IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1538 S98
Held at: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Title: 'Arabic mss'
Date(s): [17th century]
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 item
Name of creator(s): Unknown
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Unknown
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
A number of manuscripts in Farsi bound into a single volume, including a calendar; a circular calendar or almanac; a reproduction of the zodiacal man showing the sites of injuries and disease and indicating the most favourable sites for application and treatment; a diagram of the seven planetary circles and a number of sonnets. There is an inscription in French on the inside cover indicating that the manuscript contains Islamic prayers for use in Mosques and a calendar of their usage.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: Farsi. Inscriptions in French, Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, German and Russian.
System of arrangement:
Single item
Conditions governing access:
Conditions governing reproduction:
Physical characteristics:
Bound in a volume. Some pages are divided into two coloured panels, there are also several leaves with stained designs possibly made by dyes from flowers.
Finding aids:
No additional finding aids.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
At least one of these manuscripts was in the possession of Daniel Messerschmidt in 1720. Messerschmidt was a Prussian physician and naturalist from Danzig sent by the Russian czar Peter the Great on an expedition to Siberia from 1720-1728. During this expedition Messerschmidt excavated a mammoth carcass from the banks of the Indigirka River. His signature and several quotations in his hand in Hebrew, Latin, German and Ancient Greek, are on one page of the volume, these were written in Tobolsk, Siberia, 1720.
The volume was purchased [by Louis de la Croyere Delisle (d 1741), astronomer], the note of purchase can be found on the inside cover. In 1782 it was in the Library of l' Académie Royale des Sciences. Donated to the Library of the RCOG by Roy Dobbin.
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred to the College Archives from the Library in April 2008.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
Date(s) of descriptions: Jul 2008