Exhibitions

Illustration from: Memoires Relating to the State of the Royal Navy of England. Samuel Pepys, [London: s.n.], 1690

Samuel Pepys’s Tercentenary
A Small Celebration

23 June - 29 August 2003

The Library has mounted a small display from its collections to commemorate the tercentenary of the death of the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). As Secretary of the Admiralty, Pepys was for a while one of the most important men in England. His diary, written between 1659 and 1669 and filling six volumes of frank shorthand, is famous for its vivid recreation of events, including the Plague of London (1665) and the Great Fire (1666), and for its wealth of detail.

The items on display include a first edition of the Memoirs of Samuel Pepys and a 17th century treatise on tachygraphy shorthand, which was used by Pepys when writing his diary.