The Pepys Library of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, is the personal

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

collected by

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

which he bequeathed to the college following his death in 1703.

Background

Samuel Pepys was a lifelong

bibliophile Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books. Profile The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...

and carefully nurtured his large collection of books, manuscripts, and prints. At his death, there were more than 3,000 volumes, including the diary, all carefully catalogued and indexed; they form one of the most important surviving 17th-century private

libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. Pepys made detailed provisions in his will for the preservation of his book collection, and when his nephew and heir, John Jackson, died in 1723, it was transferred intact to Magdalene. The bequest included all the original bookcases and his elaborate instructions that placement of the books "... be strictly reviewed and, where found requiring it, more nicely adjusted". Under the terms of the bequest, none of the books may be sold, and no additional ones may be added to the library. The library is housed in a room on the first floor of the Pepys Building in the second court of the college. It contains 3,000 books preserved in Pepys's own bookcases for them (perhaps those his journal attributes to

Sympson the Joiner Thomas Simpson, or Sympson the Joiner (floruit, fl. 1660s) was a Master-Joiner at the Deptford Dockyard and the Royal Navy, Royal Naval Woolwich Dockyard, Dockyard at Woolwich in London. Samuel Pepys mentions his name several times in his diary. ...

) and organised by size as he had catalogued them.

The collection

The most important items in the Library are the six original bound manuscripts of

Pepys's diary Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

but there are other remarkable holdings, including: * Naval records compiled by Pepys when he was Secretary to the Admiralty, including two of the "

Anthony Roll The Anthony Roll is a written record of ships of the English Tudor navy of the 1540s, named after its creator, Anthony Anthony. It originally consisted of three rolls of vellum, depicting 58 naval vessels along with information on their size, ...

s", illustrating the Royal Navy's ships circa 1546, including the ''

Mary Rose The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her l ...

'' * Pepys' own copy of

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

's ''

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (English: ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'') often referred to as simply the (), is a book by Isaac Newton that expounds Newton's laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. The ''Principia'' is written in Latin and ...

'' *

Incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...

William Caxton William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer (publisher), printer to be the first English retailer of printed boo ...

Wynkyn de Worde Wynkyn de Worde (died 1534) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England. Name Wynkyn de Worde was a German immigr ...

and

Richard Pynson Richard Pynson (c. 1449 – c. 1529) was one of the first printers of English books. Born in Normandy, he moved to London, where he became one of the leading printers of the generation following William Caxton. His books were printed to a high ...

* Sixty medieval manuscripts * The '' Pepys Manuscript'': a late fifteenth-century English

choirbook A choirbook is a large format manuscript used by choirs in churches or cathedrals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The book is large enough for the entire choir to read from one book. Choirbooks were generally put on a stand with the smaller ...

Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ( ...

's personal

almanac An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...

* The earliest copy of

John Heywood John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580) was an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs. Although he is best known as a playwright, he was also active as a musician and composer, though no musical works survive. A devout ...

's ''

The Play of the Weather ''The Play of the Weather'' is an English interlude or morality play from the early Tudor period. The play was written by John Heywood, a courtier, musician and playwright during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I and published by his ...

'', published in 1533 shortly after being performed for Henry VIII. * Over 1,800 printed

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

: one of the finest collections in existence. It was an important source for Percy's

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry The ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' (sometimes known as ''Reliques of Ancient Poetry'' or simply Percy's ''Reliques'') is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765. Sources The basis ...

. A selection of the most interesting volumes are on display.

Visiting

The library is usually open to the public in the afternoons from Monday to Saturday. It is best to consult the Magdalene College website for current times.

Pepys Building

The Pepys Building is the principal ornament of the College and of considerable architectural interest. The plainer rear is of brick while the front is neo-classical and in Ketton stone. Built between 1670 and 1703, it has been described as "a highly remarkable classical building of the date".RCHM listing
/ref> Construction was slow for want of money, but the project was revived after advice was sought from

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...

in 1677. Samuel Pepys made three subscriptions to the building fund. On the front of the building is the painted inscription ''Bibliotheca Pepysiana 1724'' which records the date of arrival of the library; above it are painted Pepys's coat of arms and his motto ''"Mens cujusque is est quisque"'' ("The mind's the man" taken from

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

's ''

De re publica ''De re publica'' (''On the Commonwealth''; see below) is a dialogue on Roman politics by Cicero, written in six books between 54 and 51 BC. The work does not survive in a complete state, and large parts are missing. The surviving sections derive ...

'' 6.26).

References

External links

Pepys Library website

Magdalene College Libraries' Blog
{{Authority control Libraries of the University of Cambridge Magdalene College, Cambridge Authors' libraries

Background

The collection

Visiting

Pepys Building

References

Further reading

External links