Letter 2703

Sibbald’s friend Mr Inglish would have put the enclosed in Sloane’s hands many months ago, but his ship was prevented from traveling by the weather. A list of all the works included in the bundle is included. Sloane is to dispose of it as he sees fit. Sibbald asks if there are any ‘painted Books’ in the Balfour collection that Sloane would like him to procure. He discusses botany, cataloguing, and some curious inscriptions found at St Kirk’s Church in Scotland. Sibbald asks Sloane to allow Inglish to attend Royal Society meetings and view his Cabinet of Curiosities. He requests a work in the Gresham College Library: ‘An extract printed by J.M. Cowan in ‘Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh,’ Vol. XIX, no. XCI, 1933.’ Sibbald asks about a ‘History in the polish Language keept in the Library at Gresham Colledge’ and a ‘history of the Academie of Sciences’. Sibbald was a physician and a geographer. He was physician to James VII (Charles W. J. Withers, Sibbald, Sir Robert (16411722), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25496, accessed 19 June 2013]).