RCSI Heritage Collections

RCSI Heritage Collections houses a medieval medical manuscript of unique research interest. Ten years ago, our then special collections librarian wrote a  blog post on the ‘Lentaigne Manuscript’  (RCSI/MS/97), telling of the history of the 1851 donation to RCSI Library and its Lentaigne namesake, and referencing previous research published in 1943, by the late RCSI Professor J.D.H. Widdess ( PRACTICA MAGISTRI JOHANNIS ARDERNE. (An Account of an early 15th Century Manuscript in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland .) Recently, a new piece of research on RCSI/MS/97 has been published by Peter Murray Jones , Fellow, King's College, Cambridge, giving us more to know and love about RCSI’s own ‘Arderne Manuscript’. RCSI/MS/97 - marginalia and illustrations appear throughout the manuscript Master surgeon John Arderne (1307–c.1380) had served King Edward III as an army surgeon at the battle of Crécy in 1346. In 1376, Arderne wrote PRACTICA MAGISTRI JOHANNIS ARDERNE,...

    The late J.D.H Widdess, Librarian and Professor of Biology, knew more about the College than any other person. His account of the Arms of the College explains how suitable armorial bearings were devised and used from 1784 until 1907 when it was realised that formal authority to use a coat of arms had never been obtained.   An application was made immediately to the Ulster King of Arms, the heraldic authority in Ireland, who had his office in Dublin Castle. A grant of arms was given on 20th March 1907 consisting of a shield, crest and supporters. Its official description in the language of heraldry is quite a mouthful:      'Argent on a Saltire gules, a dexter hand apaumée fessewise, couped at the wrist proper, on a Chief      ermine harp crowned between two fleams or; for CREST on a wreath of the Colours an Eagle     preying on a serpent proper; for SUPPORTERS two Irish elks each gorged with a C...