Sir Robert Sibbald (15 April 1641 – August 1722) was a Scottish physician and antiquary.
Contents |
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 in Edinburgh. In 1667 with Sir Andrew Balfour he started the botanical garden in Edinburgh, and he took a leading part[1] in establishing the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, of which he was elected president in 1684.
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. He based much of his cartographical studies on the work of Timothy Pont. He is buried at Greyfriar's Cemetery in Edinburgh.
The wildflower Sibbaldia procumbens [2] was 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,[3] 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:
Article at National Library of Scotland
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.