Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys, (23 February 1633 - 26 May 1703) was a leading 17th century English civil servant, latterly famous for his diary. The diary is a fascinating combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London.

The Pepys Library

Pepys was a lifelong bibliophile 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. There are remarkable holdings of incunabula, manuscripts and printed ballads. 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 the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where it can still be seen. The bequest included all the original book cases and his elaborate instructions that "the placing as to heighth be strictly reviewed and, where found requiring it, more nicely adjusted".

Related Topics:
Bibliophile - Libraries - Incunabula - Ballads - 1723 - Pepys Library

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