The Perspective of the Medieval Scribe

Medieval Manuscripts of the Pepys and Old Libraries of Magdalene College Cambridge.

This unique double exhibition of manuscripts from the Magdalene collections, taking place in the iconic Pepys Library and the Stirling Prize-winning Robert Cripps Gallery, reveals medieval perspectives on the physical world, on other worlds, and on the creative potential of image and word with the natural world, with music and with science.

The Pepys Building houses the Library of Samuel Pepys, whose collection of manuscripts and fragments of medieval calligraphy, specially displayed for this exhibition, were as famous in his own day as they are now. In dialogue with these treasures, and on view in the adjacent Robert Cripps Gallery, a range of rarely-displayed secular and devotional manuscripts from the Magdalene College Old Library will contribute their own perspectives, from scientific representations of the physical universe to apocalyptic vision.

Header image: The Perspective of the Medieval Scribe F.4.5, f. 36r