Catalogues and Research Tools
Old Library Catalogues and Research Tools
Resources
Magdalene College’s Old Library offers extensive research tools and catalogues, making it easier to explore its rare books and manuscripts.
Our ongoing cataloguing project is gradually adding records to the University of Cambridge's iDiscover catalogue. Currently, books with classmarks CAM and M-R have been fully catalogued, while a searchable Old Library Shelf List is available for the oldest books in the collection (classmarks A-L). This list also includes provenance details, providing valuable insights into previous ownership. Researchers can search the shelf list using ‘Ctrl + F’, but variations in historical spellings should be considered when entering search terms.
Online catalogues and databases
A significant portion of the Old Library’s holdings can also be accessed through external research databases. The British Library’s English Short Title Catalogue, the Universal Short Title Catalogue, and the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue provide additional access points for early printed books. Provenance details for incunabula are recorded in the Material Evidence in Incunabula, offering further information about the history of these early printed works.
A list of the College's manuscripts can be found in A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the college library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Please note, there have been subsequent donations of manuscripts to the collection since this catalogue's publication.
The Ferrar Papers
The Ferrar Papers, a major historical collection associated with the 17th-century Ferrar family, have been digitised and are available through a subscription-based service on Adam Matthew Digital. For researchers interested in this material, the Ferrar Forum provides further details, including a collaborative handlist to help navigate the collection.
Medieval manuscripts and music collections
For those researching medieval manuscripts, some of the Old Library’s holdings are described on the Bodleian Library's Medieval Libraries of Great Britain website.
The Library’s music collection, dating from the 18th century onwards, has been catalogued on Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM). This includes the Magdalene Partbooks, a significant collection of musical scores. Additionally, the Peterborough Antiphoner (F.4.10) has been digitised and can be accessed through the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, a free resource that requires online registration.
The Mary Astell Collection
The identification of Mary Astell’s personal library within the Old Library was announced in 2021. As one of the most significant female philosophers of the early modern period, Astell’s collection provides insight into the intellectual influences that shaped her work. Her books are fully catalogued in the iDiscover Astell Collection catalogue. The Old Library also maintains a bibliography of works related to the Astell Collection.
The Mary Astell Collection
Journal articles
Mary Astell on Moderation: the Case of Occasional Conformity, Bol, Geertje J., The European Legacy 28, no. 3-4 (2023), pp. 294–312.
The Social Dimension of Generosity in Descartes and Astell, Brown, Deborah J., and Broad, Jacqueline, Journal of the History of Philosophy 60, no. 3 (2022), pp. 409–427.
A New Political Pamphlet by Mary Astell, Perry, Ruth, and Sutherland, Catherine, Eighteenth-Century Studies 55, no. 3 (2022), pp. 377–386.
Books owned by Mary Astell in the Old Library of Magdalene College Cambridge, Sutherland, Catherine, The Library 24, no. 3 (2023), pp. 267–301.
Books
Not Just for the Boys: Why we Need More Women in Science, Donald, Athene, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Newspaper and magazine articles
Mary Astell: Pioneering Feminist’s Library Unearthed at Cambridge University, Bridge, Mark, The Times, March 8, 2021.
Forgotten Feminist Writings discovered in Magdalene College, Shattock, Ella, Varsity, March 9, 2021.
Mary Astell’s Books, Sutherland, Catherine, Magdalene Matters, no. 51 (2021): 6.
Handwritten Notes Reveal Mind of First English Feminist, Swerling, Gabriella, The Telegraph, March 8, 2021.
Blogs and websites
Ahead of her Time, Almeroth-Williams, Tom, University of Cambridge, March 8, 2021.
An Astell Pseudonym Uncovered, Broad, Jacqueline and Catherine Sutherland, Project Vox, November 9, 2020.
Women as Natural Philosophers: Choosing to Challenge, Donald, Athene, Athene Donald’s Blog, March 8, 2021.
Library Discovery Reveals a Science Student Way Ahead of her Time, Magdalene College, Magdalene College, March 8, 2021.
Online videos
The Reassembly of Mary Astell’s Personal Library within the Old Library of Magdalene College, Catherine Sutherland, UCLA, Youtube Video.
Study with England’s First Feminist Mary Astell, University of Cambridge, Youtube Video.
Mary Astell – The First English Feminist, Magdalene College, streamed live on April 28, 2021, Youtube Video.
The Peter Peckard Collection
Peter Peckard, a former Master of Magdalene College, bequeathed a substantial number of books to the Old Library. Peckard was a key figure in the 18th-century abolitionist movement, and his collection reflects his theological and social interests. The Peckard Handlist shows how his books were originally arranged at his parsonage in Fletton, near Peterborough, and traces their current locations within the Old Library.
The Peter Peckard Collection
The Peckard Collection Handlist is an electronic inventory of books given to Magdalene College by its former Master, Peter Peckard (1718-1797). It is based on a manuscript catalogue of Peckard’s books created at the end of the eighteenth century (R.1.2), and matches the original item description, as it appears in the manuscript copy, to the corresponding book held within the College’s Old Library collections. The manuscript gives the precise location and arrangement of the books at the parsonage house in Fletton, where Peckard was Rector, therefore the handlist provides a detailed insight into a clergyman’s library in the late 18th century.
In instances where an item cannot be located and/or identified in the Old Library from the description provided, the fields have been left blank, but the transcript entry has been retained, so as to provide as complete a picture as possible of Peckard’s original collection– such entries might include “Horatius”, for example, or “an English Bible”, which are, on their own, insufficient for the purpose of identifying a specific reference with confidence.
In other instances, where an item can be identified, but cannot be located within the Old Library collections, complete bibliographic information has been included as a speculative indication of what is most likely to have been referred to in the transcript.
R.1.2 includes a number of entries for duplicate texts, though in most cases, only single copies of the text are present within the Old Library collections. This may be the result either of error or else it is possible that the collection was subject to a process of de-duplication, either at the point of the bequest, or subsequently.
The second tab in the handlist records all ‘Unsorted’ entries for books listed in the Old Library catalogue as items associated with Peter Peckard, but which do not appear in R.1.2 and therefore cannot be matched accordingly. It is possible that some of these items were given to the College by Peckard before 1798, the earliest date cited in R.1.2, which would explain their absence from the inventory.
The Valerie Eliot Bequest
In 2013, the College received a bequest of books from Valerie Eliot, wife of T.S. Eliot. This collection includes three main categories: first editions of Eliot’s works, many with personal dedications; books owned and annotated by Eliot himself; and translations of his works, some of which were given to Valerie Eliot after his death in 1965. The collection is fully catalogued on the iDiscover The Valerie Eliot Bequest page.
The Richard Luckett Bequest
Dr Richard Luckett (1945–2020), former Pepys Librarian, left a significant collection of books to the Old Library. His collection is particularly strong in music and theatre of the Restoration period, offering valuable material for researchers in these fields. The printed books and scores from this bequest are catalogued on the iDiscover The Richard Luckett Bequest page, while the manuscript music is listed in Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM).
The Pontifex Collection
This collection consists of books donated to the Old Library by Geoffrey Knight Dalton Pontifex (1903–1982), a Magdalene alumnus. Many of these books are early editions of Charles Dickens, originally collected by Geoffrey’s father, Reginald Dalton Pontifex (1857–1951), a barrister and former student at Magdalen College, Oxford. The entire collection has been catalogued on the iDiscover The Pontifex Collection page.
The Arthur Sale Collection
Arthur Sale (1912–2000), a Fellow-Commoner and teacher of English at Magdalene, left a collection of books covering a wide range of literary genres. His library includes 19th-century poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as examples of 20th-century poetry and a small number of pre-1800 volumes. This collection has been fully catalogued on the iDiscover The Arthur Sale Collection page.
The Sylvain Van de Weyer Albums
Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer (1802–1874), former Prime Minister of Belgium and diplomat to the British Court, assembled a collection of engraved portraits, autographs, and correspondence, which is now held by the Old Library. This material, arranged into seven albums, was donated to Magdalene College in 1976. The collection is fully catalogued on Magdalene’s Van de Weyer Albums online catalogue, where researchers can browse its contents.
Accessing the collections
Many of the Old Library’s collections can be searched via the University of Cambridge’s iDiscover catalogue, as well as other specialist research databases. Please contact the Magdalene Old Library team for further information.
Contact the Old Library
If you have any questions or queries about the Old Library, please contact the Pepys Librarian.
Pepys Librarian
Dr Jane Hughes
CALL
01223 332115