Welcome to RCS England Library Digital Exhibitions

This is the home for online exhibitions from the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Here we showcase some of the visual and historic treasures from our collections.

Getting started

Click on the images below to visit our latest exhibitions, or search for specific subjects in the search bar above. You can click on the individual item panels in the exhibition to view them in their own window and use the arrow icons (/), or the left/right arrow keys on your keyboard to move between them. ClickTap on images to see them at full size. If you need help, click the question mark () link at the top right of each pagetap the help link in the main menu.

Our latest exhibition

Rootless Phantom: Surgeons in the fight against the Black Death

This exhibition examines medieval and early modern medical responses to the Black Death, highlighting how practitioners like Guy de Chauliac combined observation, humoral theory, and botanical knowledge to treat and prevent the plague, thereby transforming European medicine and public health practices through detailed symptom recording and evolving treatment manuals. The items highlighted include texts consulted to inform new research by HLCE grant holder Thomas Banbury into this historic landscape and the full audio recording of the lecture given as a result of it.