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Collections VIII: Library and Archive Resources in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Leeds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

P. B. Wood  and
J. V. Golinski
P. B. Wood
Affiliation:
Division of History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.
J. V. Golinski
Affiliation:
Division of History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.
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Extract

Although the University of Leeds has attained something of a reputation for the quality of its scholarship in the history of science, few historians are aware of the impressive collection of early scientific and medical books and manuscripts to be found in the University libraries. In order to make the library resources more widely known, we embarked on a systematic survey of the contents of the main historical collections. We wanted not only to give a general impression of the particular strengths and distinctive features of each collection, but also to mention the interesting or rare copies of individual works to be found in them. We have, therefore, examined every book related to the history of science and medicine in the relevant collections, and in doing so we have uncovered a number of important items. For example, we have identified a book which was once in Newton's library, and a previously unrecorded copy of Joseph Black's chemical lectures. More generally, we had not suspected the true size and range of the Chaston Chapman Collection, which makes it a valuable resource for the history of alchemy and early chemistry; nor were we initially aware of the strength of the Historical Collection of the Medical and Dental Library. The wealth of the legacies to (and the discrimination shown in recent purchases for) the Brotherton and Special Collections also impressed us.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , November 1981 , pp. 263 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1981

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References

NOTES

We wish to thank Dr G. N. Cantor, Professor M. P. Crosland, Dr R. Fox, Dr K. T. Hoppen, and Mr J. B. Morrell for their suggestions and assistance with specific enquiries. Among the University of Leeds Library staff we must thank the Librarian, Mr D. Cox, for his permission to carry out the survey, Mr C. D. W. Sheppard for his help with the Brotherton Collection, Mrs A. M. K. Collins and Mrs D. Roberts for help with the Historical Collection of the Medical and Dental Library, and particularly Mr P. S. Morrish for his initial encouragement and subsequent help with the Special Collections. The Librarian and library staff mentioned also provided us with a number of helpful comments on the first draft of this survey.

1 See Offor, R., A descriptive guide to the libraries of the University of Leeds, Leeds, 1947.Google Scholar

2 Masson, D. I., ‘The Brotherton Collection of rare books and manuscripts’, The University of Leeds review, 1978, 27, 135–54.Google Scholar

3 We wish to thank Dr. K. T. Hoppen, of the University of Hull, for confirming that this identification is a ‘strong possibility’.

4 See his obituary in The Times, 19 10 1932, p. 16.Google Scholar

5 Dobbs, B. J. T., The foundations of Newton's alchemy; or ‘The hunting of the greene lyon’, Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar, chapter III.

6 Wilkinson, R. S., ‘The alchemical library of John Winthrop’, Ambix, 1963, 11, 33–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 1966, 13, 139–86.

7 See Spargo, P. E., ‘Newton's library’, Endeavour, 01 1972, 31.Google Scholar

8 See Harrison, John, The library of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1978.Google Scholar

9 Dobbs, , op. cit. (5), pp. 148–9.Google Scholar

10 Materials for such a bibliographical study could include: Ferguson, J., Bibliotheca chemica, 2 vols., Glasgow, 1906Google Scholar; Bibliotheca alchemica et chemica, London, 1949Google Scholar; and Catalogue of the Ferguson collection, Glasgow, 1943.Google Scholar To these might be added Pritchard, Alan, Alchemy: a bibliography of English-language writings, London, 1980.Google Scholar During Chaston Chapman's lifetime, only Ferguson's work was available, to which he appears to have made reference. His typewritten catalogue to the collection includes frequent repetition of the proud note ‘not in Ferguson’.

11 See, among others, de Jong, H. M. E., Michael Maier's ‘Atalanta fugiens’, Leyden, 1969, p. 37Google Scholar, and Thorndike, Lynn, A history of magic and experimental science, 8 vols., New York, 1941–1958, v, p. 532.Google Scholar

12 For example, Rattansi, P. M., ‘Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution’, Ambix, 1963, 11, 24–32 (24)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thomas, K., Religion and the decline of magic, London, 1973, p. 270Google Scholar; and Webster, C., The great instauration, London, 1975, p. 386.Google Scholar

13 Webster, , op. cit. (12); p. 281Google Scholar for Russell, , p. 280Google Scholar for Pinnell.

14 A note by Henry Oldenburg, in his ‘Liber epistolarii’, Royal Society MS. 1, f. 129r, attributes the translation to Dr William Aglionby, FRS.

15 A detailed examination of the Anglo-French Collection is given in a series of article by Offor, Richard, ‘A collection of books in the library of the University of Leeds printed before the beginning of the nineteenth century containing—(a) translations from English into French, (b) books written in French on Great Britain and on British affairs’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical Society (Literary and Historical Section), 1925–1928, 1, 292–8Google Scholar; 1928–32, 2, 109—23, 361–76; 1936–8, 4, 55–76; 1938–43, 5. 277–93, 403–11; 1944–47, 6, (i), 111–24, 196–215, 283–312.

16 This summary is based on Offor, op. cit. (1), pp. 114–127, and on Collins, A. M. and Sharp, J. A., ‘Some books in the Historical Collection of the Medical and Dental Library’, The University of Leeds review, 1979, 22, 172–90Google Scholar, which discusses in some detail five works on anatomy from the period 1543–1733 which are in the Collection.

17 The Black lectures, of which there are 62, are untitled and undated. The early lectures are almost word-for-word identical with those printed by McKie, D. in Annals of Science, 1959, 15, 65–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 1960, 16, 1–9; 1962, 18, 87–97.

18 The lectures are internally dated ‘1734’; but Dr G. N. Cantor informs us that other copies of these lectures, which he has examined, all bear the dates 1723 or 1734. This is so even in those cases when the owners could not have attended Cambridge lectures at the time stated. Dr Cantor thinks it likely that these lectures date from before 1733.

19 See A catalogue of the Gosse correspondence in the Brotherton Collection (with an introduction by Philip Gosse), Leeds, 1950.Google Scholar

20 Unfortunately, this material was not exploited in the recent study of DeKosky, Robert K., ‘George Gabriel Stokes, Arthur Smithells, and the origin of spectra in flames’, Ambix, 1980, 27, 103–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Olby, Robert, The path to the double helix, London, 1974.Google Scholar