Samuel Pepys

SAMUEL PEPYS (1633-1703)

Memoirs of Samuel Pepys. . . Comprising His Diary from 1659 to 1669, deciphered by the Reverend John Smith . . . from the original short-hand manuscript in the Pepysian Library. Ed. by Richard, Lord Braybrooke. London: Henry Colburn, 1825. 2 volumes.

Samuel Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty, began his famous diary on the eve of the Restoration. After his death, the diary was deposited in the Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge (where it remains today) and was not published until over a century after his death, because it was written in a cipher. Clearly, Pepys never intended his words to be read by anyone but himself. The result is a memoir that is candid, unhampered by the conventions and morals of his era, and free from shame and self-censorship.

Early in the nineteenth century, George Neville, Master of the College and brother of Lord Braybrooke, determined to have the diary decoded, and enlisted the services of John Smith, Curate of Barham and a graduate of the College. From 1819 to 1822, John Smith patiently and painstakingly deciphered the six volumes of the diary, and under the editorship of Lord Braybrooke a part was published in 1825 in two large volumes. The complete journal was not issued until 1893.

The volumes exhibited here are in their original boards, with original paper labels and uncut. These were the personal copies of the scholar who deciphered them, with the inside front cover of both volumes bearing his signature: John Smith, Curate of Barham.

Gift of the University of Delaware Library Associates