Robert Sibbald

He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald (brother of Sir James Sibbald) and Margaret Boyd (January 1606 – 10 July 1672). Educated at the Royal High School and the Universities of Edinburgh, Leiden, and Paris, he took his doctor's degree at the University of Angers in 1662, and soon afterwards settled as a physician working in Edinburgh. He resided at "Kipps Castle" near Linlithgow.[4] In 1667 with Sir Andrew Balfour he started the botanical garden in Edinburgh, and he took a leading part[5] in establishing the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, of which he was elected president in 1684.[6] Both Sibbald and Balfour were proponents of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia.

In 1685 he was appointed the first professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was also appointed Geographer Royal in 1682, and his numerous and miscellaneous writings deal with historical and antiquarian as well as with botanical and medical subjects.[6] He based many of his cartographical studies on the work of Timothy Pont. He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh in a vault against the southern wall.

Sibbald mausoleum in Greyfriars, Edinburgh

The wild flower Sibbaldia procumbens [7] is named after him.

Originally the blue whale was named after Sibbald, who first described it scientifically.

Although the blue whale is today usually classified as one of eight species in the genus Balaenoptera, one authority still places it in a separate monotypic genus, Sibbaldus,[8] but this is not widely accepted.

The blue whale was once commonly referred to as Sibbald's rorqual.

Sibbald's historical and antiquarian works include:

• 1683: An Account of the Scottish Atlas. Folio, Edinburgh
• 1684: Scotia illustrata. Edinburgh
• 1699: Memoria Balfouriana; sive, Historia rerum, pro literis promovendis, gestarum a ... fratribus Balfouriis ... Jacobo ... et ... Andrea. Authore R.S.. Edinburgi: Typis Hæredum Andreæ Anderson
• 1699: Provision for the poor in time of dearth and scarcity
• 1710: A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross. Edinburgh
• 1711: Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Folio, Edinburgh
• 1803: A History Ancient and Modern of the Sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross. Cupar
• 1837: The Remains of Sir Robert Sibbald, containing his autobiography, memoirs of the Royal College of Physicians, a portion of his literary correspondence, and an account of his MSS.; [edited by James Maidment], 2 pt. in 1 vol. Edinburgh: [printed for the editor]; edition of thirty-five copies; the titlepage of the Autobiography bears the date 1833
• 1845: Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland (folio, Edinburgh)

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sibbald, Sir Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Article at National Library of Scotland