The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by James Blake Bailey.
- Bailey, James Blake, -1897.
- Date:
- 1889
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by James Blake Bailey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![and ancient pall belong to this Company should be at their service as a free gift. The Surgeons would not accept this offer, but said (for the first time after a two years separation and division of the property) that they considered the Library belonged to them under the provisions in the Act of Parliament. Various attempts were subsequently made by the Barbers'Company to sell the Library, and in 1751 it was disposed of to Mr. Whiston for £12,.! It is greatly to be regretted that the Surgeons' Company did not purchase it and so preserve to the Royal College of Surgeons, what must undoubtedly have been a most curious and unique collec- tion. Dozens of these old books had bosses and chains attached to them, and in the old days were guarded with a jealous care. In 1701 Dr. Tyson made some proposals to the Company for the regulation of its Library, and a Committee of the Court being thereupon appointed drew up a great many rules, all of which are set out in the Barber- Surgeon's Minute Book of that date. No list of the books is now known; there were two in MS., but Mr, Young tells me they have both disappeared. I have not been able to see any of Whiston's Catalogues issued about 1751-2 : in all probability these would contain the titles of many of the books in this lost Library. The following extract is from the United Company of Barbers and Suigeons' expenses for i63-|, 1638-1639. The charge and settinge upp our books and auntient Manuscriptes in our new Library. Paid for 36 yards of chaine at /[d. the yard, and 36 yards at 2>d. the yard, cometh to xxijj. v'ld. Paid to the Coppersmith for castinge 80 brasses to fasten the chaines to the bookes xiijj. m\d. To porters at several! tymes to carry these books . . ijj. Paid to the booke bynders for new byndinge 15 books . xlviijj. \id. Paid for Claspinge 19 large and small bookes, and fasteninge all the brasses to the chaines, in Three score and foure books, 8^. ; setting on old bosses, jj.; mending ould ./]^^P^^''jf xxx]s.v\\]d. raid for makeing Ringes, swiffles, and fittinge all the iron chaines xijj. Somme is . . vjli xviijj. The Library of the College dates from the year 1800, that is the same year as the Charter of Incorporation. It had, however, been the intention of the old Corporation of Surgeons to form a Library, although they had never carried their intention into](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2230549x_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
