Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh
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| Founded | 1505 |
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| Founder | King James IV |
| Focus | Surgery |
| Coordinates | 55°56′49″N 3°11′01″W / 55.946813°N 3.183488°WCoordinates: 55°56′49″N 3°11′01″W / 55.946813°N 3.183488°W |
| Slogan | Hinc Sanitas (From here, health) |
| Website | rcsed |
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is a professional organisation of surgeons located in Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, within the William Henry Playfair designed Surgeons' Hall and adjoining buildings.
It is one of the oldest surgical corporations in the world and traces its origins to 1505 when the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh were formally incorporated as a craft guild of Edinburgh. The Barber-Surgeons of Dublin was the first medical corporation in Ireland or Britain, having been incorporated in 1446 (by Royal Decree of Henry VI).
In 1505, the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh were formally incorporated as a Craft Guild of the city and this recognition is embodied in the Seal of Cause (or Charter of Privileges) which was granted to the Barber Surgeons by the Town Council of Edinburgh on 1 July 1505.
The Seal of Cause conferred various privileges and imposed certain crucially important duties, the most important of these that all apprentices should be literate, that every master should have full knowledge of anatomy and surgical procedures and that this knowledge should be tested at the end of apprenticeship, all clauses still relevant to surgical practice and the College today.
In 1647 the Incorporation acquired a permanent meeting place for the first time in rented rooms of a tenement in Dickson's Close. At the end of the century however, work on what is now known as 'Old Surgeons' Hall', in High School Yards, was started and by 1697 was completed and occupied.
The University of Edinburgh Medical School (established in 1726) and The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh were responsible for the rapid development in Edinburgh of systematic medical teaching on a sound scientific basis. Surgery however was perceived by many as still being a manual craft rather than an intellectual discipline, so members of the Incorporation of Surgeons undertook the task of education and did much to establish Edinburgh's reputation as a centre of surgical teaching. In 1778, King George III granted a new charter giving the surgeons' corporation the title "The Royal College of Surgeons of the City of Edinburgh".
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