Magdalene Library News
Library News
The Peterborough Antiphoner
Digitised by DIAMM, the 14th-century Peterborough Antiphoner is a key English chant source. Likely from Peterborough Abbey, its path to Magdalene remains uncertain despite possible ties.
Elinor James
This year’s IWD blog highlights Elinor James, a bold printer-author who published over 90 pamphlets and championed Anglicanism, defying expectations and censorship in 17th-century London.
Senex Globe Restoration
Magdalene holds a rare pair of 18th-century Senex globes, crafted with Jonathan Sisson. Restored and conserved, they now sit proudly in the Old Library as examples of historic scientific artistry.
La Cappella Sistina
The Old Library has received La Cappella Sistina, a monumental photographic set of the Sistine Chapel, linking modern artistry to historic volumes in Magdalene’s collections.
Mary Astell's Books
We have recently discovered that Mary Astell (1666-1731), a philosopher, author and advocate of women’s education, was the donor of several books to the Old Library.
Cymric items in the Pepys Library
Welsh language and culture appear throughout the Pepys Library, from grammar books to rare ballads, revealing Pepys’s linguistic curiosity and interest in Welsh print history.
Thomas Becket
Magdalene’s collections reveal Becket’s enduring influence, from defaced medieval chants to Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral in global translations from the Valerie Eliot bequest.
Book Owners Online
Magdalene’s Old Library book owners now feature in Book Owners Online, revealing new links, lives, and stories behind seventeenth- and eighteenth-century provenance records.
Great books and Great archaeologists: Part I. Ancestors
1848 was key in archaeology, with works like Layard’s Nineveh and Marx’s Communist Manifesto reshaping interpretations. Richard Neville, Magdalene antiquarian, also contributed.
Mary Astell Announcement
Magdalene College’s Old Library unveiled a collection of Mary Astell’s personal library on International Women’s Day 2021. This discovery is now catalogued for research on ‘idiscover’.
The Historic Libraries go Dutch
The Pepys Library’s rare Dutch publications have been added to the STCN, a retrospective bibliography, enhancing scholars' access to these 17th-century items linked to Pepys's interests.
Peckard Library Reconstruction
The digital handlist of Peter Peckard’s 1798 bequest to Magdalene College’s Old Library offers insights into his library’s content, organization, and the circulation of books for further research.