Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: I. Printed Books Book

To bibliographers and to historians of culture in the widest sense (this) up-to-date author-title catalogue, giving the place, imprint and date of publication together with the entry numbers, where appropriate, of Pollard and Redgrave and Wing, will need no recommendation. Its contents (are) as near to an epitome of late 17th-century English civilisation as we are likely to find. RICHARD OLLARD, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTSamuel Pepys's great collection is the finest surviving seventeenth-century library and one of the major libraries of the world despite its relatively modest size. It is as remarkable as the Diary itself, and comprises some 3,000 volumes of medieval manuscripts and early printed books in artistically important bindings, many political papers (especially concerning the Navy), a great collection of ballads, seventeenth-century music, calligraphy, maps, and a large collection of prints and drawings of historical and artistic interest.