain, although its acquisition was likely connected to his family’s medical profession. The nineteenth-century historian Eugene O’Curry suggested that O’Lee had invented the story of the book’s mystical origins to advance his own interests. Presenting the manuscript as an otherworldly treasure, he argued, offered a way to enhance its owner’s reputation. In the centuries that followed, the book passed from the family’s possession into the collections of the Royal Irish Academy, where its origins were traced. Seven Years Unopened: How Scholarship Became Legend Two accounts of O’Lee’s acquisition of the manuscript state that he was forbidden to open it for seven years. His obedience to this instruction added another layer of mystery to the story. Perhaps he really had left it unopened for that long, but for a more ordinary reason: he may not initially have thought it would be useful. This remains a possibility rather than an established explanation. As with other treasured objects, including the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan Castle in Scotland, the origins of a family heirloom could become obscured by stories of supernatural encounters. Yet the history of this medieval medical treatise hardly needs embellishment. Its passage from Baghdad through Sicily to Ireland reveals a journey of medical knowledge across languages, cultures, and centuries—as remarkable in its own way as a voyage to Hy-Brasil. Karin Murray-Bergquist is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, Viking and Medieval Norse Studies. Follow her on Instagram @galloussophisticate Click here to view the manuscript Top Image: A page from the fifteenth-century Book of the O’Lees, or Book of Hy-Brasil, showing its distinctive tabulated arrangement of medical information. RIA MS 23 P 10 (ii), p. 62. © Royal Irish Academy; image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen. Subscribe to Medievalverse Related Posts