Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/191

 history collection to the university of Edinburgh, with a catalogue (which was printed at the expense of the university) entitled ‘Auctarium Musæi Balfouriani e Musæo Sibbaldino.’ He died in August 1722, and in the same year was printed at Edinburgh ‘A Catalogue of the Library of the late learned and ingenious Sir Robert Sibbald of Kippis, Doctor of Medicine, to be sold by auction.’ The library was sold on 5 Feb. 1723, a large number of his books and manuscripts being purchased for the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. An engraving of his portrait, from the original picture in the Royal College of Physicians, is prefixed to his ‘Remains,’ 1837.

Sibbald is perhaps best known for his ‘History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdom of Fife and Kinross,’ Edinburgh, 1710; Cupar, Fifeshire, 1803. Belonging to a Fife family, he had a very special interest in, as well as an intimate acquaintance with, the shire. But he was the author of many other geographical and antiquarian works displaying wide and varied knowledge, and several of them still of interest from the contemporary information they contain. The principal are: 1. ‘Nuncius Scoto-Britannus, de Descriptione Scotiæ Antiquæ et Modernæ,’ Edinburgh, 1683. 2. ‘An Account of the Scottish Atlas,’ 1683. 3. ‘Phalainologia Nova, sive Observationes de rarioribus quibusdam Balænis in Scotiæ littus nuper ejectis,’ Edinburgh, 1692; London, 1773. 4. ‘An Essay concerning the Thule of the Ancients,’ Edinburgh, 1693. 5. ‘Rogatu Joannis Sletzeri rei tormentariæ in Scotia Præfecti Theatrum celebriorum urbium, arcium, templorum, et monasteriorum Scotiæ, lingua Latina scripsi, quod in linguam nostram versum edidit, cum Iconibus,’ London, 1693 [cf. SLEZER, JOHN]. 6. ‘Additions to Camden's “Britannia,”’ 1695. 7. ‘Introductio ad Historiam Rerum a Romanis gestarum, in ea Borealis Britanniæ parte, quæ ultra murum Picticum est: in qua veterum in hac plaga incolarum nomina et sedes explicantur,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1696. 8. ‘Provision for the Poor in the time of Dearth and Scarcity,’ Edinburgh, 1699. 9. ‘Georgii Sibbaldi, M.D., Domini de Giblistone, regulæ bene et salubriter vivendi, partim prosa partim metro expressæ nunc primum ex MSS. Autographis authoris in lucem editæ et notis illustratæ per R. S. M. D. ex fratre Davide nepotem,’ Edinburgh, 1701. 10. ‘The Liberty and Independence of the Kingdom and Church in Scotland asserted from Ancient Records,’ Edinburgh, 1703. 11. ‘An Answer to the Second Letter to the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, wherein the Scots Ancient Possessions in Britain is asserted,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1704. 12. ‘De Gestis Gulielmi Vallæ Herois Scoti Collectanea varia,’ Edinburgh, 1705. 13. ‘In Hippocratis Legem, et in ejus Epistolam ad Thessalum filium, Commentarii,’ Edinburgh, 1706. 14. ‘Historical Inquiries concerning the Roman Monuments in the North Part of Britain called Scotland,’ 1707; a similar work in Latin, entitled ‘Miscellanea quædam eruditæ Antiquitatis quæ ad borealem Britanniæ majoris partem pertinent; in quibus loci quidam historicorum Romanorum, variaque monumenta antiqua illustrantur,’ Edinburgh, 1710. 15. ‘The History, Ancient and Modern, of the Sheriffdoms of Linlithgow and Stirling; with an account of the Natural Products of the Land and Water, in two Books,’ Edinburgh, 1710. 16. ‘An Account of the Writers Ancient and Modern, printed and Manuscripts not printed, which treat of the description of North Britain, called Scotland, as it was of old, and is now at present, with a Catalogue of the Mapps and Prospects and Figures of the Ancient Monuments thereof, in two parts,’ Edinburgh, 1710. 17. ‘Description of the Islands of Orkney and Zetland with the Maps of them,’ Edinburgh, 1711. 18. ‘Commentarius in Julii Agricolæ Expeditiones 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, in vita ejus, per Cornelium Tacitum generum ejus, descriptas,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1711. 19. ‘Portus, Coloniæ, et Castella Romana, ad Bodotriam et ad Taum; or Conjectures concerning the Roman Ports, Colonies, and Forts in the Friths of Forth and Tay,’ Edinburgh, 1711. 20. ‘Specimen Glossarii de populis et locis Britanniæ borealis, in explicatione locorum quorundam difficilium apud scriptores veteres,’ Edinburgh, 1711. 21. ‘Series rerum a Romanis post avocatum Agricolam in Britannia boreali gestarum,’ Edinburgh, 1711.

Sibbald was also the author of several scientific papers in ‘Philosophical Transactions;’ and various of his essays read before the Royal Society on Scottish antiquities were published in a volume in 1739 under the title ‘A Collection of several Treatises in folio concerning Scotland.’ There also appeared at Edinburgh in 1837 ‘Remains of Sir Robert Sibbald, Knt., M.D., containing his Autobiography, Memoirs of the Royal College of Physicians, Portion of his Literary Correspondence, and account of his manuscripts.’

[Remains ut supra; Life and Account of his writings prefixed to his History of Fife; Bower's History of the University of Edinburgh; Grant's History of the University of Edinburgh; A. H. Millar's Fife, Pictorial and Historical, 1895.] 