Pepys Digital Library
Whether you take an academic interest in this collection, or simply wish to browse for enjoyment, we invite you to explore the Pepys Library via this new digital resource.
The digitised manuscripts are listed on the page in shelfmark order. When opening the manuscript you wish to view, please use the forward and backward arrows to navigate through the pages.
The selection of manuscripts on this page were all photographed by Cambridge University Library as part of a University-wide project entitled Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries. To check for other items from the Pepys Library which have been digitised, please see our Catalogues and Research Tools page.
Please note that to publish any of these images, the images must be purchased and permission must be sought from the Pepys Library.
Pepys Library 878: Medical treatises
"This manuscript contains a large number of medical treatises, and medical recipes alongside instructions of a magical, cosmetic, practical, equestrian, and horticultural nature." -- Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R. : Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
Pepys Library 911: A 'Sortes' manuscript including the Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestris
"[Pepys Library 911] is a beautifully illustrated example of a type of medieval book known as a 'sortes' manuscript, essentially a genre of medieval book concerned with various aspects of what we now describe as divination, prognostication, and fortune-telling. Sortes manuscripts seem to have been quite a popular genre of medieval book, and among those that were made in medieval north-western Europe the majority of the surviving sortes manuscripts contain various combinations of a core group of texts attributed (spuriously) to illustrious Classical figures such as Pythagoras and Cicero." -- Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R. : Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
Pepys Library 1047: Medical and culinary recipes
"This manuscript contains a large collection of medical and culinary recipes in Middle English. It also contains a compilation of selections from the instruction manual in Middle English prose and verse that was known as the The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Blasing of Arms or The Boke of St Albans." - Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R.: Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
Pepys Library 1236: Commonplace book and handbook of liturgical music (Use of Sarum)
This manuscript contains science and liturgy. The music in this manuscript is attributed to a number of composers who were active in or had connections with Kent during the 1460s and 1470s.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R.: Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
Pepys Library 1307: Medical texts
"This compact manuscript ... is, for the most part, a redaction of the popular medical text known as the Antidotarium Nicholai. The manuscript also contains a shorter and extensively reorganised version of the information in the Antidotarium Nicholai and a treatise on uroscopy that is part of the 'Dome of Uryne' group of texts identified by M. T. Tavormina." - Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R.: Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.
Pepys Library 1661: Medical treatises and recipes
"This manuscript of medical treatises, recipes, and charms consists of five parts that were separately produced in the first half of the 15th century but probably joined together at an early stage. That the five parts were produced in the same milieu and perhaps always intended to be joined together is indicated by that fact that the manuscript was decorated throughout by the same hand, except for quires I, II, and IX (these three quires have all been copied by the same scribe and decorated by a different hand)." - Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.
For more detailed catalogue information, please consult Cambridge University Digital Library or the printed catalogue of the Pepys Library: Mckitterick R. and Beadle, R.: Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Volume 5, Manuscripts, Part i, Medieval. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.