Keith Manley wrote:
>
> I have recently been sent the following query for which I welcome any
> responses, not necessarily to me personally but preferably to these lists.
> The query concerns librarian / scientists and scientist / librarians in
> the 18th century. Certainly as far as England is concerned, many of the
> early librarians of the British Museum might be regarded as scientists.
> But I wonder how far this is true elsewhere? England has a long tradition
> of antiquaries as librarians, though perhaps they were not so prevalent
> in the 18th century (Ducarel would be an exception).
Keith:
The biggest name - not from this country - is surely Leibniz, at
Wolfenbüttel.
Lockhart Muirhead, librarian of Glasgow University 1795-1823, was also
from 1807 Regius Professor of Natural History (and had much to do with
the transfer of the Hunterian Museum - largely scientific of course -
from London to Glasgow). Most of his predecessors were theologians or
classicists.
I suspect there will have been one or two librarians of Oxbridge
colleges who were scientists, and some of the scientific bodies like the
Royal Colleges of Physicians & Surgeons will have had at least honorary
librarians among their Fellows - I haven't any instances to hand. Were
there any librarians of observatories in the 18c., I wonder?
The relative scarcity of proper "librarian" posts in Britain outside the
universities may also be relevant - no court libraries as in the German
or Italian-speaking world.
Regards
Peter
____________________________________________________________________
Peter Hoare, 21 Oundle Drive, Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 1BN
Tel/fax 0115 978 5297 E-mail [log in to unmask]
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