Frontispiece: “Barbers Hall, Monkwell Street, London” from “The Barbers’ Company.”
The Barbers’ Company is a brief monograph on the combined history of barbering and surgery from ancient Greece through the mid-nineteenth century.
The monograph was written by George Lambert for presentation at a meeting of the British Archaeological Association in the fall of 1881. The meeting was apparently a special one, being marked by the publication of Lambert’s monograph with a note that the meeting was held on the occasion of a visit of the Association members from West England.
If the paper was honestly read from beginning to end, footnotes and all, before the assembled members, it is hoped they got a tea break: Lambert takes just over 100 pages to cover his subject, quoting Latin and Greek sources as he goes by, as well as authorities fictional and factional.
Lambert’s monograph, however, serves an interesting double purpose now. Not only is it a historical document in its own right as Lambert examines his subject but it can also be viewed from a step further back, so to speak, as a primary source document in the creation of medical history.
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