Magdalene Libraries

Magdalene College Library (New Library) has moved to Instagram, please follow us here: instagram.com/magdlibs/

New blog post: The Pontifex Collection, featuring first editions of Charles Dickens: magdlibs.com/2025/01/21/the… #camlibs #speccolls

New Blog post about former Pepys Librarian Richard Ladborough, by our Graduate Trainee Librarian Connor: tinyurl.com/5n97jxsk #camlibs #speccolls

Regrettably, the Pepys Library remains completely closed for general visits and group tours due to the refurbishment project. For visits of this nature, we invite you to check the College website for details of reopening. 2/2

Following a period of closure preparing for refurbishment to the Pepys Building, Pepys Library books are now accessible under alternative arrangements for visiting academic researchers by appointment. 1/2

A digitised version of the map can be seen on the website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington : Maggi-Maupin, Disegno nuovo di Roma moderna 2/2

If you happen to be in Paris in the next few months, check out the Ribera exhibition at the Petit Palais - where a reproduction of the Pepys Library's huge Map of Rome dating from 1625 is being displayed. 1/2

Join us for a special evening celebrating mountaineering legend Dorothy Pilley! Writer Dan Richards will share stories of her adventurous life and legacy as a pioneering figure in women’s alpinism. 🏔️ 19 Nov, 5:15 PM, Magdalene College. Free, all welcome! magd.cam.ac.uk/event/climbing…

The Pepys Library is now closed to the public for renovation works to the building. For further information about the project, please see the College website: magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys-restorat… #camlibs #speccolls

New blog post to announce the cataloguing of prints collected by the Ferrar family of Little Gidding: magdlibs.com/2024/08/13/lit… #camlibs #speccolls

Check out our new online exhibition on the Play Quartos in the Pepys Library and Old Library. The exhibition is curated by our Graduate Trainee. magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/virtual-… #speccolls

New blog post: Pepys and horses, including a nod to the #Olympics📷 with a look at some seventeenth-century vaulting. magdlibs.com/2024/07/26/pep…… #speccolls #camlibs

Samuel Pepys wrote a lot about clothes in his famous diary but it stopped halfway through his life. So historian @MarloAvidon studied Pepys’ private collection of fashion prints at @magdalenealumni. She discovered a guilty pleasure and much more. cam.ac.uk/stories/samuel…

Engravings reveal Pepys' lifelong love of fashion bbc.in/4bOE96J

Avidon's article, "‘Instructive types’ or mere ‘fancies’: assessing French fashion prints in the library of Samuel Pepys" in the journal "The Seventeenth Century", can be read via this link: doi.org/10.1080/026811… 2/2

The Pepys Library makes headlines today, as Marlo Avidon's research sheds light on its extensive collection of fashion prints. We'll be reposting news stories throughout the day. 1/2

A lovely item! Magdalene also has one of these from the collection of books, papers and other treasures left to the Old Library by Ivor Richards and Dorothy Pilley.

Depicted in the image is the Duke of Wellington, one of Van de Weyer's correspondents.

We are pleased to announce the cataloguing of the Old Library's Van de Weyer albums - a collection of portrait prints, correspondence and autographs collected by Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer (1802-1874), former Prime Minister of Belgium. More info here: magdlibs.com/2024/06/25/jea…

New blog post by our Library Graduate Trainee: James Duport and Play Quartos in the Old Library. The blog highlights an early printed copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet, complete with handwritten stage directions. magdlibs.com/2024/06/11/jam… #camlibs #speccolls