The origin, development and aims of our scientific societies / [Sir John Evans].

  • John Evans
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The origin, development and aims of our scientific societies / [Sir John Evans]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    worked in concert with the Royal Society, and did not finally cease to exist until 1690. We shall have to return in the course of my remarks to the early days of the Royal Society ; but it will be well to dwell now for a short time on the origin of the .Society of Anti¬ quaries, which, in its unchartered form, can claim a considerably higher degree of anti¬ quity. About the year 1572, “ divers gentle¬ men of London, studious in antiquities, formed themselves into a College or Society of Anti¬ quaries.’’ The honour of this foundation is “entirely due to that munificent patron of letters and learned man, Archbishop Parker. The members met near 20 years at the house of Sir Robert Cotton, and, in 1589, resolved to apply to the Queen for a charter of in¬ corporation, and for some public building, where they might assemble and have a library.” A petition was prepared for presentation to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth praying for the in¬ corporation of “ An Academy for the Studye of Antiquity and History,” the meetings of which were to be held in the Savoy, or the dissolved Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, or elsewhere. It is uncertain whether this petition was ever presented, but the Queen seems to have given the society her coun¬ tenance, and under the presidency of Arch¬ bishops Parker and Whitgift successively it flourished, and a list of thirty-eight of its members, comprising such well-known names as Camden, Cotton, Erdeswicke, Lambarde,
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