Magdalene Library News
Library News
Lives of the Artists
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.
Literary Magdalene: Thomas Hardy
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
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".
C.S. Lewis
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.
Literary Magdalene
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 and Cervantes
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.
Samuel Pepys and the library of John Dee
Dr M E J Hughes, Fellow in English and Pepys Librarian, has written a guest post for the Royal College of Physicians blog to link in with their exhibition ‘Scholar, Courtier and Magician: the Lost Library of John Dee‘.
Women Printers
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.
350th Anniversary year
2016 marks the 350th Anniversary of the Great Fire of London, which Pepys so famously recorded in his diary. This year also marks the 350th birthday of Pepys’ first two bookcases, or ‘presses’ as he called them.
Reformed Librarie-Keeper
John Durie’s 1650 work championed librarians as active contributors to learning, not passive custodians, a view still echoed in today’s professional advocacy.
Washing an Historic Print
Yes, historic prints can be safely washed. Using a blotter wash, conservation intern Thomas Bower improved one Ferrar print’s condition and slowed its long-term decay.
Historic Prints Under Examination
Conservation intern Thomas Bower cleaned and re-housed 260 Ferrar prints, uncovering fascinating traces of early papermaking and the prints’ creative use by the Ferrar family.