John Collins ca.1576-1634

John COLLINS ca.1576-1634

Born in Surrey. BA St John’s College, Cambridge 1596, fellow 1598, MA 1599, Linacre Lecturer at St John’s 1600-04. Travelled abroad to study medicine 1604-08, before returning to Cambridge to proceed MD, 1608. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London 1613, Censor 1615, Anatomy Lecturer 1624. Regius Professor of Physick at Cambridge, 1626.

Books

Bequeathed all his physick books to St John’s College, apart from a small handful of named titles left to John and Ralph Winterton (the former his “servant”, a student at Christ’s, and younger brother of the latter, who succeeded Collins in the Regius Chair). He also left £100 to St John’s, to buy physick books for the Library. All his other books were left to John Petter, another fellow of St John’s. (Will: PRO PROB 11/166, fo.108). The size of his complete collection is not known but as over 300 volumes survive in the College today it may have been ca.500, or more. The College books cover all aspects of the medicine of the time, including anatomy, surgery and pharmacology. Examples: numerous in St John’s, Cambridge.

Characteristic markings

The books given to St John’s had a dated, printed book label inserted.

Sources

Dictionary of National Biography; P. Hoare (gen.ed.), The Cambridge history of libraries in Britain and Ireland. 3 vols. Cambridge, 2006. I 468; Lee, Labels no.94; John Collins