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. They respectively describe the 'sea' manuscripts, relating to maritime and naval matters, the early printed books, the medieval manuscripts, and the books on shorthand, providing notes about authors, bibliographic history, and other contextual information. Originally published as a limited edition of 500 copies each, these valuable reference works are now made available again.
