Robert Sibbald
Robert Sibbald | |
|---|---|
 Sir Robert Sibbald.[1] | |
| Born | 15 April 1641 |
| Died | August 1722 (aged 81) |
| Education | High School, Edinburgh Edinburgh University |
| Known for | President and founder of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh,[2] Founder of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh First Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh University[3] |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | physician, antiquary, geographer |
| Institutions | President, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1684), Edinburgh Professor of Medicine, Edinburgh University (1685) |
| Sub-specialties | botanic medicine |
| Research | botany, medicine |
Sir Robert Sibbald (15 April 1641 – August 1722) was a Scottish physician and antiquary.
Life[]
He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald (brother of Sir James Sibbald) and Margaret Boyd (January 1606 – 10 July 1672). Educated at the Royal High School and the Universities of Edinburgh, Leiden, and Paris, he took his doctor's degree at the University of Angers in 1662, and soon afterwards settled as a physician working in Edinburgh. He resided at "Kipps Castle" near Linlithgow.[4] In 1667 with Sir Andrew Balfour he started the botanical garden in Edinburgh, and he took a leading part[5] in establishing the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, of which he was elected president in 1684.[6] Both Sibbald and Balfour were proponents of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia.
In 1682, Sibbald began assembling material for a projected two volume geographical description or atlas of Scotland, recruiting parish ministers and members of the nobility and gentry to assist him in the task. While the work was never published, many of the manuscripts describing aspects of the geography, natural history and antiquities of parts of Scotland have survived.[7]
In 1685 he was appointed the first professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was also appointed Geographer Royal in 1682, and his numerous and miscellaneous writings deal with historical and antiquarian as well as with botanical and medical subjects.[6] He based many of his cartographical studies on the work of Timothy Pont. He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh in a vault against the southern wall.
The wild flower Sibbaldia procumbens [8] is named after him.
Taxonomy of the blue whale—Sibbaldus[]
Originally the blue whale was named after Sibbald, who first described it scientifically.
Although the blue whale is today usually classified as one of eight species in the genus Balaenoptera, one authority still places it in a separate monotypic genus, Sibbaldus,[9] but this is not widely accepted.
The blue whale was once commonly referred to as Sibbald's rorqual.
Works[]
Sibbald's historical and antiquarian works include:
- 1683: An Account of the Scottish Atlas. Folio, Edinburgh
- 1684: Scotia illustrata. Edinburgh
- 1699: Memoria Balfouriana; sive, Historia rerum, pro literis promovendis, gestarum a ... fratribus Balfouriis ... Jacobo ... et ... Andrea. Authore R.S.. Edinburgi: Typis Hæredum Andreæ Anderson
- 1699: Provision for the poor in time of dearth and scarcity
- 1710: A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross. Edinburgh
- 1711: Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Folio, Edinburgh
- 1803: A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross. Cupar
- 1837: The Remains of Sir Robert Sibbald, containing his autobiography, memoirs of the Royal College of Physicians, a portion of his literary correspondence, and an account of his MSS.; [edited by James Maidment], 2 pt. in 1 vol. Edinburgh: [printed for the editor]; edition of thirty-five copies; the titlepage of the Autobiography bears the date 1833
- 1845: Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland (folio, Edinburgh)
References[]
- ^ Sir William Jardine, The Natural History of the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, publ. W.H. Lizars, 1838. Frontispiece
- ^ http://digital.nls.uk/slezer/sibbald.html National Library of Scotland - Robert Sibbald
- ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/sir-robert-sibbald-16411722-186123 BBC Your Paintings - Robert Sibbald
- ^ History of Livingston, William F hendrie
- ^ "http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/about/history.php". Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Retrieved 28 March 2010. External link in
|title=(help) - ^ Jump up to: a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Withers, Charles, W.J. (1999), Introduction to A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland circa 1695 by Martin Martin, Birlinn, Edinburgh, pp. 1 - 12, ISBN 978-1-78027-546-8
- ^ [1]
- ^ Barnes LG, McLeod SA. (1984). "The fossil record and phyletic relationships of gray whales.". In Jones ML; et al. (eds.). The Gray Whale. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press. pp. 3–32. ISBN 0-12-389180-9.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sibbald, Sir Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links[]
- Article at National Library of Scotland
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- 1641 births
- 1722 deaths
- University of Angers (pre-1793) alumni
- People from Edinburgh
- People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
- 17th-century Scottish medical doctors
- 18th-century Scottish medical doctors
- Scottish geographers
- Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
- University of Paris alumni
- Scottish antiquarians
- Leiden University alumni
- Scottish botanists
- Scottish zoologists
- Academics of the University of Edinburgh
- 18th-century Scottish people
- Scottish marine biologists
- Marine zoologists
- Scottish knights