Register Book Original of the Royal Society 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 the register books 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 on 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'. The register books are by nature copies of notable documents transcribed into a register, in turn the registers exist in original and copy form as the original register book was transcribed in the eighteenth century: see Register Book Copy, RBC. 1661-1739