Seal Granted by Edinburgh Town Council to the Incorporation of Barbers and Surgeons to Practice Their Craft

Seal granted by Edinburgh Town Council to the Incorporation of Barbers and Surgeons to practice their craft. The organization is now known as the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

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.