Journal Book Original

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 JBO
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Journal Book Original
Date(s)	: 1660-
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 50 volumes (in progress)
Name of creator(s)	: Royal Society
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Begins with the very first meeting of the newly formed Society, held in Gresham College on 28 November 1660 following a lecture by Christopher Wren. A copy of the Journal Book Original was made retrospectively in the early eighteenth century, and then regularly to the early nineteenth century for the purposes of greater security. In 1988 at the Special General Meeting of 17 November 1988 the Council approved a proposal, expressed in detail in an Appendix , to formally amend Statute 60, to separate the business meetings of the Society from the scientific lectures and meetings. The scientific discussions and lectures open to Fellows alone had been replaced with a programme of lectures and meetings open to all, with ordinary meetings of Fellows having become brief formal meetings for Statutory business. Decisions on the venues and dates of lectures , which broke the tradition that lectures be tied to Ordinary meetings, had been made by Council on 16 June 1988, minute 22.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

The Journal Books exist in Original and Copy versions. The Journal Books contain minutes of the ordinary minutes of the Royal Society, setting out the following information: person in the chair, news of elections to the Fellowship and Council, non-Fellows given leave to be present, and books and rarities presented to the Society. Letters and papers read before the Society are given in abstract with any subsequent discussion. By the 19th century much of this earlier detail is lost, so that , for example, only titles of papers are recorded.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, Latin, French, German and Italian

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Available 30 years after creation.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Volumes 1-9 contain individual indexes covering the period 1660-1694.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
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:
Feb 2009.