The provenance and history of an obviously significant collection of medical and scientific works in Exeter Cathedral Library is explained in the introduction to this deceptively meticulous catalogue: it wears a lot of scholarship and investigation very lightly to present a comprehensive and very accessible catalogue of the collection. A library founded in the eleventh century has had plenty of time to build up its collections, although significant additions were the result of eighteenth century bequests, above all that of Thomas Glass. The medical library was sent on long term loan to the Devon and Exeter Hospital in 1814, being restored to the Cathedral in 1948, its return requested by the Dean on the formation of the National Health Service.
The surviving collection is recorded in 2,689 entries, covering printed books from incunabula to the end of the nineteenth century. It is supplemented by a chronological list of 48 entries for manuscripts, ranging from a tenth century Hrabanus Maurus De Computo and Isidore of Seville De Natura Rerum, to pathological illustrations from the Devon and Exeter Hospital of ca.1839‐1860. The range of contents shows, naturally, a heavy medical bias; but a much wider range of scientific subjects is also included. Most of the great names are here, although there are some perhaps surprising lacunae: no Newton, although plenty of Boyle and a couple of titles by Robert Hooke. A single Jenner title, but no Davy. Two titles by Erasmus Darwin but none by his grandson Charles: given the religious controversy arising from his theory of natural selection, perhaps there is no great surprise in that. On the other hand the classics (in both senses) are well represented: plenty of Pliny's Natural History and of Ptolemy, and various Aristotle titles. There is only a single Gerrard Herbal, and that in a later edition, but that could be the result of other copies having been used to destruction. A rather unhelpful subject index reference from herbal medicine to pharmacy (which produced a fairly large number of hits) makes cross‐checking of other herbal literature more laborious than it needs to be.
The content of the entries underlies the lightly worn scholarship. It looks deceptively simple: standardised author headings (with cross‐references from variant names kept to a minimum), short titles, imprint, pagination and format. But that alone took a great deal of background checking to achieve, and that in turn is reflected in the final part of each entry giving cross‐reference checks to the NUC and BL catalogue, as well as to two earlier catalogues of the collection. The result is a very clear and easily consulted listing of the Library's contents with enough detail for anybody wishing to delve further.
There are three indexes: of names of authors, compilers etc; of names of provenance; and of subjects. There is also a very useful glossary of Latin place names. All are comprehensive and accurate. The subject index is a mixture of general and specific terms, as well as see references. For example, Natural History with entries filling 11 lines, is followed by Naval Medicine see Maritime Medicine, Naval Science (a single entry), Navigation (two lines of entries), Neck (one entry), Nervous System (six lines), and so on. Apart from the comment above about herbals this actually proves to be pretty effective and works well enough.
The Exeter Cathedral collection is an obviously significant one worthy of further study both for its contents in a wider context and as a history of collections themselves. Such study and consultation will be made that much easier by this thorough, accurate and well produced catalogue. It is a rather specialist title, of course, but one that will be useful in any collection covering the history of science and medicine or on the history of libraries themselves.
