Royal Society of Edinburgh

Eighteenth-century Edinburgh supported societies devoted to medicine, natural knowledge and literature. A broader group formed in 1737 became the Edinburgh Philosophical Society the following year and developed into the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. Its origins lay in the discussions and associations of the Scottish Enlightenment.

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George III granted the charter on 29 March 1783, and the first meeting took place on 23 June. The charter named mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine and natural history alongside archaeology, philology and literature. It also provided for the election of Fellows and a president and for the Society’s own regulations.

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The first volume of Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh appeared in 1788. Disagreements over theoretical and practical aims later contributed to parallel societies and journals. In 1949 five women became the Society’s first women Fellows, changing the composition of its fellowship.

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