Pepys Library

Samuel Pepys's Library, as famous in his own lifetime as it is now, was willed by Pepys to Magdalene, the college he had attended in the 1650s. It finally arrived in 1724 to be housed in a handsome new building. A remarkable collection of some 3,000 items, the library includes medieval manuscripts and early printed books by Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde; a naval collection, reflecting Pepys's role as Secretary to the Admiralty; works by Pepys's contemporaries and members of the Royal Society, including Newton's Principia Mathematica; and an unrivalled array of ephemera - letters, playbills and invitations. Alongside the Pepys Library, Magdalene has an impressive historic collection, housed in the beautiful Old Library rooms. Evolving from a series of major benefactions to the college across nearly 500 years, combined with the books routinely acquired for the use of students and scholars in the past, the Old Library contains medieval manuscripts, incunabula, prints and papers, as well as the ancient records of the college.

M.E.J. Hughes is the Director of English Studies and Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College Cambridge.