Royal Society: Register Book Original

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 RBO
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Royal Society: Register Book Original
Date(s)	: 1661-1739
Level of description	: Sub-fonds
Extent	: 21 volumes
Name of creator(s)	: Royal Society
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Register Books exist in Original and Copy form. The Original set was copied in the eighteenth century, possibly for reasons of security as were the Journal Books and the Council Minutes. It is known that one volume of the Register was lost (Volume 2) and then recovered, but not before a replacement had been made, leaving three versions. A further copy of Volumes 1 and 2 of the Register was made (date unknown) and returned to the Society in 1814, being presented to Sir Joseph Banks (MSG/776). Volume 10 of the series does not exist - this was left as a deliberate gap in the sequence, to be filled if original papers became available for copying. MS/245 may once have been considered as part of, or supplementary to, the Register Book. It contains copies of original documents in Classified Papers 23(i) and (ii) on the subject of inoculation, and is copied and bound in similar style.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

The Register Books contain copies of scientific papers submitted to the Society - the original documents may be found in the Classified Papers. The papers were transcribed in order to establish their precedence for a particular discovery or idea. Therefore not all communications to the Society were registered in this manner, but only those judged to contain some significant material. Dates as listed are those in which the paper was communicated to the Royal Society; dates of writing, where given, are included in the description of each paper. Many of the these papers were published in 'Philosophical Transactions'.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Volumes 1-5 contain some subject indexing; volumes 7, 11-17 and 20 have indexes to authors.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Register Book Copy, 19 volumes, 1661-1738; general subject index in two volume index to the Journal, Register and Letter Books, 1661-1689, continued to 1695, and the single volume Register Book Copy index; see Classified Papers (Reference: Cl.P) for original documents.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2009.