Bibliotheca Pepysiana: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys

Montague Rhodes James

Cambridge University Press, Jul 20, 2009 - Literary Criticism - 144 pages

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. Volume 3 lists 51 volumes of medieval manuscripts, some of them consisting of several items bound together. The author, the outstanding palaeographer and prolific writer of catalogues M. R. James, remarks on the almost total absence of Latin liturgical and theological manuscripts, and calls attention to the historical, literary and scientific writings in English and French, several picture-books, an interesting 'scrapbook' and a unique copybook from 1400 included in Pepys' collection. This book continues to be a valuable resource for medievalists and Pepys scholars alike.

About the author

M. R. James was born in Goodnestone, Kent, England on August 1, 1862. He was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College (1918-1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. He began writing his ghost stories as an entertainment for his friends; he would read these stories each year at Christmas to his colleagues at King's College. The earliest of these tales include Canon Alberic's Scrap-book and Lost Hearts, both of which were later collected in his first anthology of supernatural fiction, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). Perhaps his single greatest story is the profoundly disturbing Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (1904). He died on June 12, 1936.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bibliotheca Pepysiana: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys; Volume 3 of Bibliotheca Pepysiana 4 Volume Paperback Set; Cambridge Library Collection - History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries
• Author: Montague Rhodes James
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 1108002056, 9781108002059
• Length: 144 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh