Miscellaneous Manuscripts
Item
Country
GB
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
Contact information: phone number
0044 2074512500
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
library@royalsociety.org
Reference number
MM
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
Miscellaneous Manuscripts
Title (official language of the state)
Miscellaneous Manuscripts
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
The Royal Society
Date note
17th century/-
Language(s)
fra
eng
lat
por
others
Extent
14 volumes and 8 boxes
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
This collection is composed of single manuscript letters and small groups of related documents. It contains papers by, about or belonging to the Fellows of the Royal Society, and covers all branches of the sciences and also non-scientific material.
The Miscellaneous manuscripts include diverse documentary materials regarding Sephardic Jews who were Fellows of the Royal Society, namely Isaac de Sequeira Samuda, Jacob de Castro Sarmento, Joseph Salvador and Emanuel Mendes da Costa. Some examples are the following:
MM/4/58: Letter from David Lopez Pereyra to the Royal Society, forwarding a copy of an entry from the register of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation in London, vindicating Jacob de Castro Sarmento against certain slander. May 6, 1724.
MM/4/61: Letter from Stephen Hall, Clapton, to John Machin, on the unsuitability of Jacob de Castro Sarmento as a candidate for the Fellowship. January 24, 1729.
MM/4/60: Letter from Wismann Clagett, Barnard's Inn, to the Royal Society, about a lawsuit that he brought against Jacob de Castro Sarmento. January 27, 1729.
MM/14/141: Letter from Emanuel Mendes da Costa on "natural curiosities, former collections where absorbed and a list of Presidents of the Royal Society from its foundation". December 13, 1757.
MM/15/39: List of a collection of 300 fossils bought by John Anderson of Glasgow of Emanuel Mendes da Costa in July 1767.
The Miscellaneous manuscripts include diverse documentary materials regarding Sephardic Jews who were Fellows of the Royal Society, namely Isaac de Sequeira Samuda, Jacob de Castro Sarmento, Joseph Salvador and Emanuel Mendes da Costa. Some examples are the following:
MM/4/58: Letter from David Lopez Pereyra to the Royal Society, forwarding a copy of an entry from the register of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation in London, vindicating Jacob de Castro Sarmento against certain slander. May 6, 1724.
MM/4/61: Letter from Stephen Hall, Clapton, to John Machin, on the unsuitability of Jacob de Castro Sarmento as a candidate for the Fellowship. January 24, 1729.
MM/4/60: Letter from Wismann Clagett, Barnard's Inn, to the Royal Society, about a lawsuit that he brought against Jacob de Castro Sarmento. January 27, 1729.
MM/14/141: Letter from Emanuel Mendes da Costa on "natural curiosities, former collections where absorbed and a list of Presidents of the Royal Society from its foundation". December 13, 1757.
MM/15/39: List of a collection of 300 fossils bought by John Anderson of Glasgow of Emanuel Mendes da Costa in July 1767.
Administrative / Biographical history
The Royal Society is the oldest national scientific society in the world and the leading British organisation for the promotion of scientific research. It originated on November 28, 1660, when 12 men met after a lecture at Gresham College, London, by Christopher Wren (1632-1723), then professor of astronomy at the college, and resolved to set up a college for the promoting of "Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning". Those present included the scientists Robert Boyle (1627-91) and Bishop John Wilkins (1614-72) and the courtiers Sir Robert Moray (1609-73) and William, 2nd Viscount Brouncker (1620-84).
This group's ambition to create a national society devoted to the promotion of science was put into effect over the next few years, particularly through a charter of incorporation granted by Charles II in 1662 and revised in 1663. The royal charter provided an institutional structure for the society, with a president, treasurer, secretaries, and council. Though it had royal patronage almost from the start, the society has always remained a voluntary organisation, independent of the British state.
A key development of the Royal Society was the establishment in 1665 of a periodical that acted as the society's mouthpiece, the Philosophical Transactions, which still flourishes today as the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication.
The presidency of Isaac Newton from 1703 to 1727 saw this great mathematician and physicist asserting the society's dominant role in science in Britain and farther afield. Endowments from the 18th century onward made possible prizes for various aspects of science that are still awarded today. In the 1830s, a reform program reinvigorated the society and restored it to a prominence that it has retained ever since.
Since 1967, the society has occupied premises in Carlton House Terrace, London, where meetings are held, and the society's extensive archival and other resources are housed.
This group's ambition to create a national society devoted to the promotion of science was put into effect over the next few years, particularly through a charter of incorporation granted by Charles II in 1662 and revised in 1663. The royal charter provided an institutional structure for the society, with a president, treasurer, secretaries, and council. Though it had royal patronage almost from the start, the society has always remained a voluntary organisation, independent of the British state.
A key development of the Royal Society was the establishment in 1665 of a periodical that acted as the society's mouthpiece, the Philosophical Transactions, which still flourishes today as the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication.
The presidency of Isaac Newton from 1703 to 1727 saw this great mathematician and physicist asserting the society's dominant role in science in Britain and farther afield. Endowments from the 18th century onward made possible prizes for various aspects of science that are still awarded today. In the 1830s, a reform program reinvigorated the society and restored it to a prominence that it has retained ever since.
Since 1967, the society has occupied premises in Carlton House Terrace, London, where meetings are held, and the society's extensive archival and other resources are housed.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
26 numbered volumes bound as 14 physical volumes and 8 boxes. Records are not arranged chronologically except within small acquisition groups. Later volumes divide letters by century.
Finding aids
The Archive Card Catalogue contains the list of letters, detailing name and address of sender, date of recipient and reference number. A handlist for volumes 1-14, produced as an introduction to the microfilm publication of the series by University Publications of America, is available containing similar information.
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022