| Description | A suggestion book for the ordering of printed books, journals and other material for the Royal Society Library. Presumably, the volume was used by the Library Committee to select publications and to authorise expenditure. Items were entered into the volume by Fellows, typically with the individual Fellow's signature, and sometimes with comments; associated information follows, usually the result of the request, purchase details, and pricing. Early signatories include Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Edward Sabine, Thomas Henry Huxley and others; later signatures include those of Godfrey Harold Hardy, William Henry Bragg, and Patrick Maynard Blackett.
With occasional minutes of the Library Committee for meetings of: 17 February 1853 [p.20]; 25 January 1855 [p.24]; 14 June 1855 [pp.28-29]; 31 January 1856 [pp.29-31].
There are other inserts, notably a typescript list of material offered by S. Calvary & Co., Berlin [pp.111-112]; and a letter from Dulau & Co., 11 April 1912, to the Librarian, concerning the purchase of the Dictionary of National Biography [p.124/125].. |
| Notes | Previously bound, size 360x187mm, brown cloth boards with quarter leather binding. This volume was disbound in April 2025 due to severe red rot/degraded leather, spine covering in pieces and linings tearing away from spine. Both boards detached with water damage and abrasion and signs of mould. Repair was not possible. The majority of pages in the volume were unused. Pages with text and loose insertions are now stored in a folder, with the marbled end-papers. Binding and unused pages diposed of April 2025 as part of binding condition survey, they contained no additional curatorial information. Reference photographs of binding retained. |