Robert Boyle and the Gaelic Bible

 

We went to see Rob Roy's grave it Balquidder. Apparently he's not actually buried there!! However, there are some wonderful displays in the church. One minister, Robert Kirk, was a Gaelic scholar who oversaw the production of the first Bible in Gaelic. I was amazed to discover that this was funded by Robert Boyle, of Boyle's Law fame. He was apparently also interested in Kirk's work on "second sight". This isn't odd for scientists of the time given Newton's work on alchemy. One of Kirk's big jobs was putting a Gaelic translation of the Old Testament into Roman letters. I was wondering why I couldn't read the sample in the box but this must be the old Irish script.