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Library and Archives
Samuel Mearne
The Book of Common Prayer is a well known text of the Anglican Communion.
In 1821, King George VI visited Ireland, symbolising hopes for improved Anglo-Irish relations. Michael Ferrar's diaries offer a critical yet detailed account of the royal visit and public reaction.
This 17th-century Royal Game of the Goose from the Pepys Library is the earliest known English version of the game and is still available today as a high-quality print.
Magdalene holds the 1647 Bologna edition of The Lives of the Artists, Vasari’s celebrated Renaissance art history, with Carlo Manolessi’s notes and preface.
At Thomas Hardy’s Abbey funeral in 1928, pallbearers included the PM, opposition leader, and the Master of Magdalene, where Hardy was an Honorary Fellow.
William Empson, poet and critic, began at Magdalene in Maths, turned to English, and helped reshape literary study before being expelled in 1929 for "engines of love".
Professor Helen Cooper shares a vivid portrait of C. S. Lewis at Magdalene, from a lost hymn to a playful poem, revealing the wit and warmth behind his scholarly reputation.
Magdalene is launching a blog series exploring its rich literary archive, with posts on Eliot, Heaney, Duffy, Hardy and more, drawing from manuscripts, letters and rare books.
Pepys owned the first illustrated Spanish edition of Don Quixote and may have read it in Spanish. His diary links a strange event to one of Don Quixote's lesser-known episodes.
Fifty students from state schools across the Magdalene College Link Areas of Merseyside and North/West Wales travelled to Cambridge for a 3-day residential to experience life as a student at the University of Cambridge.
Women printers played a key role in early modern publishing. The Pepys Library holds many examples of books printed by women, often widows running presses themselves.